Posts Tagged ‘Botswana’

Guinea make a pig’s ear of Botswana

Posted: January 29, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Guinea 6-1 Botswana

In the first match of the day we saw the two sides in the tournament with the best kits go head-to-head – Botswana and Guinea, there is no doubt about that. Botswana’s is a light blue of serenity, a type of kit where you can imagine their whole squad going for a swim in the ocean and your eyes not being able to differentiate between them and the humble waves of the sea. Guinea’s kit can be described as colourful, representative of Africa as a whole in its colour; ever-blushing and randomly complemented with bright yellow shorts. It’s easy to like a team because of their kit and I like Guinea. The west Africans made light work of the southern Africans, smashing them 6-1.

The Zebra approach

The Zebras were frustratingly difficult to beat during qualification because of their compactness as a defensive unit – only losing 1 game in 8, a 1-0 away defeat to Togo, and by then they had sealed qualification to the AFCON. Tactically, the majority of the players were behind the ball and the only outlet a lot of the time was commentators’ – and bloggers’ – nightmare Jerome Ramatlhakwane who caught opponents off-guard on the break. This was evident in their opening game against Ghana as the Black Stars found it difficult to break them down, Ramatlhakwane racing away forcing John Mensah to commit as the last man and earn a red card. Ghana’s solitary goal coming from a set-piece and it could be argued that Botswana deserved more from the game.

The Bots malfunction

Against Guinea, the Zebras attempted to play a more expansive game, presumably because they knew a win was vital here because Guinea, out of the other sides in the group, are probably the weakest side defensively. They were punished severely for their approach as Guinea cut them open at will and – had their finishing been better – we could have been looking at a scoreline in double figures. Still, Guinea became only the third team to score 6 goals at the Cup of Nations (the others were Egypt 6-3 Nigeria in 1963 and Ivory Coast 6-1 Ethiopia in 1970). It’s worth noting that the sending off before half-time probably made things worse for Botswana, although even with 11 team on the pitch there were several holes and lapses in defence. They were lucky not to have conceded more.

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Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Round-Up: Day 4

Posted: January 25, 2012 by jameseugene in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Day 4 provided us with matches from contenders of Group D, where favourites Ghana took on Botswana; while the 2nd game was played by Mali and Guinea.

Ghana 1-0 Botswana
Being Risk-Averse Is A Dangerous Way To Play

The first half depicted a solid display from the minnows, Botswana. They were more focused their defending rather than their attacking, allowing Ghana to dominate possession in the opening moments of the game. They were punished for their risk-averse approach after 24 minutes, when a momentary lapse in their solid display had allowed John Mensah to solidly knee the ball into the net after they failed to get rid of the ball from a corner.
This risk-averse behavior has been observed in other matches, but it goes to show that the old cliche “attack is the best form of defence” is the best method to adopt in these games, as long as you have a solid, organised defence to help prevent counter-attacks from the opposition. Botswana were unlucky (or Ghana were lucky, even) to have a header, after a lovely burst and cross down the wing, expertly cleared off the line by Boye. If that had gone in then Ghana would have had to step up a gear in order to penetrate the solid Botswana defence again.

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Africa Cup of Nations 2012: Predictions

Posted: January 19, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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As you would know, if you’ve been following our coverage of the Africa Cup of Nations 2012, it’s nearly time for Africa. And it’s time for us to predict on some of the outcomes over the coming weeks, including the most important of them all – who will win it? This is the chance for you to laugh at us in a couple of weeks (and beyond), when it’s all over, and know who’s judgement to trust in future, perhaps. The bad news is some of the team couldn’t make predictions due to academic commitments. The good news is we’ve gone to the trouble of recruiting Tom Legg, East African football connoisseur, to add rich knowledge to more than compensate for the loss of it.

Here is the full panel for the predictions:

Tom Legg – Tom is an East African Football enthusiast and expert – and I’m not saying ‘expert’ just for the sake of it, you only need to cast an eye here for his revolutionary chalkboard-tactical pieces, something I’m pretty confident hasn’t been done previously for East African teams. For further reading of his expert reports and tactical analyses you can visit his blog Eastern Promise and follow him on twitter.

Salim – Editor and co-founder of this humble site, he’s just normal and obsessed with all things football.

James -  Co-founder and writer, the strategist behind our marketing ploys.

Sagar – Editor and writer, has a fetish for fringe players and is equally knowledgeable in the field of cricket.

Amro – Editor and co-founder, his current dream is that Zico will lead Iraq to Brazil in 2014 so he can join the samba party.

Joe – Making his debut appearance, Joe is the recent addition to the squad, expect detailed and intellectually-stimulating pieces sometime soon from him.

Kevin – Another debutant, Kevin, who’s Ghanaian, is one of the two members on the team with a native nation to support at the ACN. You can expect hilarious material from him so long as this blog exists.

Tom aside, the rest of us are regular writers on this blog and need little introduction. If you’re not familiar with us, you can read more about us here.

To the business at hand!

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Group D: Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Preview

Posted: January 14, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012
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Group D

Ghana – Botswana – Mali – Guinea

Ghana

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this current Ghana team has the ingredients to, potentially, become the best African team ever. In 2009 they won the U-20 World Cup and a group of players from that team have been successfully integrated into full international level, being used both at the last Cup of Nations and the World Cup. In both those major tournaments, The Black Stars didn’t shame themselves – finishing as the runners up in the former and quarter-finalists in the latter, narrowly failing to become the first African side to reach the semi-finals.

Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images Europe

They are very much a young side but it’d be foolish to say they’re inexperienced considering the well-planned integration and the football rigours they have been through. The majority are experienced, young players. Defensively, Ghana are arguably the best unit at this year’s edition, although the omission of the loveable Richard Kingson and three very inexperienced keepers could be a problem.  A midfield unit of Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese), Sully Muntari (Internazionale), Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (Udinese) and Anthony Annan (Vitesse Arnhem loan) will be difficult to outplay.

Offensively, there are problems – an overreliance on Asamoah Gyan (Al Ain loan), who has fitness worries, for goals and lack of creativity through the middle, this Ghana side doesn’t beat teams as comfortable as they should. In Andre Ayew (Marseilles) they have the current African Footballer of the Year, full of bite and trickery  but his best work is done through the flanks, rather than in central areas. In the last year it had finally looked like they had solved the problem of creativity in the form of Kevin Prince-Boateng but he’s gone into early retirement from international football, citing injury problems. Even with those problems they should have reach the latter stages of the tournament, can they go one better and win it this time?

Prediction: Anything less than a final would be a failure from a Ghanain point of view. They will not have a better chance to satisfy their thirst for Cup of Nations silverware. Finalists.

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