Posts Tagged ‘Jean-Jacques Gosso’

Five African players to watch out for in 2012/2013

Posted: August 16, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Football, Africans Abroad
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We all know Yaya Banana, Gilles Yapi Yapo, Emmanuel Eboue and Gael Bigirimana are African players to watch out for this season. But, believe it or not, there are more salivating names out there. Here, Salim Masoud Said takes you through some not-so-well-known African players to watch out for this season; a mixture of new signings and/or those who could make an earth-shattering impact. On with it:

Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord to Aston Villa for £2m)

One ‘El of a player. The Karim of the crop. If Aston Villa start shouting “****ing El!”, or a variation of that expletive, then it won’t be because Karim El Ahmadi is playing badly. Last season, Villa bored everyone to moribund as Alex McLeish sought to complete step 2 of his mission to relegate every club in the midlands, albeit, fortunately (as Villa hold a fond place in my heart), to no avail. New manager Paul Lambert has vowed to reimburse Villa fans for the soul-destroying football of last season by promising to inject some catwalk football.

Certainly, the signing of El Ahmadi from Feyenoord speaks volumes of his intentions; for here is a player blessed with the absolute effortlessness in possession of the ball that not only makes him instantly stand out, but could potentially be positively contagious to the rest of the team. Nicknamed ‘The Governor’ in Holland for his ability to keep the ball with regal entitlement in midfield, and also being a superb reader of the game, there has been glowing praise from Lambert and team-mate Barry Bannan during pre-season. “It’s as if he’s playing by himself sometimes, really, because he’s so casual on the ball but he rarely ever gets caught on it,” Bannan told the Birmingham Mail. “He’s nice to watch, he’s easy on the eye the way he plays.”

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Atsuto Uchida shines, Mahamadou Diarra fully returns

Posted: March 19, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in Africans Abroad
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Each week our team will attempt to watch a few matches around the world and then write something resembling a ramble or review. This won’t be a round-up of who scored, we’ll actually be watching as many games as possible involving African and Asian players, and any other players, really – (after all, everyone is from Africa, if scientists are to be believed!) – and we will then report back our findings. We will endeavour to do this weekly but some weeks it may not be possible.

Uchida shines for Schalke

I’ve watched a lot of football matches this past week but none have come close to being as entertaining as the Europa League clash between Schalke and FC Twente on Thursday. With the match televised on ITV4 and it being the Europa League,  I had low expectations, but the beauty of football is you should always expect the unexpected. After Twente taking an early lead, Schalke needed to score 3 goals to overturn a two-goal aggregate deficit and progress into the quarter-finals.

It was a gigantic task, but they did it with a swashbuckling 4-1 win. Aside from Robin Van Persie, there is another Dutch striker who ‘scores when he wants’ in the form of Klaas Jan Huntelaar. The klaasy (sorry) striker has scored 38 goals in 38 games this season, scoring a hat-trick on the night with some emphatic finishing. One of the stars of the show, though, was Japanese right-back Atsuto Uchida. After an uncertain first half, he battled through the second half and controlled the right-wing with Jefferson Farfan, putting in a tireless shift of defensive astuteness and productive forward runs. It was his smart reverse pass which found Raul Gonzalez who cleverly back-heeled for Huntelaar to finish off another chance.

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SFG’s 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Awards

Posted: February 13, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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The hardest thing about football is finding a replacement for it when it’s all over because there just  isn’t any, especially as we quite simply witnessed one of the greatest major tournaments of all-time. So we decided to do half-review, half-awards bash to cherish what we’ve just witnessed. Tom Legg, East African football coinosseur, is back and he is joined by Steve of Spirit of Mirko, an African football enthusiast, both of these guys have been providing excellent Cup of Nations coverage,

Here is the panel for the awards:

Tom – Tom is an East African football enthusiast and expert and has produced some fantastic tactical pieces during the Cup of Nations. For further reading of his expert reports and tactical analyses you can visit his blog Eastern Promise and follow him on twitter.

Steve – Steve is an African football enthusiast, Cardiff City supporter and founder of the brilliant, Guardian-nominated 100-football-blogs-to-follow blog Spirit of Mirko which deals with football’s trivialities, curiosities and statistics, although has also diversified into African football recently with enlightening pieces like this. You can follow him on twitter.

Salim – Editor and co-founder of this humble site, Salim is obsessed with all things football and has been watching the Cup of Nations religiously.

James -  Co-founder and writer, video-producer extraordinaire and 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 – Writer,  a recent addition to the team, he has a fine eye for tactical detail and has already done some brilliant pieces of analysis.

Kevin – Writer, Kevin is one of the two members on the team who had a native nation to support at the Cup of Nations.  He’s still nursing the wounds of Ghana’s exit but the future is bright for the Black Stars.

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SFG’s Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament

Posted: February 13, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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The excellent performers from the greatest tournament of all-time, ladies and gentlemen:

Kennedy Mweene (Zambia)

Although he was one of the most eccentric goalkeepers at the tournament, Mweene was – paradoxically – a calming presence to his team-mates, his confidence unflappable even when he flapped at crosses or had nervy moments. He was brave when he came out to collect or punch balls which were lofted into the box and his distribution was one of the best in the tournament.

Jean-Jacques Gosso (Ivory Coast)

Coming into the tournament, Gosso was barely a kitchen appliance name in an Ivory Coast squad filled with household names. Usually a defensive midfielder, he was deployed as a makeshift right-back due to fitness concerns over Emmanuel Eboue. It’s easy to understand why he was deployed there – his combative style often saw him come out on top in one-on-one duels and he joined in the Elephants’ attacks with forward runs of sheer doggedness, even though, understandably, his positioning was questionable.

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2012 Africa Cup of Nations Final Preview: Zambia v Ivory Coast

Posted: February 10, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Ladies and gentlemen, the moment we’ve all been waiting for; the game played with ubiquitous percussion and constant rhythm from the stands, the final of the Cup of Nations 2012 and the biggest game in African football. There’s no doubt in my mind that we have the two best sides at the tournament in terms of the standard of performances and quality.

Zambia enchanted during the group stages, being at the forefront of the revival of the attacking flair that we associated with African football south of the Sahara in the yesteryear, Rainford Kalaba and Christopher Katongo the poster boys of the revival. Ivory Coast, meanwhile, have been playing the sort of football that is typically branded the “Hallmark of Champions” – productively efficient, conservative football (or ‘boring’ football, if you believe the decriers) and have conceded no goals so far in the tournament. Yet in their semi-final victory over Mali we saw glimpses that when the quartet of Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Yaya Toure and Gevinho are on their game, they can be a very aesthetically pleasing side indeed.

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