Africa Cup of Nations

[Liverpel]

I'm going to keep this thread going until the next cup of African nations.

[Liverpel]

Or at least until I get a second page out of it.

[Chazza]

Have you watched any of it?

[Liverpel]

Not one minute of it. What channel is it on?

[Chazza]

ITV4 and Eurosport I think?

[Liverpel]

Ah, two channels I never think of flicking on.

[Liverpel]

NELSPRUIT, South Africa, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Burkina Faso won a first African Nations Cup final place on Wednesday after a sensational penalty shootout win over Ghana but will take the field on Sunday without key player Jonathan Pitroipa who was shown a controversial red card.

Burkina, who will meet Nigeria at Soccer City, edged their neighbours 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time in the semi-final at the Mbombela Stadium to continue the dream run by a team who started as rank outsiders.
They won their group, eliminating defending champions Zambia, and won both their knockout stage matches after extra time.
But their joy was tempered by the news that Pitroipa will not play on Sunday after he was sent off near the end of extra time after receiving a second caution for simulation, a trick he claimed to have learned from Liverpool's Luis Suarez.

Burkina Faso said they would be launching an immediate protest to overturn the card handed by Tunisia referee Slim Jdidi.
"It was a scandalous decision," said Burkina Faso coach Paul Put after the final whistle. "The performance of the referee was nowhere near the level of the game. What a cunt."

Burkina Faso rallied after conceding an early penalty, the start of a series of controversial decisions, one of which resulted in Ghana taking a 13th-minute lead through Mubarak Wakaso.
It was his third successful penalty of the tournament but was awarded after an innocuous looking challenge from fullback Mady Panandetiguiri on Ghana's Christian Atsu in the penalty area.
However, the Burkinabe, despite the exertions of two hours of football in Sunday's quarter-final win over Togo, came back strongly to equalise on the hour mark.
A key tackle in midfield from Florent Rouamba turned over possession and allowed tall striker Aristides "Flash" Bance to place the ball wide of goalkeeper Fatau Dauda.
Minutes before a powerful header from the German-based striker had just been kept from going in by a goal-line save by Dauda while Ghana's captain Asamoah Gyan, almost immediately at the other end, had hit the woodwork as he broke free from the Burkinabe defence.
Both sides continued to create chances, increasingly so in extra time despite visibly tiring legs.
Harrison Afful had a shot tipped over the crossbar in the 95th minute while Bance, with his striking dyed blond hairstyle, squandered three good chances as the drama reached a crescendo
Bance had one more chance after being set up by captain Charles Kabore with eight minutes left but his shot hit Afful on the knees and somehow looped over the crossbar
In the penalty shootout Ghana missed first to hand the advantage to Burkina Faso but it was back at 2-2 after three kicks each.
Then Emmanuel Clottey missed, Bance scored with a cheeky chip and a save from Daouda Diakite sealed Burkina's final place.
"When we came go this tournament the only one who believed in us was the coach," said Kabore. "We just hope now the red card will be overruled." (Editing by John Mehaffey)

[ChesterDave]

I cant work out what quotes he edited

[Liverpel]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/feb/07/emmanuel-adebayor-tottenham-return-togo

Tottenham wait on Emmanuel Adebayor as striker deals with 'issues

Sunday evening: Emmanuel Adebayor's Togo exit the Africa Cup of Nations to Burkina Faso. His acute disappointment contrasts with the sense of relief at his club, Tottenham Hotspur, who need him for the Saturday lunchtime Premier League fixture at home to Newcastle United. With Jermain Defoe injured, Adebayor is their only fit senior centre-forward.

Thursday morning: Adebayor is still to leave Africa. André Villas-Boas tried his best to sound relaxed about the situation but it did not take a behavioural expert to detect notes of frustration and exasperation in the Tottenham manager.

"I spoke to him on Monday morning ... I know where he is, I'm not sure if I want to make it public," Villas-Boas said, before admitting that the player remained somewhere in Africa. "We're trying to establish the best flight connections for him. He had issues to take care of after the tournament finished for Togo."

What were those issues? Villas-Boas refused to say. He suggested that, at some point in the week, there was the hope that Adebayor would make it back in time for the training session at 3pm on Thursday but the schedule came to be revised. Now, Adebayor's appearance at Friday's 3pm session is eagerly awaited. "We've allowed Ade to come back for the Friday training session if he can't make it for today's," Villas-Boas said.

He added that he would certainly name Adebayor in his squad for the visit of Newcastle but here is the rub. Adebayor said that he was exhausted after the Burkina Faso defeat – he had shouldered tremendous responsibility as his nation's figurehead – and he must now rack up the air miles, going from Africa's heat to the chill of England, to refocus swiftly on club business. "It's always difficult," Villas-Boas said. "He will not be 100%, for sure, but he is still a player that can make a difference for us."

Adebayor was granted three days off after Togo's defeat and Villas-Boas said that it was up to the player how and where he spent the time. "I don't mess with that," Villas-Boas said. Adebayor is feted as a demi-God in Togo and he has been under pressure to show his face in Africa. But as Tottenham fans pay Adebayor's salary and might wonder why he could not have travelled back a little sooner, it was difficult to escape the feeling that it was all rather needlessly chaotic.

Villas-Boas talked about how the in-form Gareth Bale could continue to play through the middle, as a No10, while the attacking midfielder, Lewis Holtby, has impressed his new team-mates hugely in training. Clint Dempsey, who himself is not due back until Friday's session, after playing for the United States in Honduras on Wednesday, has come to be pressed into service up front but in Defoe's absence, the onus is on Adebayor.

Villas-Boas said that Defoe's ankle ligament damage, which he suffered at West Bromwich Albion last Sunday, would rule him out for "two to three weeks." That is the optimistic reading. It is understood that Defoe is more likely to be out for six weeks, possibly even longer.

It has been a trying season so far for Adebayor, who scored 18 goals last time out for Tottenham, when on loan from Manchester City, but has contributed only three since his £5.5m permanent transfer in August. Adebayor came as an ex-Togo international and so the decision to return to his country for the showpiece tournament in mid-season did not exactly sit well with Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman.

It has not just been the Africa Cup of Nations that has fractured Adebayor's rhythm in club colours. He suffered injuries in the first half of the season and a three-game ban for his dismissal in the 5-2 loss at Arsenal on 17 November. The derby stands as a microcosm of his season. He has enjoyed encouraging moments, including the opening goal, only to err with his red-card challenge and, ultimately, disappoint.

Adebayor is hurting after the defeat to Burkina Faso, even if Togo's progress to the quarter-final represented an historic achievement. He muttered darkly about the hard and sandy pitch at Nelspruit's Mbombela Stadium, while he gave a glimpse of his ego in the verbal tirade that he launched at Didier Six, the Togo coach, whose decisions and management style he did not like.

"The coach was not a help," Adebayor said. "Me, I was on the pitch, so I couldn't do his job and mine. I couldn't coach and play. I tried to do my best but he didn't help us."

Villas-Boas described Adebayor as "very extravagant" and he said that his character "often" came across in the dressing room. The challenge now is to harness the anger and the desire, and channel it to Tottenham's ends over the final 13 games of the Premier League season.

"Sometimes you need players with leadership, charisma and personality," Villas-Boas said. "The manager's impact in the preparation of games is a certain amount but in the running of the game, it can be minimal and in those situations, you need players to inspire the others. This is the type of impact that Ade can have on Togo and the teams he has played for before.

"Compared to last season at Tottenham, things haven't gone so well for him, although the team is still doing well so his impact is there. Individually, in terms of goals, it hasn't happened so much. Strikers, especially, live off scoring goals and Ade wants to add to his tally. But I'm sure that in the next three months, he can still have that impact."

[Liverpel]

I know you've all been waiting for an update.

So here goes.........

Emmanuel Adebayor's return from the Africa Cup of Nations took a farcical twist on Friday when he was unable to make it back in time for Tottenham Hotspur's training session at three o'clock, to leave him as a selection doubt for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off against Newcastle United at White Hart Lane.

André Villas-Boas, the Tottenham manager, was left frustrated as Adebayor encountered problems with his flights from Africa, where he had remained since Togo's elimination from the mid-season tournament by Burkina Faso on Sunday. The striker had been granted three days off by Villas-Boas after the defeat in the hope that he could return for training at 3pm on Thursday. The schedule came to be readjusted but the player still could not make it.

He did touch down in London on Friday afternoon but not in time for the session at the club's base in Enfield, leaving Villas-Boas to decide whether to name him as a substitute for the visit of Newcastle. Villas-Boas has kept his options open by including Adebayor in the 19-man matchday squad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/feb/08/tottenham-emmanuel-adebayor-return-africa

[Neil Young]

It feels like this tournament started a hundred years ago.

[kingfunk]

Na, started in 1957 mate

[Neil Young]

You know what I'm getting at.

And that was the competition, not the tournament.

[kingfunk]

Ruf Ruf!

[Red_Polo]

Hasn't the competition always been a tournament?Arf