The show begins

A journey of a cup of nations begins with an opening ceremony. And what a ceremony it was. By many accounts it was close to rivaling Beijing. Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration because nothing can top the bird’s nest and everything the Chinese did. Nevertheless, given the news of the past few days it helped put some gloss back on the tournament and the organizers must be pleased to be finally focusing on the event. And as if the spectacle wasn’t enough, the game turned from what seemed until the last ten minutes to be a certain victory for the hosts to a shocking collapse but thrilling end for us neutrals. 

You gotta love sports. Now, we wait for the Black Stars’ first match. I do have to say that the wait for the Black Stars’ first match will kill me. Our first match is now going to be on Friday against Cote d’ Ivoire. That means a whole week and three days would have passed before playing in a competitive match. Depending on how we come out and play it could be a case of being well rested and well prepared or it could be that we are rusty from all the idleness. Let’s hope it is the former. 

Of course, the events of the last few days also means that espionage has been kept to a minimum. It could never justify the loss of life and the near disruption of Africa’s showcase event but I am just saying. 

So on to the next one? I can’t wait to see the Algeria- Malawi game. I think if Malawi can keep their nerves and keep it goalless or even score in the first half they will shock some people. I think Cote d’ Ivoire is going to win against Burkina Faso which will make our match against Cote d’ Ivoire that much more critical.

Given the eight-goal thriller in the opener, who is willing to bet against the goal scoring record set in Ghana being broken? You folks remember that the 2008 edition of the cup produced the most number of goals in the tournament’s history.

Breaking news. Oooohhhhhhhhh ah!!! These Togolese too love more drama than Shirley Frimpong Manso’s movies. At this point I find it difficult that there’s a bit of politics involved in the decision making. It smacks of Togo trying to shift some of the blame to some other authority for their initial decision to travel by road. That’s waaaaayyyyyyy above my black stars fan pay grade though.