On January 24, the stampede casualties in the African Cup of Nations knockout rounds were sad, but also let a strange name break into the world's vision: the Comoros, a small country with a population of only 800,000, reached the African Cup of Nations for the first time after joining the African Football Federation only 20 years ago, and made it straight to the round of sixteen, and finally lost only 1-2 to the host Cameroon.
A small country that has been subverted by mercenaries 4 times
With a population of more than 800,000 people and an area of 2,200 square kilometers, Moroni, the capital is one of the poorest countries in the world; the entire territory is only three small islands, not even the geographical Comoros Archipelago is occupied – when independence was declared in 1975, Mayotte, one of the four islands of the Comoros, chose to stay in France, and the two countries are still arguing about it.
This volume, placed in China, is also a large county-level city. In the 20 years since independence, the country has been in turmoil, the most impressive of which was the four overthrows by the same group of international mercenaries, mainly from France, and the small number of people, the least occurred in 1978, when a total of 29 people took three hours to capture the then President of the Comoros. The funny thing is that the employer and target of this operation happen to be the former president who was ousted from power for the first "invasion" three years ago and the then president who came to power as a result, the so-called "feng shui turns, three years to my house".
This farce occurred four times, lasted for 20 years, and finally sat in the head of the mercenaries of the Comoros' defense minister, which was really angered, and it was only in 1995 that France sent special forces to solve the problem. It was after this that the Comoros slowly became a normal country, recognized by the international community, joining AFFL in 2003 and FIFA in 2005.
Left-back guest appearance as the starting goalkeeper
After joining the international football family, the football career in the Comoros began to develop. He participated in the World Cup qualifiers for the first time in 2010 and the African Cup of Nations qualifiers for the first time in 2012. Then they borrowed chickens and eggs and grew up relying on overseas players.
The 32-year-old Ben Nabhane currently plays for Red Star Belgrade in the Serbal League and has even scored in the Champions League, making him the comoros' number one star. But don't think this team is superior, most of them play in the lower leagues of France, such as the 37-year-old captain Abdou in the French Bundesliga. The head coach who single-handedly created the team, Amir Abdul, is just a social worker and part-time amateur coach in the southern French city of Agen, and it is he who travels around France to contact comorian players and organize them together.
But such a group of players have done miracles. The Comoros, which are grouped with Egypt, Togo and Kenya in qualifying, are considered absolute briskets. As a result, they unexpectedly drew at home to the powerful Egypt, winning one and drawing against the other two teams, scoring eight points in the last four games.
In the final stage, after losing to Gabon and Morocco in the first two rounds, they defeated Ghana 3-2 in the last round, eliminating the African "black star" and entering the round of sixteen as the third of the four best groups.
It is already unlucky to meet the host Cameroon in the round of sixteen, and what is even more unfortunate is that 12 members of the team have currently tested positive for the virus, two of whom are goalkeepers, and the only goalkeeper who passed the test was injured against Ghana. The Comoros could only play the starting goalkeeper with his own left-back Alhad Huel, the first cameo goalkeeper starter in the continental tournament.
Then, in the opening 7 minutes, the Comoros was sent off...
Even so, Alhadhull made a magical two-game save in the game, and the Comoros only lost 1-2. Head coach Amir Abdul said: "We were also chaotic at the beginning, but we did not give up, but continued to work hard for a long time. The current results are not accidental. ”
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Guo Xiaoming
Photo/ Weibo, Xinhua News Agency