Reporter Han Bing reported on the stadium that was not fully completed, the new crown epidemic infected in a large area of the team, the tragedy of the stadium stampede and the terrorist attack and explosion, the temporary replacement of the playing venue, plus many bizarre controversial penalties and non-sports acts... Although the Cameroon Africa Cup of Nations finally ended as scheduled, there was no major accident in the bus shooting of the Togolese team 12 years ago, but such a chaotic and disorderly organization of the event, the worrying cloud of civil war, makes the African Cup of Nations still the most chaotic and most inconceivable event in the Intercontinental Nations Cup except oceania.
Even with the hundreds of millions of euros worth salah, as well as Mane, Ashraf, Ndidi, Koulibaly, Mahrez, Zaha, Patti, Ennasri, Mendy, Alai, N. Pepe and other superstars, because of Africa's long-term poverty and weakness and biennial "aesthetic fatigue", the current situation that this cup is difficult to be respected by European and American professional football. And this change in the status quo, at least in the short term, is completely hopeless.
Dark horses ran rampant, just by accident
Equatorial Guinea (114th), Malawi (129th), Comoros (132nd) and Gambia (150th), which are ranked 100th in the world, have all reached the round of 16, Equatorial Guinea and the Gambia have reached the top 8, and Burkina Faso, which ranks 11th with 24 teams from the African Cup of Nations, has also reached the top 4. On the contrary, the defending champion Algeria and the top powerhouse Ghana actually finished out of the group, and the star-studded Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire also encountered strong opponents in the quarter-finals respectively, and were eliminated by Tunisia and Egypt.
The huge contrast between the performance of the fish belly team and the traditional powerhouse is partly due to the infection of the new crown virus team in most of the participating teams, resulting in a large area of attrition, resulting in a huge contrast between the results of the game and the strength of the card. At the same time, these weak teams in cameroon, where the competition environment is relatively harsh, the psychological pressure is much smaller than that of traditional teams. Because of the conflict between the African Cup of Nations and the Europa League, coupled with the outbreak of the Aumechjong mutation virus, many European clubs were reluctant to release people before the game, and many big stars were also reluctant to take risks. Lack of will to fight, partly affected the direction of the game.
The Africa Cup of Nations is known for its extensive spectacle and few goals, and this edition is no exception. Only 10 of the 36 group games have scored more than 3 goals, 17 games have scored only 1 goal, and 4 have been handed over. Only 6 of the 16 knockout matches have scored more than 3 goals, of which 7 have been played in extra time, 6 have required penalties to decide the winner, and 4 penalty shootouts, including the final and 1 semi-final, have been handed over in a blank and sleepy way. In fact, in the 12 African Cups since the new century, only 2 final goals have reached more than 2, and 6 of the finals have been penalty shootouts, of which 5 have handed over white rolls, and African fans have long been accustomed to the boring and tedious final.
There are very few matches that can play high-quality content in this group stage, and the knockout rounds are only Egypt 2-1 Morocco, Senegal 3-1 Burkina Faso is still good. Although the final opponents Senegal and Egypt have shown more European tactical qualities than ever before, it is still difficult to bring fans a pleasing game process. This is a session where the attention outside the stadium must exceed that of the Africa Cup of Nations on the field, and the lackluster content of the game has drawn everyone's attention to the outside, which is really regrettable.
While the performances of the Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia and Malawi are encouraging, after all, any new force that breaks the old pattern will always push the football forward, but the four dark horses, including the champions Senegal, have a greater element of luck, which further reduces the gold content of the Africa Cup of Nations.
The farce is constant, and it is not surprising
Due to the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the African Cup of Nations, which was scheduled to take place last June, was postponed to January this year, but the off-site farce began as early as November 2018. At that time, the Non-FA took cameroon of hosting rights in 2019 with severe delays in cameroon's stadium and infrastructure, and transferred it to Egypt. But the AFF president then said that Cameroon was willing to host the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, so the host countries of the African Cup of Nations, 2021 and 2023, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, were postponed in turn – how sloppy!
Before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations, the European and American media were very worried about the terrorist attacks on the competition by the opposition in cameroon's English-speaking area. However, what really hit the participating teams was the infection of the new crown virus team, including more than half of the teams, and the total number of infected people exceeded 100, which was really shocking. Burkina Faso sued the host country for falsifying the nucleic acid test results, resulting in the inability of its five players to play, facilitating Cameroon's victory in the opener; comoros even had to send other position players to temporary top shifts in the quarter-final match against Cameroon due to the new crown virus and injury, and the results can be imagined.
The farce inside the scene is absurd, and the real tragedy is outside the scene. The match was hit by a problem with free tickets, which led to a massive stampede that killed at least eight people. At the same time, douala, one of the competition venues, also had a terrorist attack and explosion, but it did not affect the participating teams. The fact that the opposition forces did not attack the participating teams as they did in Angola in 2010 is the biggest consolation of this cup. However, due to security pressure, the organizing committee was also forced to change the venue of the three knockout matches, which is also very rare in the intercontinental competition.
As for the field, the farce of the group stage match between Mali and Tunisia, which ended twice before the 90-minute regular time, was whistled by the referee, and became the laughing stock of the world. The Romanian coach in Malawi complained that the organizing committee favored the participating teams, that there was no prescribed milk supply at the hotel, and that the players even had to wash their own clothes. The quality of the turf at several of the competition venues was unsatisfactory, and there was even a farce in which the venue rented by the press conference was taken away from the microphone before the press conference due to arrears of fees.
Senegal beat Cape Verde in the quarterfinals, the number one star Mane and the Cape Verde goalkeeper collided head-to-head and both fell to the ground, almost unconscious Mane was not immediately replaced, but did not even have simple treatment to continue the game, but after scoring the goal can not insist before being sent to the hospital scene, also shocked the world football world. In addition to the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the way the African Cup organizing committee handled the injuries and illnesses of players has also exacerbated the concerns about the personal safety of players.
Obviously, such an African Cup of Nations can only be described by the word "magic".