The Africa Cup of Nations began today with close 2-1 win for host Ghana over Guinea. Congratulations to the Black Stars!

This Africa Cup is considered a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where several African teams are hoping to showcase world class African Football. In any case, the Africa Cup is probably the largest, most intensely watched sports event in Africa. Hopes are high for all participating nations. But especially for for some nations, like Ivory Coast and Kenya, many hope that rooting for the same team may help heal painful divisions at home.

Germany’s contribution to the Africa Cup are three coaches (de): Reinhard Fabisch for Benin, Otto Pfister for Cameroon and, most notably, the 1974 world championship team member and former German national team coach Berti Vogts, coaching for Nigeria. The expectations for Vogts to take the Super Eagles to the title are very high, especially in Nigeria. The first match, on Monday against Ivory Coast, will likely be a serious test and an indication how well Nigeria’s expectations will be matched by results.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Palmwine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.