Zambia and Cameroon give some life to the most exciting day of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. And, yes, folks , we have a Cinderella, and it is Zambia:
ZAMBIA 2, GABON 1
And now, as the late Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
You can’t talk about Zambia soccer and not talk about the tragic events of April 27, 1993. It made some news over here, but if you really want a good story, here is Sports Illustrated’s Leigh Montville’s take six months after the plane crash that killed 30 people, including 18 team members, the coaches, and other Zambian staff.
(Interesting side note that Montville had to make a couple of phone calls to get the score. That was only 16 years ago.)
As Montville points out, the crash happened off the coast of Gabon on a takeoff after a fuel stop. After the fact, there were some tensions between Gabon and Zambia because Gabon, itself struggling economically, didn’t want to spend the money needed to fully investigate or recover the wreckage.
Amazingly, after putting together a whole new team for the final round of qualifying, Zambia needed only a draw in Morocco to reach the 1994 World Cup in the United States, but fell in a heartbreaker, 1-0. The referee that day was, ironically, from Gabon – Jean Fidel Diramba – and the Zambians maintain to this day that they should have had a late penalty when one of their players was kicked in the face.
Zambia miraculously finished second in the 1994 CAN and third in 1996, but hasn’t but out of the first round since, and it had to feel good for the nation of Zambia to do what they did today against Gabon. For the first 75 minutes or so, they were thoroughly better and deserve to go through, where they will meet Nigeria in the quarterfinals.
And the Zambians will have a lot of neutrals rooting for them, not just because of the history involved, but because this is an exciting team to watch (which is somewhat surprising because they scored only 2 goals in third round qualifying). Jacob Mulenga has been outstanding, and set up the second goal today with some tricky moves inside the Gabon penalty area. Meanwhile, Rainford Kalaba (of Braga, who scored today) has been equally impressive in the midfield.
Their defense is – to be kind- shocking, with goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene pulling a howler to end all howlers against Cameroon which sparked their comeback in the second group game (even today’s goal allowed was poor defending).
But it’s a team you can root for: they have the exciting players, they have a 16-year old left back, they have a coach (Herve Renard) who looks like he just stepped out of the club. What’s not to root for?
On the other side, Gabon suffered another tough loss after being just one game away from qualifying for the World Cup. But, it’s not like they were unlucky, they were just beaten. And there’s nothing they can do about that except go on back to Libreville.
CAMEROON 2, TUNISIA 2
It’s really hard to get a read of Cameroon by watching them play in the CAN, except to say that they obviously need to get off to better starts. In each of their three group games, they not only conceded the first goal, but were down at halftime, twice in the first 8 minutes, and today in the first 50 seconds, as Amine Chermiti (only 22) scored again.
Luckily, for Cameroon they have Samuel Eto’o and crew, and Eto’o leveled just seconds after halftime (off of a pass from strike partner Pierre Webo). Cameroon survived a calamitous own goal header Aurelien Chedjou, but answered back through Celtic’s Landry N’Guemo less than a minute later.
Again today, Cameroon was the better team, but again they gave up a goal (today, 2 goals) which is troublesome, and something Paul Le Guen will have to figure out in the next few months if he wants to get out of a group that includes Japan, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Before the tournament, I picked Tunisia to reach the finals, but I can’t say I was sad to see them depart (although I like Chermiti). Between Khaled Korbi’s phantom head clash in the opener against Zambia to today’s shenanigans with the officials (finally resulting in a red card), they weren’t exactly the cleanest team in the field, and although they played fairly well (as their three draws in a tough group attest), Zambia is a much better story.
Tomorrow: Day off, quarterfinals start Sunday with Angola-Ghana and Ivory Coast-Algeria.
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