2013 Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals are played this Wednesday. Nigeria, Mali, Ghana and Burkina are the last four. Nigeria, overwhelming favourites to lift the trophy, face Mali in the semi. SABC News Digital Producer, Sipho Kekana points out why he thinks The Super Eagles of Nigeria have stronger claws to rip Mali.
They were ridiculed as ‘The Super CHICKENS’ by Ivory Coast ahead of their quarterfinal encounter against The Elephants on Sunday. But Nigeria went out to proof they were actually ‘The Super EAGLES’ when they clawed The Elephants out of the tournament. This has left Nigeria – who looked scrappy in the preceding games – with a psychological advantage over Mali in the semifinal of the tournament tonight.
It must, however, be noted that Nigeria didn’t look to have been ‘reborn’ out of the blue, on Sunday, to topple The Elephants. Two factors seemed to be Ivory Coast’s undoing.
Firstly, Nigeria’s poor showing in the group stages seemed to have sold Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi a dummy. The French-born mentor, seemingly not expecting a tough challenge from The Super Eagles, changed the approach and tactics for the match, playing with Didier Drogba as the target man. With Drogba closely monitored, Lamouchi’s team lacked the firepower they had showed in the previous matches.
Making matters even worse, the commitment and determination to win the match from the Ivory Coast players looked rather questionable and Nigeria took full advantage of that.
Having beaten the undisputed tournament favourites, Nigeria’s confidence has been done a world of good and confidence in a tournament like this is a powerful weapon.
Nigeria’s captain, Joseph Yobo also confirmed this yesterday at a press briefing in Durban ahead of their training session, saying The Super Eagles were “highly motivated” for the match against Mali. Notwithstanding their problems in the team, the confidence factor is expected to lift the team up and make things very difficult for Mali.
But factors looking to favour Nigeria don’t end there. The Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi coached Mali from 2008 to 2010 and is very familiar with the strengths and weakness of most the players in that team. In fact, he has come already pointed out that 90% of the current Malian team featured for the team while he was still in charge of the side. Even though Mali have had three coaches since Keshi’s departure in 2010, which could have changed the formation of the team, etc., the individual qualities of players, which he is closely privy to, remain the same. Mali coach Patrice Carteron should be stressing about how to counter this fact!
Mali have been very lucky since the tournament started. They’ve look disjointed and overly reliant on former Barcelona star, Seydou Keita. Without Keita, there’s no denying the The Eagles of Mali would be even more ordinary than they are currently.
Mahamadou Sammassa is an outstanding quality, and on his day can cause havoc to any team, but he’s still yet to stage that kind of performance since the commencement of the tournament. Whether the 26-year old can finally come out of his shell, tonight, to inspire The Eagles of Mali to the finals remains to be seen.
While Mali are good at slowing things down and knocking the ball around, they are also inconsistent in their game and more often allow the opposition to dictate matters in the midfield which makes them vulnerable defensively. This was evident when Bafana Bafana managed to pierce through their defence a couple of times, especially in the first half even though the host team failed to get the crucial goals.
Both teams have a very strong physical presence, which could easily turn the match into a very physical affair between the two sides.
While this is one tournament where teams have been so inconsistent that it has become difficult to make predictions, The Super Eagles, on paper, seem to have all ‘claws’ to shred the Eagles of Mali’s Afcon final dream.
Sipho Kekana is SABC Digital News Producer.
– By Sipho Kekana
