Jump to content

AfCON - Zambia v Nigeria - Mayuaka to Start


Convict Colony
 Share

Recommended Posts

Ditto although I'm using "working" in the looses sense

 

I've done hardly anything all to be fair. Someone had the cheek to ring me just now and inturpt my viewing to ask a pathetic question about travel arrangements in a couple of weeks time FFS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mayuka's got previous for scoring on awful pitches ;)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyFG_9faEDM

 

The thing I don't understand is this game is being played in Nelspruit which is just below the Kruger park which has been swamped with **** loads of rain. Have they dumped a load of sand on it to make it more like an astroturf pitch and absorb this water as it looks dry as feck.

 

Most of these games have been empty, no one turned up for the 1st game SA v Cape Verde as ticket prices aren't for locals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing I don't understand is this game is being played in Nelspruit which is just below the Kruger park which has been swamped with **** loads of rain. Have they dumped a load of sand on it to make it more like an astroturf pitch and absorb this water as it looks dry as feck.

 

Most of these games have been empty, no one turned up for the 1st game SA v Cape Verde as ticket prices aren't for locals.

 

I believe SA v Cape Verde was announced as a 66,000 sell out, but thousands of people stayed away due to the rain.

 

Going to this tournament is on the bucket list - which now contains one thing. :)

 

I'm sat here with Eurosport HD on, listening to it, haven't looked up twice yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On a slightly more random theme i was watching the Ivory Coast the over day and their team was choc a bloc full of quality player yet they still made hard work of the game. Whats the difference is it coaches etc or is it the dutch mentality of the individual is more important than the team ?

 

I don't understand how an african team hasn't won a world cup yet.

 

Thoughts ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe SA v Cape Verde was announced as a 66,000 sell out, but thousands of people stayed away due to the rain.

 

Going to this tournament is on the bucket list - which now contains one thing. :)

 

I'm sat here with Eurosport HD on, listening to it, haven't looked up twice yet.

 

I used to like it when they brought in a rule banning teams having their witch doctors cast spells before the games.

 

That was when it was proper decent and the Rashidi Yekini was the man RIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On a slightly more random theme i was watching the Ivory Coast the over day and their team was choc a bloc full of quality player yet they still made hard work of the game. Whats the difference is it coaches etc or is it the dutch mentality of the individual is more important than the team ?

 

I don't understand how an african team hasn't won a world cup yet.

 

Thoughts ?

 

Thoughts are that African nations generally don't play that many non-African nations away from World Cups and therefore lack that experience as a team at the very highest level of international football, whereas both European and South American countries play a fair few intercontinental matches (albeit friendlies).

 

Ghana are getting there though.

 

I'm trying very hard to avoid stereotyping here, but there's still that nagging doubt about discipline - even Drogba with all his experience went mental basically every time Chelsea got knocked out of the Champions' League...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, and there are also half as many Africa nations at the World Cup as European teams to begin with which statistically reduces their chances... and the South Americans who have the same representation (more or less) always have at least 2 previous World Cup winners amongst their representation.

 

Plus Pele said there would be an African WC winner before 2000 so that's screwed them for probably another 40 years, just like it killed El-Hadji Diouf's career when he bigged him up as part of the FIFA top 125.

 

One other thing - even the top African nations do mental things like letting Mikel take a penalty which makes precisely no sense at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoughts are that African nations generally don't play that many non-African nations away from World Cups and therefore lack that experience as a team at the very highest level of international football, whereas both European and South American countries play a fair few intercontinental matches (albeit friendlies).

 

Ghana are getting there though.

 

I'm trying very hard to avoid stereotyping here, but there's still that nagging doubt about discipline - even Drogba with all his experience went mental basically every time Chelsea got knocked out of the Champions' League...

 

Yeah that's an interesting point, every now and again someone comes to play a friendly in London but your right people were going nuts in Zambia a couple of weeks ago as a Norway B side came over to play them in Zambia.

 

But how does that explain teams like Chile or Uruguay, they don't really travel to play outside S.A but especially in Chile's case they really work a system 4-3-3 to their advantage.

 

I want to agree about Drogba but i keep remembering 1 night in Barcelona when he was awesome tracking back to the half way line, defensive headers etc he was a perfect team man.

 

In normal circumstances he was a ****.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, and there are also half as many Africa nations at the World Cup as European teams to begin with which statistically reduces their chances... and the South Americans who have the same representation (more or less) always have at least 2 previous World Cup winners amongst their representation.

 

Plus Pele said there would be an African WC winner before 2000 so that's screwed them for probably another 40 years, just like it killed El-Hadji Diouf's career when he bigged him up as part of the FIFA top 125.

 

One other thing - even the top African nations do mental things like letting Mikel take a penalty which makes precisely no sense at all.

 

hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha i wouldn't let him take my temperature

Link to comment
Share on other sites

African countries also have poor footballing infrastructure and planning. Plenty of corruption too. Lots of African players tend to go where the money is, rather than where they'll develop as players with regular game time. So much squandered talent, so many reasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen a few African countries at the World Cup, saw Morocco v Scotland and Nigeria v Denmark in '98, and Cameroon v Russia, Sweden and Brazil in '94. They were all pants except Morocco, who were only stuffing Scotland anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done hardly anything all to be fair. Someone had the cheek to ring me just now and inturpt my viewing to ask a pathetic question about travel arrangements in a couple of weeks time FFS.

 

Hope you put them straight, cheeky sod.

 

Poor game, Mayuka not in it but service to him has been poor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah that's an interesting point, every now and again someone comes to play a friendly in London but your right people were going nuts in Zambia a couple of weeks ago as a Norway B side came over to play them in Zambia.

 

But how does that explain teams like Chile or Uruguay, they don't really travel to play outside S.A but especially in Chile's case they really work a system 4-3-3 to their advantage.

 

I want to agree about Drogba but i keep remembering 1 night in Barcelona when he was awesome tracking back to the half way line, defensive headers etc he was a perfect team man.

 

In normal circumstances he was a ****.

 

I guess with Chile and Uruguay it's about having to adapt to playing Brazil and Argentina regularly and they have a League qualification system plus the Copa America, which African nations get to play top World sides that often ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone's still paying attention, Sunzu is the guy linked with Reading (funnily enough pre-Pochettino I thought he might be an option for us). Plays for TP Mazembe, the DR Congo side that got to the World Club Championship Final a couple of years ago.

 

And as I type this they reel all of that off on commentary. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what i like interesting idea's on the poor performance of african countries.

 

I'd love to know where I read it this week but I read an interesting article that covers the last 10yrs which stated apparently most of the players in Bafana Bafana came from the Cape Flats.

 

Players like Pienaar, Quinton Fortune, Benni McCarthey, Shaun Bartlett all came from the Cape Flats and it got to a point the Xhosa and Zulu's were not fans of the team as most of the team were cape coloureds rather than being from their tribes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess with Chile and Uruguay it's about having to adapt to playing Brazil and Argentina regularly and they have a League qualification system plus the Copa America, which African nations get to play top World sides that often ?

 

Fair point playing some of the best in the world helps

 

**** the super eagles

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair point playing some of the best in the world helps

 

**** the super eagles

 

The infrastructure and lack of overall vision and leadership can't help, you still get teams getting shot at and players killed or left in a wheelchair because they're taking a bus to matches thousands of miles away, you get the impression the administrators aren't exactly interested in improvement of the squad and where else do you hear about players disappearing for days either side of international breaks or teams going on strike due to not getting paid (or indeed disputes about contract terms like the one discussed on Eurosport about Sunzu's contract) ?

 

Interesting point about the fractured nature of South African football as well.

 

I don't think the player talent itself is lacking, just the glue to hold it all together and things like the guidance of external sources to bring things on that extra step. There are plenty of African players winning trophies in Europe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The infrastructure and lack of overall vision and leadership can't help, you still get teams getting shot at and players killed or left in a wheelchair because they're taking a bus to matches thousands of miles away, you get the impression the administrators aren't exactly interested in improvement of the squad and where else do you hear about players disappearing for days either side of international breaks or teams going on strike due to not getting paid (or indeed disputes about contract terms like the one discussed on Eurosport about Sunzu's contract) ?

 

Interesting point about the fractured nature of South African football as well.

 

I don't think the player talent itself is lacking, just the glue to hold it all together and things like the guidance of external sources to bring things on that extra step. There are plenty of African players winning trophies in Europe.

 

Some day either Africa, Asia or the US will get their **** together and smash all the powerhouses of football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...