Nigeria would be here but the grandkids are visiting: ACN 2012

hommage à merdeyeux

pas de dioufy pas de credibilité merde le haters imo

Tu veux dire que les haisseurs aillent se faire foutre?

c'est créole galsen, évidemment

DIOUFY

i'm impressing myself by following most of this, tho the tense of 'aillent' has me guessing and 'galsen' has me lost

It's verlan, sort of like French rhyming slang: séné-gal - gal-séné - galsen. Same as 'beur'.

So, no-one cares that the opening game is currently on? I may check it out if it still going after I've made by dinner.

Watching it. Most notable event of 1st half a dubious disallowing of an Equatoguinean goal.

Oh, and Libya's 39-year-old goalie looks a bit of a liability.

Just looked him up - 20 years with the same club, and only 20 caps for his country.

Indeed.

He is the most Libyan football player has won different Libyan Football Competitions (18 title).

Thank you, wikipedia!

Equatorial Guinea substitution: Spanish guy off, Cameroonian guy on.

(I'm not suggesting they, or anyone else, shouldn't exploit the actual eligibility rules to the fullest.)

Another one, EQG send on their I guess only bona fide star player; Bodipo of Deportivo.

(ok "star" seems to be pushing it, he's out on 2nd-division loan now, I notice)

galsen vs abizam much better match so far, in that there appears to be at least one properly good team on the field (and ***SPOILER ALERT*** it is not Senegal). Kennedy Mweene ftw!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/7279607.stm

how bloody useless is the acn fixture page on the bbc? i want to see what time individual games are, so I get

21 Jan-12 Feb: Africa Cup of Nations finals, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon

yeh i had the same problem the other day
this works tho http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fixtures/8675469.stm

yeah i went that way after.

the BBC website's coverage of non-UK football is an utter disgrace tbh, been meaning to moan about it for a while.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyauywIsy91qiuwg7o1_500.png

dian bobo baldé!

ty mizz

Haw oops 87 minutes and galsen are DESPERATE versus uhm eguin torialaqué! 0 pts in 2 matches in that group navgl I suppose...

Excellent timing as always, anatol! :-p

awp! 2-1 eqg! Red card eqg! Clock at 97 out of 95.

a hoy hoy & zappi: go for betting sites. They always have the correct kickoff times, or they're in big trouble.

Failing that, nifs.no is pretty much reliable, but in Norwegian. Front page shows the day's matches. For other dates, click the link "kamper" for results and/or fixtures, and hit the menu boxes to specify association/competition/group. Remember these are UTC+1 times.

its cool, i know how to find times :) on the bbc too. i was just moaning about their specific anc coverage- the times are on their generic fixture page.

Ah I see. :)

(I think I was severely underselling nifs.no by "pretty much reliable" though -- I believe they're pretty much hands-down-world-beating in breadth at least. Did BBC Generic Fixtures know there were two matches played in the Cypriot Cup today, for instance? Or of the 3-1 victory of Persiba Balikpapan vs Mitra Kukar in the Indonesian Super League? :p )

Full disclosure, just to be safe: no, I do not have anything to do with them, I just like it.

No the bbc site doesn't tell you that. i find it bad enough trapsing through our 4 leagues to see if anything interesting is happening, let alone bloody cyprus

Haha fair enough! I just have this stathead fondness for comprehensiveness (which I'll never get time to process)...

i usually go to http://www.soccerway.com/
they put the "big" leagues at the top of the page, but you can scroll down to see whats happening in the St. Kitts and Nevis Premier Division or whatever!

Ooh yeah, soccerway is good too. IIRC the data there grew out of the site Riku Soininen ran in the early 00s or so? I hit that site pretty hard for a while.

match between Eq. Guinea and Senegal was a cracker last night, waterlogged pitch and all. Demba Ba playing a stinker so far in this tourney.

Sebegal out no? Which considering they have Moussa Sow and x2 Cisse's is a shock to me. Newcastle will be happy tho.

Senegal even, think Sebegal are still there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbSxMt7oH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrUoUDPPgjM

this is rubbish

worst continent

haha. not watched any yet. it just dawned on me that demba ba is senegalese no? ie he just got poked out. a shame for the lad.

but no im p sure asia is the worst continent for football.

O C E A N I A

chamakh tried to take his anti-malarial but missed from 6" out?

Attendance in the quarterfinal between Zambia and Sudan: 200. o_O

interesting article on equitorial guinea:

http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journal/2012/2/1/the-dark-heart-of-equatorial-guinea.html

thanks for that, interesting.

zambia just defeated ghana in the first semi

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PA-12722815.jpg

definitely rooting for Zambia in the final

come on you copper bullets!

watching the final on eurosport right now. zambia pass it about nicely. even game so far.

Pitch looks really heavy though, continuing to play the ball on the ground (as the considerably shorter Zambians will have to do) could really take it out of their legs.

fucking hell, what a penalty miss from drogba

Oh dear oh dear. Drogba with THE WORST PENALTY EVER.

had the trajectory of a nicely bent free-kick more than a penalty

What is he like, honestly?!

lol @ the zambia goalkeeper as well. needs to be made into a .gif

I like how the co-commentator actually said he didn't fancy him to score! Not sure I've ever heard that before.

84 min: "As a Chelsea fan, I've often wondered what might have happened in Moscow had Drogba been on the pitch to take a high pressure penalty in a big final, instead of John Terry," says Iain Chambers. "That won't be bothering me any more."

This is a little bit like watching the world cup final, except that instead of knowing that eventually Iniesta will coolly finish off a clinical move, here I'm waiting for Gervinho to shin one in via Drogba's arse.

pennos

drogba doesnt look happy

Harsh decision to get that penalty retaken.

Huge call to order a retake in a shootout

These are some great penalties

Great stuff.

Now THAT'S a penalty.

Still, that retake ffs. Ridiculous.

Bloody hell that was perfect.

WOW that last zambia peno

This is kinda horrible to watch

this better end soon, match of the day 2 is on in 5 minutes

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Oh man

Gervinho

it was always going to be Gervinho.

Incredible.

Nice, singing as you hit the winning penalty

Oh man, the coach carrying the guy who went off after 10 minutes to celebrate with his mates.

120 mins of terrible football, followed by a top quality shootout.

Are the Ivory Coast the only team ever to have gone through an entire tournament without conceding and STILL not win?

Unless you are asking about the ANC in particular*, no -- Switzerland at the 2006 World Cup: 0-0 vs France, 2-0 vs Togo, 2-0 vs South Korea, then 0-0 (0-3 pens) vs Ukraine in the first knockout round.

*) in which case I don't know

(Well, depends on whether you count early knockout as going through the "entire tournament" obv)

"0 - Ivory Coast have matched Cameroon's 2002 performance by not conceding a single goal in six games. Futile."

Qualifying for the next one's already underway, and sounds amazing:

Seychelles and São Tome e Principe joined 26 other teams who had failed to qualify for this year's Cup of Nations (including Cameroon, Nigeria and Egypt) and they play each other in two-leg play-offs, the first on Wednesday, then the second in June (apart from Egypt v Central African Republic, both legs of which are in June). The winners of those 14 ties then meet the 16 sides who made it to this year's Cup of Nations in 15 two-leg play-offs, the winners of those games going through to South Africa

Is it usually on every year?

every 2 i think

yeah that's what i thought but I thought I read somewhere that Ya Ya Toure was going to give next year's a miss.

oh they're apparently moving to odd numbered years to avoid clashing with World Cup years. 2013 is the first.

You'd think the thing to do would be to miss out 2013 entirely tbh.

It's in S Africa, gotta use those legacy stadiums.