African Sports Monthly February 2013 Issue | Page 18

savory incident where three of his fellow countrymen were shot dead in Angola. It
takes a lot of courage to get over such an event and no one can accuse Adebayor of
not being patriotic. All Adebayor wants is for the Togolese FA to be more professional
when dealing with them as players who give all to represent their country.

Coach Gordon Igesund of South Africa
South Africa were never going to win this tournament however people were relieved
that unlike the World Cup at least they made it to the quarter final in their own backyard. However Steven Pienaar’s decision to pull out of this tournament by retiring from
International football was a big blow. South Africa were limited with their attacking options and once again fell short as they went out in the quarter final on penalties to
Mali.
When Burkina Faso played Nigeria in the first game of group C, little did we know that
it would be a precursor to the final game of the tournament as no one expected the
Burkinabe to progress that far. Two of their outstanding players were Aristide Bance
and Jonathan Pitriopa who was the player of the tournament. This team showed what
they were made of in the game against Ghana when Pitriopa was wrongfully sent off
against Ghana, yet they still found the strength to see off Ghana on penalties despite
some other shocking decisions by the referee.
Nigeria led by Coach Stephen Keshi deserved to win this tournament, as they were
the best team over the whole competition despite starting slowly. Keshi who was part
of the coaching team that qualified Nigeria for the World Cup in 2002, but was denied
the chance of taking them to the World Cup has had to put up with a lot as per the
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