A time in the past that the book makers predict the outcome of matches making a huge difference when countries in the likes of Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa, cote de ivory, where seeded as the front runners that could emerge in the African cup of Nations now known as AFCON.
The game of football has redefined itself to an extent that the outcome of a match can’t be predicted not until the game is played. Most recently was the last AFCON hosted in Cameroon and the host country was looking a possible winner considering the fascinating performances by player Abuobakar Vincent who placed Cameroon at the preliminary stages on papers.
The narratives have changed that most of the countries are struggling to survive in the games of the preliminaries and games was no longer predictable with younger teams dominating the matches with vigour to leave up to expectation gunning for the maximum points to play safe knowing fully well that it will place them on the edge over their opponents to get an advantage.
The usual logic of team’s preparation could determine the extent of performances in a championship final like AFCON may be a wrong theory when experience has shown that it often fail when teams that may not have the best of preparations making bigger impact. At a point the believe that preparations might be of the best notch with the right set of players but the reverse has always been the case if the wrong players are used.
ln the case of the AFCON that some teams may not have had the best of matches in the matches of the 2026 elimination ahead of the fifa world cup finals with 8 games left in 2024 and 2025 finals respectively. Like our darling super eagles team never had an excellent performance that the reactions from the book makers yearning for an improved performance which is normal an expectation from a footballing nation that paraded its best playing in the participating of the leagues globally.
Though it is clear that the African teams having a mandate to win the remaining games that will assure their eventual qualification like that of Nigeria to host its green white green flag will be hosted at the world championship finals with the joint host nations in Mexico, Canada and United States of America. If you ask of my opinion with teams that are contending for qualification in Africa the window of AFCON will place an advantage to honest their teams bearing in mind that most African teams without a football culture and arrays of players playing overseas that the only time they assemble to prosecute matches has always been at the point of prosecuting games.
Speaking on the Nigerian team which is the primary concern of any sports loving Nigerian will consider Nigerian to enhance a complete performance that will produce a new team that will prosecute the remaining matches ahead of the left games ahead of the fifa world cup finals in 2026.
The trophy of AFCON will add value to the team’s profile at the continent records but if l could speak my mind a value of AFCON without achieving the world cup qualification has no meaning and the crises will be so much to manage when amongst the over 200 million Nigerians the sports minded percentage could be about 70 percent are football pundit, acclaimed analyst, coaches, referees that has made criticism easy.
The only thing that is sure at the 2023 AFCON was that the entire tournament has been uncertainty with teams not getting their bearings conceding to the superiority of the lowly rated teams to carry the day with an embarrassing result of better performances.
Not sure of the outcome of any game until the matches are prosecuted with the referees and the new normal third force which is termed the VIR is allowed to determine the outcome of the tournament stages.
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