Nthuthuko Maphumulo
Cameroon’s snazzy sleeveless jerseys and Nigerian Julius Aghahowa’s spectacular multiple-somersault goal celebration were the talking points of the first round of matches at the African Cup of Nations inMali.
The soccer often could not match the shirts, however, and the opening eight games produced just five goals.
The colourful and festive opening ceremony was followed by a tense draw that saw the home side’s Keita Seydou equalise in the dying minutes to cancel out Liberian legend George Weah’s goal.
After that there were just three wins and four goalless draws including Bafana Bafana’s drab affair against Burkina Faso.
The South Africans’ second-round Group B clash against Ghana on Thursday (result too late for publication) was spiced up by the fact that Sammy Kuffour, Bayern Munich’s influential Ghanaian defender, was sent home 48 hours before the crucial match for ill-discipline.
Also packing their bags were Egypt’s Ibrahim Said for misconduct and Moroccan defender Abdessalam Ouaddou for personal reasons.
Nigeria lead Group A and are expected to progress, while defending champions Cameroon were also sitting pretty after Patrick Mboma’s screamer saw off the Democratic Republic ofCongo.
Senegal are proving to be the suprise of the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Egypt leaving them on top of Group D.
The importance of the African Cup of Nations has been raised by the announcement that in 2006 it will serve as a qualifying tournament for the World Cup in Germany that year. All semifinalists will qualify automatically and Africa’s fifth place will be decided through a formula yet to be announced, possibly a play-off.