Report - African Cup of Nations - 
Article published the Sunday 29 January 2012 - Latest update : Sunday 29 January 2012

Botswana given a kicking by Guinea

Ghana's Ayew Andre Morgan Rami (L) challenges Diakite Drissa (C) and Kante Cedric of Mali
Reuters/Louafi Larbi

By Paul Myers

Five things we have learned about the second round of games in Group D.

  • Botswana were given a footballing lesson by Guinea in a way that Ghana failed to do last Tuesday. Guinea played slick, quick football which bedazzled the Botswana back line.
  • The organisers need to hand out more free tickets. The stadium at Franceville seats 25,000 people but it was sparsely populated for the matches between Botswana and Guinea as well as Mali versus Ghana. If this is Africa ’s showpiece football tournament featuring many of the continent’s best players, then it’s not impressing the locals.
  • Ghana look a more incisive side without Sulley Muntari. He went off after 58 minutes and was replaced by Charles Kwame Takyi. Since Muntari had been organising free kicks (to no great effect) Gyan stepped up five minutes after his departure and struck a beauty into the top right hand corner.
    Dossier: Africa Cup of Nations 2012
  • André Ayew got the goal his displays at this year's tournaments have deserved. He carries the ball well, gives it at the right time and tracks back. He’s becoming so complete that Marseille might find some English Premier League predators sniffing around fairly soon.
  • Ghana keeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey is young and has the makings of a great goalie. But he needs to work on coming for crosses. He was caught flapping at thin air a couple of times in the game against Mali. Other teams with clever big men - Didier Drogba of Côte D’Ivoire - will have taken note.
tags: Africa Cup of Nations 2012 - Botswana - CAN - CAN Blog 2012 - Ghana - Guinea - Mali - Report
Related articles
Comments
React to this article
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters (without spaces) shown in the image.
Close