Gripped on the African Nations

I have never seen anything like it! What on earth went through Andre Bikey’s mind when he decided to sprint over and push over a member of the medical team attending to his team mate? It beggars belief.

To set the scene, Cameroon were 1-0 up against hosts Ghana in the dying moments of the African Cup of Nations semi-final. Bikey’s team-mate, former Liverpool player Rigobert Song, laid injured receiving attention. Out of nowhere, Bikey just sprang to life and pushed over one of the people attending to Song. The only possible comparison I can think of is Di Canio pushing over the referee in his Sheffield Wednesday days.

Bikey will now miss the final, and for what? Efan Ekoku who was commentating on the game, at first felt the red card was unjustified; he must have been judging that on Bikey’s reaction to his dismissal. Upon seeing red, Bikey slammed down his shirt in utter surprise and contempt at the referee’s decision. It’s certainly one of the strangest moments I’ve seen in football, and one that only Bikey will be able to explain.

Cameroon saw out the closing minutes of the match, and they will meet Egypt in the final on Sunday. Egypt beat favourites Ivory Coast 4-1, but it was something else which stood out for me in this match.

The gamesmanship from the Egyptian players was really frustrating. Not just because I had adopted the Ivorians and wanted to see them qualify, but because it made for a stop start game which was none too pleasing on the eye. The referee did little to help matters, every time a player hit the floor, the ref blew up. Some of the free kicks given were even given without any physical contact what so ever. The Egyptians continued to go down, roll around, and do whatever they could to delay time. It was worse than stuff you see in the Premier League, and did not help the flow of the game for the neutral.

To be fair though, Egypt did perform very well and thoroughly deserved their win against Ivory Coast who were not at the races. The Egyptians surprised me at times, and it is clear that they are a very good team. How often do you see the best TEAM win these national tournaments, and not the countries with their Drogbas, Essiens and Eto’os? Only time will tell, but I fancy the Egyptians on Sunday, here is to a good final.