I must say that I find it disappointing that so many people who claim to be students of the international game, care little about the African Cup of Nations. In many of the footballing forums on the net that I am a member of, people don't even seem to want to know. Someone had the nerve to tell me that Everton-Arsenal was of higher quality than Maroc-Cote d'Ivoire. When I asked him who was in goal for Cote d'Ivoire, he didn't know. Evidence that he didn't even watch the match that he was condemning. Never judge a book by its cover! We should all be capable of gazing away from the Premiership once in a while, especially to watch a competition replete with so much football talent. In a World Cup year, with five of the sixteen African participants bound for Germany in June, it's particularly enlightening. Well, having seen all five African representatives at the World Cup in action, I can only say that the continent's chances at the tournament later in the year range from poor to outright non-existent.

The tournament has started well. No disrespect to Libya, but I was hoping for an Egyptian victory in Friday's competition opener. That the Pharaohs delivered three goals without reply means there's no danger of the Egyptian populace losing interest before the tournament really hots up. It was my fear before a ball was kicked that the Cote d'Ivoire might be the best team in the competition. Their grittily win against Morocco on Saturday served to throw those initial thoughts into serious doubt.

The Elephants were under the cosh for almost the entire game and had to be content with fashioning out chances on the break. Had the Moroccans had a better finisher (I wonder where Hadda is), the result would have been very different. I will say this: the Ivorians shouldn't have been awarded their 36th minute penalty! Moroccan defender Regragui fouled Drogba *spit* outside the area as far as all the replays I have seen tell me. But having said all that, and lest I get too emotional and unobjective, the Elephants were gritty and efficient at the back. I fancy them to be not so far off when medals are handed ut on February 10. Of the five African sides at the World Cup, the Elephants may have had the best impact, were it not for the unforgiving group they've landed in. With the best will in the world, it's hard to imagine the Elephants finishing above Argentina and Holland, not to mention Serbia & Montenegro. I am saying that the Elephants may have had the best impact solely on the back of that defensive display Saturday. Football nowadays is built on having a solid defence going up.

The conclusion that the Elephants would likely be the best African team at the World Cup (maybe 3rd in their group) brings me to something I've been saying for a few months now. The African teams going to Germany will be hard pressed to do the continent justice. This view has been reinforced in the wake of dispiriting displays at the weekend by three African World Cup standard bearers, Angola, Togo and Ghana.

On the one hand, Angola's 3-1 defeat by Cameroon was no surprise. The Palancas Negras won't be the last team to succumb to Samuel Eto'o and his mates in Egypt. However, it's not unreasonable to suggest that there's insufficient quality within the squad, for World Cup progress to be likely. Then there is Togo, whose plight, following a tame 2-0 surrender to DR Congo, has worsened with news of a row between coach Stephen Keshi and star player Emmanuel Adebayor. No one is quite sure, at the time of writing, what precisely has caused this fight. But forget the cause, what is the matter with Keshi? Must he always find someone to fight? Adebayor was originally scheduled to start in that match, his name was later removed. The recently signed Arsenal striker started on the bench, and only came on near the end of the match. Something happened between when the team list was first drafted, and when the players walked onto the pitch. Whoever is right and wrong in this issue doesn't matter. What matters is that Togo rely extremely heavily on Adebayor. Without him, they're ordinary.

As for Tunisia, the defending champions. The 4-1 margin of victory may look emphatic, but to be honest this was a remarkably even match for long periods. The Zambians scored first when James Chamanga took advantage of a misunderstanding between goalkeeper Boumnijel and defender Trabelsi. However, Tunisia's Brazilian born striker dos Santos netted a fine hat-trick, while Bouazizi also got on target. Shouldn't that guy be a grandfather or something? I have been hearing Bouazizi since Tunisia 94 now... Let's face facts: the Tunisians are rather naive defensively, although we have to accept that they have a decent midfield, but the truth is this they were lucky to even get on the scoreboard against the Zambians. A more professional outfit wouldn't have surrendered that gift lead for anything.

Ghana let's face it were played almost off the park by a spirited Nigerian side. For a team to content itself to waiting for chances to break? Not even the Italians play like that. Had Yobo not been a tard complacent, would Ghana have had a chance in the entire second half? Some might say that it is because Essien was not playing. Bollocks! Did Emerson go to the 2002 World Cup for Brazil? Yet they won the tournament. Did France go to France 98 complete? No Cantona, no Ginola, no Papin, Lama didn't kick a ball... Ghana aren't just ready at all, and in yesterday's game thay have Kuffour to thank for expertly marshalling that defence, as well as Obodo for not trying at all down that left hand side. The game may well have been 4-0.

Having talked about the continent's 5 reps at the World Cup, it is fair I think for me to say that having watched the first round of matches, unless they meet on the way, I see Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria and Senegal as being the likely winners of the trophy.

Egypt were quite efficient against the Libyans, but will have to work on that defence if they want to prevent being caught out on the break. A more experience outfit would have punished them with some of the chances the Libyans had. Then they also have to learn to dominate the midfield. In game 1 they were ovbiously miles ahead of the Libyans on the basis of talent alone, but failed to dominate in the middle.

Cameroon have the luxury of having Sammy Eto'o in their squad, and his quality shone against the Angolans. But I fear that the Cameroonians may shoot themselves in the foot with some agricultural defending. Hasn't Song learnt anything? Also, the quality of service that Eto'o got that day left a lot to be desired in my opinion.

Nigeria played well, but have to avoid complacency. It became ovbious to every one yesterday that we were better than the Ghanaians, but then (while still at 0-0!) we started showing off signs of vintage Nigerian arrogance. What the hell was Yobo doing on the ball? That misdemeanour gave the Ghana boys their first real chance of the second half, and from that one chance two others were fashioned. Had it not been for some superb goal keeping from Enyeama, we'd have been toast! But then we have to acknowledge that Enyeama himself wasn't without his faults as well. He still hasn't gotten the hang of defending crosses as was epiomise by the needless corner he dashed the Ghanaians at the death. Other than that, the man's positional play is almost perfect. Since we have Sani Kaita in that team, I think Ayila Yusuf should be drafted to right full back, since Chidi Odiah was ovbiously not interested in proceedings. As for the left side of the midfield, it is ovbiously not Obodo's. I hope Obiefule would have recovered by our next game on Friday. Failing that, then bring in Garuba Lawal, but do not start Obodo there ever again. Meantime Aghahowa is burnt. I think Makinwa would pair better with Martins than the anonymous display that Aghahowa put up yesterday.

Senegal are quite good, but lacking a lot in efficiency. It has become ovbious that Henri Camama, not Osseyinou Diouf is the engine of that side, and maybe that is what killed them in the WCQ. I said that they have a good chance of winning the tournament, maybe I really should reserve that judgement until they have played a better team than Zimbabwe, and based on what I saw in yesterday's games, the only other good team in that group is Nigeria.

South Africa's 2-0 defeat at the hands of Guinea merely underlines what many who follow Bafana Bafana closely have been saying for some time. This is a very poor side and no one can begrudge the more inventive Guineans their victory.

U my friend eat, drink and sleep football Good show, enjoyed it alot especially for guys like us who don't get to see one match

omo thanks for the analysis cos i haven't really had time to follow the tournament.

up eagles!

Here's one more from the BBC website about the World cup debutants from Africa and their performance at CAN06 so far



The standard response from some people when I tell them that Ghana, Angola and Togo have no realistic chance of winning the African Cup of Nations is shock, followed swiftly by incredulity.

"How dare you dismiss my team's chances just like that?" enquired one Angolan who flew in from Portugal to watch his beloved Palancas Negras.

He was no doubt flustered by the suggestion that Angola are one of several teams simply making up the numbers at Egypt 2006.

The offended fan's gripe was that I was writing off the chances of three of the five African teams going to the World Cup finals for the first time later this year.

Yes, I concurred with him - Angola, Ghana, Togo and the Ivory Coast finally cracked the code of World Cup qualification last year.

I know it is a topic assured of provoking fierce debate, but with the probable exception of the Ivory Coast, I have not seen anything thus far to convince me that the rest are credible contenders here in Egypt.

These three sides may have come to Egypt hoping to make the most of their new-found status, but I venture to reiterate that they will find no pot of gold at the end of this Nations Cup.

If Angola were under any illusions about their standing in Africa, they were crudely dispelled by a vastly superior Cameroon side inspired by a fired-up Samuel Eto'o.

Togo's Hawks were brought down to earth by middle-of-the-road opponents in the DR Congo, while Ghana impressed against Nigeria but showed no title-winning credentials.

The pre-tournament hype focused mostly on the World Cup virgins, perhaps rightly so, but I believe the jibe that they simply rode their luck in qualifying might actually prove prophetic.

In my view, the truth is that all the talk of a changing of the guard in African football being confirmed in Egypt is completely offside.

"I've always said that we would come to this African Cup and not necessarily do well, but we can still go to the World Cup and surprise the world," Angolan striker Fabrice Akwa told BBC Sport.

That may be true, but one does not need to be an aficionado of African football to know that the old guard is determined to upstage the upstarts and re-establish their authority.

Like a heavyweight boxer regaining strength after successive knockdowns, the likes of Cameroon and Nigeria appear to have been galvanised by predictions of their demise.