Here are six big things that were made clear to African Football after the 2015 Africa Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea.

WEST AFRICA REMAINS THE BEST REGION
With a second successive derby final, as well as three of the four semifinalists in 2015, the continent’s most powerful football region remains West Africa. Teams from this part of Africa have generally boasted immense physicality and outstanding technical ability, but they are now adding a tactical nous and ruthlessness that was once the reserve of teams from the North, best demonstrated by Egypt’s dominance from 2006 to 2010.

WHAT HAPPENED TO NORTH AFRICA? AND SOUTHERN AFRICA…
For the third successive tournament, no North African sides reached the semifinals, with Algeria overpowered by eventual champions Ivory Coast and Tunisia effectively cheated by hosts Equatorial Guinea, both in the quarterfinal stage. The Northern sides’ tactical superiority has been wiped out by West African side taking a more pragmatic approach. And we can ask the same of the Southern sides: both Zambia and South Africa entered the tournament full on confidence but were given harsh lessons in the fierce competitiveness which now characterises the Nations Cup.

POSSESSION MEANS NOTHING
One of the most fascinating statistics of the AFCON final was that Ghana and Ivory Coast were two of the teams to have the least amount of possession, both through the group phase and their knockout matches in the quarter- and semifinals. Defensive stability and the capacity to spring away at speed on the counter attack are the two fulcrums around which both the Elephants and Black Stars built their tournaments. Just four and half years ago Spain claimed the World Cup trophy on the basis of keeping possession at all costs. How international football has changed.

BAFANA BAFANA HAVE ALOT TO LEAN
South Africa and coach Shakes Mashaba were perhaps guilty of overconfidence heading into the 2015 AFCON. After finishing bottom of the ‘group of death’, one gets the feeling that is a mistake they will not make again. The learning curve Bafana Bafana will have to go through is a steep one, but we should be unstinting in our support for the coach and his team, who are looking to build for longer term success rather than short term glory.

A LOCAL COACH CAN DO THE BUSINESS
DR Congo coach Florent Ibenge was the only ‘local’ to take his side into the quarterfinals. Then he was the only ‘local’ coach in the semis. Then he oversaw the Leopards’ penalty shootout win over the host team to win the bronze medal and wrap up their best AFCON showing since achieving the same feat in 1998. Ibenge is proof that an African coach can achieve success on the big stage. Let’s hope more ‘locals’ are at the helm of their national teams in 2017.

AFRICA'S REFEREEING STILL ISN'T UP TO SCRATCH
The controversial penalty awarded to Equatorial Guinea at the death of regulation time in their quarterfinal against Tunisia added to the impression that African referees aren’t immune to being pressured into giving soft decision in favour of the home team. This is not to suggest that Mauritian referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn was overtly biased towards Equatorial Guinea, but his performance did underline that officiating on the continent at both club and national team level is not at the level it should be.[b][/b]

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we also learnt that without yaya toure,, man city is nothing..

AFCON was kinda boring without the super eagles.

Did u not observe dat?

obongproff:
AFCON was kinda boring without the super eagles.

Did u not observe dat?

stop ranting...say it was boring to you

obongproff:
AFCON was kinda boring without the super eagles.

Did u not observe dat?

there was nothing boring about afcon! nigeria did notv qualify and therefore not good enough to be there

Is Andre Ayew still crying.... I have a box of tissue to wipe his tears

what these...