Cynical Algeria deserved their victory
Jonathan
WILSON
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
have with their teams. National bosses
do not work with their players every
day over several months; rather they
get a snatched few days here and
there. Understandably, many prefer to
work on defensive organisation, and
only when a level of competence has
been achieved in that respect do they
move on to working on developing
the sort of mutual understanding in
attacking areas that characterises
the best club sides.
That tends to mean a reactive
form of defending; sitting deep, with
the midfield screening the back line,
denying the opposition space in the
attacking third.
For a long time, games at
international tournaments were
characterised by one team – and
sometimes both – sitting deep, looking
to resist, with the more adept team,
suffering from a lack of familiarity,
clumsily trying to break them down.
That’s why, when the pageantry is
stripped away, a lot of international
football between the 1998 and 2018
World Cups was pretty dreadful.
That was the football that brought
Cameroon success two years ago in
Gabon and there was some of it in
Egypt. Michel Dussuyer’s Benin side
prospered in the old-fashioned way,
which made for a terrible spectacle
but sparked wild scenes of celebration
back in Cotonou as they reached the
quarter-finals.
But despite the lack of goals, this
was a tournament that suggested a
new mentality. This was the first Final
since 1998 – and only the sixth ever- to feature two “local” coaches. The
term, though, is awkward and was
overtly rejected by Senegal’s Aliou
The Final of the Africa Cup of Nations
was a disgrace, a game settled by
a freakish second-minute goal and
then systematically spoiled by Algeria.
In a grim sense, that made it the
perfect climax for the competition,
bringing together two key themes of
the previous month: that Algeria were
the best side in Egypt, and that they
suffered some weird insecurity that
meant that whenever they felt under
the slightest pressure they fell back to
grappling, moaning and time-wasting.
The 1-0 scoreline was in general
keeping with the competition as well.
The 52 matches in this year’s finals
yielded just 102 goals, an average of
1.96 per game – the lowest scoring
AFCON since 2002.
Back then, atrocious pitches in Mali
were blamed, but in Egypt that was no
excuse. These were smooth playing
surfaces – which meant that slick
passing football was possible for those
teams who wanted to play it, as proved
by Madagascar.
So why the dearth of goals? In part
it was the heat; a problem exacerbated
by the tournament’s shift from January/
February to June/July.
The group games that started at
3.30pm local time produced just
1.14 goals per game, while those that
kicked off at 5pm or 6pm produced1.57. And those that began at 8pm or
9pm were better still, with an average
of 2.47 goals.
Put simply, the later games kicked
off, the more “normal” they felt. In the
heat of the afternoon, players were
understandably more concerned with
conserving their energy and the pace
dropped significantly.
Then there was the structure of
the tournament. When the four best
third-placed sides go through, as 24
sides filter into a last 16, the group
stage can become a slog and too
many games have little riding on them.
Half of the 10 group-stage draws
came in the second round of games
as teams that had won their opening
match knew four points would almost
certainly be enough to carry them
through. Similarly, teams that had lost
their first game knew a draw would
at least keep them alive going into
the final round of fixtures.
But there was also something
a little more complicated going on.
International football in general
produces fewer goals than club
football. To an extent that’s to do
with tournament formats and the
disparity in ability that often leads
to one side adopting an extremely
cautious approach. But it’s also to
do with the lack of time coachesMoaning...Rami
Bensebaini of
Algeria (left) reacts
during the FinalRarity...Zimbabwe’s
Khama Billiat scores
against UgandaTHE WORLD THIS MONTH