Who Are Contenders, Upsetters And The Absents In Angola AFCON?

The time we have been waiting for is around the nose. Preparations have been done. Speeches have been made. But who Are Contenders, Upsetters And The Absents in this tournament?

Now lets start with:

 CONTENDERS 

 Ivory Coast can be a threat in Angola. With the likes of Didier Drogba, Solomon Kalou, Yaya Toure and Eboue to mention a few are key players to claim the championship. Nobody can argue that Drogba is now Africa's best player. He is top scorer in his England Club (Chelsea) and he is Elephants' rescuer. Vahid Halilodzic squad have never won the cup since 1992 in Senegal where they beat  Ghana 11-10 in post-match penalties.

Cameroon who have won the cup four times and the 2008 finalists are also title favourites. I hope The Lions will be starting where they stopped in 2008 with fresh minds.

With the likes of Samuel Eto'o, Alexander Song , Andre Bikey, Gilles Binya, Geremi are some of the giants who could cause surprises. Paul Le Guen is in no doubt to let the Inter Milan star to lead the squad.

 Another threat contender is Egypt, who have crowned the championship for six times and they are defending champions. They beat Cameroon in 2008 and with no doubt they are eyeing for their seventh successful title. The squad is almost the same as the one that was crowned Kings of African football in 2006 and 2008.Hassan Shehata is under pressure after failing to qualify for the World cup and his men are up for the challenge.

UPSETTERS

Algeria dropped off the face of the football world after winning AFCON in 1990. They have qualified for world cup after beating Egypt and no wonder the The Desert Foxes will claim the top spot in tough Group A where they are alongside Malawi, Angola and Mali.

Angola, the hosts have advantage as home fans will be pushing them through. The Palancas Negras, who reached the quarter finals in 2008, will try to make sure that they should come out in preliminary stage.

Malawians, the underdogs who have qualified with bad record of one win and catastrophic lose of Guinea in Cote d’voire may also claim the third position in this Group. Their preparation campaign have been successful-they have beaten  Mozambique and draw with Egypt and Ghana. Joseph Kamwendo could be the main star in Malawi’s squad.

THE ABSENTS

It is sad that some of the Africa’ top players have failed to make it in Angola. Benny McCarthy, Steven Pienaar  of the World Cup host South Africa  will be missed in Angola after they failed to book their place in Luanda.  

 Senegal, who reached the final in 2002, have also failed to make it. Which means there is no more Mamadou Niang, Issiar Dia, and Edouard Cissé in Angola.

Morocco,  didn’t make it despite having players of the calibre of Chamakh, Hadji or El Hamdaoui, due to a defective consistency .

Feindouno and Mansaré’s Guinea or the Democratic Republic of the Congo despite Nonda, Lua Lua are some other usual customers who didn’t reach the group stage.

There are other stars who although their countries made it, some of them have not. Ivory Coast midfielder Romaric who had a came to blows with his coach or Egyptians Zaki, Mido and Aboutreika, who have been lacking fitness with their national side, are some of the squad who are missed in Angola.

Milovan Rajevac has opted to drop Inter’s Muntari and captain Muntari who joined injured Paintsil and Mensah from the Ghana squad. These are due to  injury or  lack of form.

Malawi have also dropped Fisher Kondowe due to his indiscipline. The Flames winger failed to make it for the first time in his football career.