AFCON 2015, First Round: Bafana capitulates, Gervinho throws a tantrum

The first round of group fixtures is done and dusted, but the tournament hasn’t exactly set any hearts racing. Slow starts are normal in tournaments, of course, but even the quality of football has been found lacking.

The most “exciting” thing that has happened has been Gervinho’s meltdown during Ivory Coast’s match against Guinea. With the Elephants 0-1 down after half-time, Gervinho decided to slap Alhassane Keita.

It was, without a doubt, a straight red. Instead of shutting up and walking off the pitch, Gervinho threw a tantrum. Kicking, screaming and crying about his punishment. Like a naughty child, he tried to pick a fight with the opposition players who watched, stunned, while ever-the-statesman Yaya Toure intervened. Gervinho was escorted off, still protesting and seemingly intent on embarrassing himself as much as possible.

But that has nothing to do with the actual football. At this stage, nobody looks like a certain winner. At a push, some of that can be put down to rustiness. Many of the players who ply their trade overseas have been on a winter break. The bulk of the players at the tournament (73) play in France. The leagues there have been on a halt since just before Christmas last year, but with warm-up matches and training camps, that’s hardly a long layoff.

Whatever it is, it’s made for some comical football at times, and this was starkly evident during South Africa’s opening match. South Africa went from looking like dark horses to non-contenders in a matter of minutes. With two teams on three points in their group (Senegal and Algeria), South Africa will have a tough time qualifying. Shakes Mashaba looked like an angry headmaster at the conclusion of South Africa’s 3-1 loss to Algeria and spent a good amount of time at the post-match in consultation with his technical staff, trying to figure out how on earth it all happened. They only have until Friday to come up with solutions, because there is a must-win fixture against Senegal to come.

Who played and what happened

GROUP C:

Ghana 1-2 Senegal

Algeria 3-1 South Africa

Senegal managed to poach a late goal against Ghana on Tuesday and, for some, that would have been a shock result. Despite all their dramas at the World Cup last year, Ghana remain a strong team. Senegal, without star Demba Ba, are by no means weak, but nobody would have expected them to pounce like they did. They completely outplayed Ghana with 13 more shots and 156 more completed passes than the Black Stars. It wasn’t an easy win, but it certainly was deserved.

For Algeria, late pressure and too many individual errors from South Africa saw them top the group on goal difference. Despite the cluster being dubbed “the group of death”, no single team has looked consistently deadly so far.

Group D:

Ivory Coast 1-1 Guinea

Mali 1-1 Cameroon

A ten-man Ivory Coast drew 1-1 with Guinea, a result which might surprise some, but which isn’t really surprising. For all their talent, Ivory Coast have failed to live up to the hype that surrounds them. While Yaya Toure does his best to boss the midfield, he cannot carry the whole team. Without Didier Drogba, they are still searching for that “X-Factor”. On previous occasions, it has come from Gervinho, but this time, he only thing that came from Gervinho was a temper tantrum.

In the second game on Tuesday night, Mali and Cameroon toughed it out for another draw. As far as draws go, though, it was a pretty good watch. Tough tackling, excellent refereeing, sublime goalkeeping and even the odd play acting moment ensured that it was the best game of the competition.

What of Bafana Bafana?

The cliché goes that soccer is a game of two halves. For South Africa, it’s a game of three quarters. For two of those quarters, they dominated proceedings against Algeria. After their opening goal, though, South Africa got just a little bit shaky. Then, Tokelo Rantie missed a penalty and it all went to pot for Shakes Mashaba’s men. Suddenly, they lost all cohesion and instead of slowing the game down, they seemed to completely panic. Although Algeria should have had a man sent off, South Africa should have known better.

Rantie is not even a regular penalty taker, so why he was tasked with the job is still a mystery. Still, that is not the sole reason for the 3-1 loss. A combination of inexperience and nerves overwhelmed Bafana Bafana, who now face an uphill battle in order to get out of the group stages. They have to beat Senegal on Friday if they have any hope of making it out of the group stages.

Tactically, Mashaba was found lacking. After Rantie missed his penalty, he should have been taken off. Mashaba, being the firm but fair father he is, kept him on. Perhaps this was so as not to completely knock his confidence, but it cost South Africa dearly. Also of concern is that there are just two genuine centre-backs in the South African squad. An injury or substitute at any given time can prove costly for South Africa.

Extra time

Before the start of the tournament, Gabon, who were one of the four teams to qualify unbeaten, had won just one game away from home at an AFCON tournament. They beat Zaire (now known as DR Congo) back in 1996. In 2012, they co-hosted the tournament with Equatorial Guinea, so this little titbit might be a bit convoluted, but at least they now have two wins away from home in the tournament.

Quote, unquote

This section really should be called “stating the obvious” because that’s all most footballers and football coaches seem capable of in their post-match press conferences. Today’s honour goes to South African captain Dean Furman. On Tokelo Rantie’s penalty miss, he said:

"Listen, these things happen. We’re disappointed because that would have put us 2-0 up, into a very good position, but it wasn't to be, and we have to keep our heads up.”

Amazing that a second goal doubles the lead of the team, isn’t it? DM

Photo: Equatorial Guinea's and Congo players pose for a photograph with a banner against Ebola before their the opening match at the 2015 African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2015) soccer tournament at Bata Stadium, in Bata January 17, 2015. The banner reads "Together we can beat Ebola". REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh