Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 36

Ivory Coast’s Afcon win shows there’s no blueprint for tournament success

After suffering the biggest tournament defeat since Brazil at 2014 World Cup and sacking their coach, the hosts triumphed

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It was the biggest defeat a tournament host of the Africa Cup of Nations had ever suffered. Ivory Coast fell apart utterly in the second half of their final group game against Equatorial Guinea. If they’d retained a sense of perspective, they’d have realised that even a one- or two-goal defeat was likely to be enough to see them through, but their heads were gone and Emilio Nsue kept scoring the same goal. It finished 4-0, the largest defeat for any major tournament host since Brazil’s 7-1 capitulation against Germany in the 2014 World Cup semi-final, and that made progress improbable.

The past three weeks have been the story of what followed. There was some low-key rioting, with cars and shops burned out. Ivory Coast’s 70-year-old French coach Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked. On his 40th birthday, the former Reading midfielder Emerse Faé was appointed, having never been a head coach before. He had no idea whether he’d have any matches to take charge of. But Ghana conceded twice in injury-time against Mozambique, Zambia lost to Morocco and Ivory Coast made it to the last 16 not so much through the back door, as up the tree and through the bathroom window.

Haller the hero as Ivory Coast seal improbable Afcon win against Nigeria

It turns out the zombie team really couldn’t be killed after all. The dead kid doesn’t fear the knife. Ghosts don’t feel pain. There was no way to prevent Ivory Coast from winning the Africa Cup of Nations for the third time. League formats excepted, no side had won a major tournament after losing twice, but it was more than those defeats by Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in the group phase. Three times in the knockout stage they were behind and each time Emerse Faé’s side came back to prevail. Nobody could pretend this Ivory Coast team is one of the great sides, but this was one of the great tournament wins.

Nobody would set out to win a tournament this way, qualifying from their group as the fourth of four best third-place sides, sacking the coach, doing – at least if almost every player interview since is to be believed – a lot of looking in the mirror. But maybe this is the most fun way to win, amid chaos and disbelieving laughter and an inextinguishable will.

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Big powers Ivory Coast and Nigeria collide as football in Africa takes giant steps | Jonathan Wilson

With Cape Verde, Angola, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea all making an impression, this Cup of Nations is full of positives

And so, after a tournament of shocks, the final of the Africa Cup of Nations will be a meeting of the 2015 and 2013 winners, Ivory Coast against Nigeria. But if the finalists feel familiar, the tournament has not. Tournaments often pursue their own logic but, developing certain themes from the last edition in Cameroon, this Cup of Nations has felt like significant progress.

For Ivory Coast, the mood has changed radically over the past two weeks. After the anger of the group stage, which led to cars being burned out after the 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea seemed to have eliminated them, Ivory Coast have ridden a wave of disbelieving euphoria. They made it past Senegal, despite being 1-0 down after 86 minutes; Mali, again trailing 1-0 and down to 10 men after 90 minutes; and then, more comfortably, DR Congo, 1-0 in the semi-final. With Sébastien Haller and Simon Adingra returning to fitness, the sense of miracles has waned and the hosts now look the very good team they were expected to be before the start of the tournament.

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Haller’s volley knocks out DR Congo and sends hosts Ivory Coast into Afcon final

Some countries plan for tournaments for years, work on projects and development and DNA, meticulously lay out their blueprint for success. And some just wing it, finding amid the chaos a sense of purpose and momentum that, being unexpected, somehow makes them all the more potent.

Ivory Coast have looked out of this Africa Cup of Nations on at least three occasions, and sacked their coach after the group phase, but it is they who will face Nigeria in the final on Sunday.

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Hope and miracles: Afcon’s unlikely semi-finalists carry weight of history

Nigeria and Ivory Coast start favourites over South Africa and DR Congo but this has been a tournament of remarkable upsets

A tournament of extraordinary drama has thrown up two semi-finals that each match one of the continent’s current giants against a team that has distant memories of glory. Neither South Africa nor Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived at the Africa Cup of Nations with especially elevated hopes but on Wednesday they face Nigeria and the hosts Ivory Coast respectively for a place in the final.

Ivory Coast, whose golden generation spent so long narrowly missing out on the trophy, are, like their opponents, looking to win the tournament for the third time. The difference is that it is 50 years since DRC last triumphed. They were one of the early powers of African football, winning the tournament in 1968 and then again, as Zaire, in 1974, the year in which they became the first sub-Saharan African side to play at the World Cup.

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Who is going to win the Africa Cup of Nations? – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Osasu Obayiuwana, and Solace Chukwu to discuss the Africa Cup Of Nations, Asian Cup and another win for Manchester City

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: the panel catches up on all that’s happened in the Africa Cup of Nations as the tournament enters the semi-final stage. They break down the journey so far for each of the final four competing teams – Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Nigeria, and South Africa – and weigh up their chances of winning the tournament. Also, they ask the question: does a strong domestic league help a nation’s international team?

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Disruptive owners, managerial questions and financial concerns: Chelsea are a $1bn mess

With mounting long-term financial concerns, there is no quick fix in sight for the club’s on-field struggles

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You don’t see much of Todd Boehly these days. In the first weeks after he fronted the Clearlake takeover of Chelsea, he was a regular presence, telling European football what it could learn from US sport, proudly announcing his disruptive intent. Which is a shame: it would be good to know exactly where spending $1bn to transform a Champions League-winning side into one that sits 11th in the Premier League fits into his master plan.

There had been a thought around the turn of the year that things might be falling into place for Chelsea. They reached the Carabao Cup final and won three league games in a row to haul themselves into the top half of the table. Maybe Mauricio Pochettino was at last starting to find some order amid a chaotic squad. The last two games have obliterated that idea.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

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Diakité’s 120th-minute strike sinks Mali to send 10-man Ivory Coast into last four

How often can a side flirt with elimination before they finally go out? Ivory Coast had played the entirety of the second half with 10 men, were 1-0 down and seemingly on their way out of the Africa Cup of Nations when, in the final minute of normal time, the substitute Simon Adingra darted in from the right flank, squared for Seko Fofana and then, after inadvertently blocking his teammate’s shot, reacted quickest to stab in the loose ball. Another great escape for the hosts, who completed their victory with characteristic drama in the final minute of extra time.

It may not make much rational sense, but Ivory Coast are in the semi-final, where they will face Democratic Republic of the Congo. If any side can stop them, they will have to overcome not only a fine squad and a passionate home support, but also a sense of narrative momentum that, at the moment, feels unstoppable. Mali were devastated and while some of the players and their coach, Éric Chelle, wept, others jostled the Egyptian referee, Mohamed Adel, leading to a red card for Hamari Traoré.

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Hit-and-miss seasons of Darwin Núñez and Gabriel Jesus are shaping the title race | Jonathan Wilson

Liverpool’s serial woodwork-botherer and Arsenal’s low-scoring striker show that the game is not about goals alone

Football is a simple game, but it is also a complicated one and sometimes the greatest complication is working out just how complicated. As data reveals the intricacies of its internal workings and informs ever more complex pressing and counter-pressing schemes, so at the same time the bluntest and most obvious observations take on a weird profundity: “What they need is somebody to put the ball in the net.”

At the highest level, the impact of data on processes has been huge and led to disconcerting shifts in perspective. Take, say, Brighton’s 2-2 draw against Liverpool in October when all four goals stemmed (one via a penalty) from transitions after the ball was won high up the pitch.

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Lookman knocks Angola out in quarter-finals as Nigeria stick to Afcon script

The greatest shock of all, perhaps, is when there is no shock. In a Cup of Nations in which reputation and pre-tournament billing has meant nothing, there was at last a game that went the way that might have been expected, as Ademola Lookman’s first-half goal and a fourth clean sheet in a row carried Nigeria to the last four of the Cup of Nations for the 16th time.

It is a familiar position for them to be in, and it was a familiar way in which they achieved it. Although Zini hit the post when the score was 1-0, this was another very controlled performance from José Peseiro’s side, the only real concern their failure to add a second and make the game safe.

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