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Cameroon v Snegal bound to be a great game, Senegal to win by more than two goals. South Africa to mummify the Pharaohs, we have their number. Mphela and Davide to score. Columns too few and far in between. I thought that any intervention by government wasn't condoned but I guess team selection doesn't fall within the scope then.

Yes, Kenya is definitely headed for a win against Angola in Nairobi tomorrow. We are also praying for a draw between Uganda and Guinea Bissau. Then our hopes for Gabon and Equitorial Guinea will be revived.

I would have loved to read at least a mention of East African countries - Uganda Kenya group.

@ Matt, I agree with you about the match. It will be a great match to watch. I just hope the two sides don't cancel each other out. That would be bad. I don't think it will though because both teams have AMAZING strikers.

luizisthebest101....

I don't think Cameroon has great strikers other than the greatest, Samuel Eto. Besides Eto, Cameroon's strikers are pretty ordinary. Or, to be a bit fair, the other Cameroon strikers cannot hold a candle to this current crop of Senegalese strikers. So, the Cameroonian defense has to be tight or else they would be shellacked! Although of Cameroonian descent, I am frankly expecting a defeat in Dakar although I pray for a nice surprise. If I as the Cameroon coach, I would play:

Kameni
Angbwa, N'Koulou, Chedjou, Elokobi
M'Bia,Tchoyi, Eyong-Enoh
Eto, Webo, Choupo-Moting

darkanddom...

I agree with you! However, I think Bienvenue Ntsama (not called) is comparable to N'doye and Niang in terms of performance (goal average per game) this season. Ntsama has about nine goals and did not feature much for his club due to injury!

Vis a Vis your line up, I would play three central defenders (Nkoulou, M'bia and Bassong) with Abouna and Assou-Ekotto as wing backs (both are more offensive than Angbwa and Elokobi respectively)! Chedjou, Tchoyi and Nguemo (Enoh) in the midfield and Eto and Choupo up front in a 5 3 2 formation! In a 4-4-2, I would go with your defence, but would play Chedjou in the midfield and drop M'bia into the CD while allowing Assou-Ekotto (Bedimo) to anchor the LM, and Mbuta or Moukandjo as RM and Tchoyi as CAM with the duo upfront unchanged! I would not go 4 3 3 against Senegal, they are too strong infront and attacking is not our strength! I expect Senegal to go 4 3 3 in an effort to exploit their attacking superiority! We normally win by playing rugged defence first and then offensive opportunism!

Piers, Matip is not in the squad. His club refused to release him due to the late call up! I think Botswana makes it, and if Cameroon doesn't qualify, I would not be surprised, then Senegal is very good and we have amateurs in the administration of football in Cameroon! Clemente is confused too!

Good luck to all

Shehata has Pitso Mosimane running scared with his mind games otherwise, suspension of league or not, Egypt are not the force they once were - because they are intransition. If Bafana's pre-match mind games were not so weak and if they can be bold tomorrow they should win - but all considered a draw is a likelier outcome.

What would the Nations Cup be without Cameroon and Samuel Eto'o? had to contemplate - but that's about to happen I suspect - except they are one of the best losers. Senegal are simply to good at the moment.

I'd like to see Morocco under Gerets. As far as young talents go the Lions of the Atlas are probably on par with Senegal and Ghana - and with Gerets one can only expect more. What a tournament 2015 will be!

Ghana look like they have a great chance of winning the AFC ivory coast always look strong and egypt are a quality side but i think ghana will win it if all there players are fit, essien ayew boateng gyan owuseu-obeyie annan muntari and mensah should be too strong for the rest of the teams.

Ghana are still the strongest squad in Africa. Young, strong, talented, motivated, superskilled, you name it. Cameroon and Egypt are aging teams that cannot face the likes of Senegal,Ghana, and even Bafana Bafana.
One other thing, unless we give our local coaches the responsibilty, great teams like Ivory Coast's Africa's dream team will continue to under achieve. Look at Cameroon's 4-3-3 during the world cup, or Salamone Calo's substitution for an injured Drogba at the time when Portugal was looking for the ball and not getting it- how those approaches and substitutions made great teams like the Ivorians and Cameroonians underperformed. Even keeping Arona Dindani on the bench After scoring more than Drogba in qualifyers for 2006 world cup was some foreign coaches' fooly or scheme or sth.
We can enjoy the game as we always do during the Cup of Nations, but it can be a venue for experimenting with local coaches.

deng....

Cameroon is probably not an aging squad. Only 5 players facing Senegal this weekend were in the squad during the Africa Cup in 2008 and two of them, Webo and Kameni just being recalled.

You are very much correct with your input about foreign coaches!

Cameroon with all its problems is the only team that has beaten african powerhouses on home soil (Egypt remains an exception)! They are not very fine, but win and quite often against odds!

I remain wary of Senegal!

Being a Tanzanian, It really hurts reading all these comments as we have been mentioned only when refering to other team weaknesses i.e Algeria fail to beat us. We deserve this as our team has done nothing when it comes to this continent football. Something needs to be done for organization of this country football starting with TFF who cant manage even bringing our 'professionals' for the match

Unfortunately, my feeling is that Pitso is a weak coach, and that Bafana are beginning the slow slide back to pre-WC2010.

The PSL may be the richest league on the continent, but the quality does not always reflect it. SAFA (mainly) and the PSL (to an extent) are notoriously poor administrators, which does not help.

There are far too many "rich" cup competitions open to only a handful of teams. We are always told how "tired" the players are and how long the league season is. I fact there are regular long breaks in the league season, when only the few clubs involved in the latest cup competition see any action.

Given the poor form Egypt have been showing, and their long period of inactivity, Bafana should bet them easily. A more likely result, however, is a boring 0-0 draw.

Botswana have been a revelation, and fully deserve to become the first team to qualify for the finals.

Cameroon can at best hope for a draw against Senegal, but I do not think their defence is steady or organised enough.

In general the quality of African teams of late has been poor and inconsistent. We saw in the WC that the standard leaves a lot to be desired, and it appears to have gotten worse since then rather than better.

If Egypt doesn’t qualify it bring a breath of fresh air in terms of competing for the Nations Cup. I think Ghana is a team which will get better as they are a young team. However, Senegal for me is favourites in 2012 because they have quality all over the field especially the strike force. I’m a proud Zambian and I have every belief that we will be crowned African champions this decade. We are a team which is young, talented and can only get better.

I am actually looking forward to a Botswana win as I am hoping it will bring fresh excitement to a tournament that has become predictable nowadays. In recent tournaments, most teams have employed European coaches whose emphasis has naturally been on techniques and tactics rather than natural flair. Unsurprisingly, the results have been frankly very dour games as teams quickly learn to cancel out each other. The last tournament in Angola being the worst example of attritional play!

While not necessarily against foreign coaches, any European/foreign coach who wants to succeeed with an African team must necessarily require enough time to first of all adapt himself to that nation’s psyche - failure to do so ultimately leading to disaster as Nigeria, cameroun,cote d’ivoire and to a lesser extent, south Africa found out to their chagrin in the last WORLD CUP. Part of that mentality in African football is that every other fan knows who should start the next game. Will Clemente be given that time from Cameroun and more importantly does he understand this mentality? In the case of Nigeria, two European coaches (Westerhof & Bonfrere Jo) who had the most successes were given long term contracts and their era began inauspiciously to say the least (Incidentally, Westerhof married a Nigerian lady). But Westerhof almost lost it earlier on when he wanted to exclude Okocha from the team for perceived indiscipline until the people ‘intervened’ and got him re-instated. Phew! We almost missed out on a football legend there!

I shall be watching the game between Nigeria under Siasia against Ethiopia with keen interest. For once, I feel a sense of excitement returning because it represents a chance for the national side going back to playing with unfettered freedom rather than being weighed down by the convoluted tactics of the recent past.

just to rectify cks,cameroon has beaten egypt as well in egypt.a 1-0 win in an african cup of nations final!also remember cameroon coming from 5-0 down in 1st half to draw 5-5 with portugal to qualify for next round and eliminate portugal

With regard to foreign coaches, I am not xenophobic about them. They have surely contributed to bringing our beautiful game to the level that African teams are in today. But, with such talent, Arica players are even more than Brazilians in Europe. If Africa were to be a country, it would have been the home of beautiful and attractive football. We have the talent; we won all international competitions except the elusive world cup. Remember Pele's prediction that an African team would win it in the 1990's? Failure to do so is surely not lack of talent but that foreign coaches sometimes fail to read games especially during World Cup competitions. For example, how can a whole second half 10 men Germany beat Cameroon with all those exciting fresh talent it had during 2002 WC (was it 02?)- bad coaching is the answer. Why was talented Ghana not emotionally ready for taking penalty shots? Why did injured Drogba at all feature in such an important match with Portugal when the Ivoirians had an upper hand and passing the ball with such ease- while Jervinio, Dindane, and Calo were more than headache for any defense? In terms of performance at the international level, especially during tournaments: can Drogba even compare with Jervinio? much less an injured Drogba? Bad coaching and big-name match planning will lead our teams no where.
Look what Hassan Shahata did with the Pharaohs- smashing big-name squads like kids for three consecutive Cup of Nations, playing wonderful and exciting to watch football, and taking Egypt to 9th in a Fifa ranking. Do you think Siasia or Bwalia cannot do it if given a 10 year uninterrupted contract with the likes of Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana or Ivory Coast? Foreign coaches will continue to fail us with all the talent that we have in the continent. We need to mix and sometimes use good coaches like Sisia when they are there. As we trust the players we have in the continent, it is high time we trusted coaches too.

deng, that's spot-on!

Why would the African coach take the team to finals, only to be replaced by 'a more qualified' foreigner? The subs taking Gervinho out, not playing Bonaventure Kalou (in the previous tournaments) showed lack of understanding of the play regardless of 'big names'. Being fan of Chelsea, I'd love to see Didier playing, but he was below par compared to Gervinho in World Cup.

shame cameroun,our football has been on downturn since eto became captain

that is so cool