Muntari And Boateng Sent Home From Brazil 2014

Two key players for the Ghanian national team (Black Stars), Sulley Muntari (29) and Prince-Kevin Boateng (27), have been sent home from the team's squad for indiscipline.

According to the Ghana football website, the two players are ''suspended indefinitely'' for their indisciplined behaviour.

The statement about Sulley Ali Muntari, read, ''The decision was taken in the wake of his unprovoked physical attack, on an executive committee member of GFA and a management member of the Black Stars, Mr Moses Armah on Tuesday 24th June, 2014 during a meeting.''

Sully Muntari

About Prince-Kevin Boateng, the statement read, ''The decision was taken following Boateng's vulgar verbal insults, targeted at coach Kwesi Appiah, during the team's training session in Maceio this week.''

It says that the two players accrditations have been withdrawn, and their suspension was with immediate effect. They were sent home.

This incidents happened, as Ghana was about to play their crucial last group G match against Portugal tonight. Ghana has an out - side chance of going through to the second round of the tournament, if they can beat Portugal and Germany or USA loss.

But I must mention here that Ghana can only qualify to the next round, if they beat Portugal and has superior goal difference.

Ghana did not need distraction in their squad, when the team should unite and fight like lions to qualify from their group.

But inspite of the two key players that were sent home, the Blacks Stars still have enough quality players to help them get the needed result.

Earlier on the Black Stars had threatened to buoycotte their last group G match against Portugal, unless their football association (GFA) pay them the bonuses from the two matches they 've already played.

So the Ghanian government sent $3m with a chartered flight to Brazil, to pay them their bonuses. Now they are ready to play, because the government sent money to pay them.

I wish the Black Stars good luck in their match against Portugal. I pray that they will win and qualify to the next round. We need more African teams to qualify to the next round, after the unfortunate manner Ivory Coast went out. The penalty given to Greece in last seconds of the match was not a penalty at all.

As it is now, only Nigeria has qualified. So I hope that Ghana and Algeria will go through also. Cameroon came last in their group without registering a point. They are already at home. The tournament so far is not going very well for the African teams. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

Argentina Vs Nigeria Thrilled The Fans

The world Cup 2014 match, between Agentina and Nigeria lived up to its billings. It was a thriller in which, the two time former champion Argentina beat their African opponents 3 - 2.

It was the last match of Group F to determine, which team will end up first on the table. Argentina came to the match having already qualified, for the second round, while Nigeria needed a draw to andvance to the next round, regardless of the out-come of Bosnia against Iran.

Nigeria would also qualify for the knock-out phase if Bosnia beat Iran in their last group encounter.

Both Argentina and Nigeria wanted to win so as to finish on top of the group. Until this nail biting encounter between these teams, both teams had not played to the level expected of them. Their first two matches in the tournament were poor. Read also: africanfootie.blogspot.com

Nigeria against Argentina at WC 2014

So everyone was hoping that the match will be different, because each time they met in previous World Cups, it has always been difficult encounters, though Argentina did win mostly with a lone goal due to set pieces.

Anyway, the match did not disappoint, both teams played their best match since the inception of the tournament.

It was the Argentines who scored first, through their highly talented superstar, Lionel Messi after just 3 minutes of play. He pounced on a rebound shot and released a dynamite kind of shot into the roof of the net.

But the Nigerians will not be out-done at this stage of the game. Ahmed Musa, cut into the box a minute later beat his opponent and fired into the far left hand side of the net for an equalizer, 1 - 1.

The mercurial and tantalizing Messi scored a second goal through a free kick. A far net goal which goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama did not see on time and so reacted too late.

Ahmed Musa who had a marvelous game once again equalized for Nigeria, for a 2 - 2 scoreline.

The match was a real nail biting game. The Argentines inspite of boasting of World class forwards such as Messi, Di Maria, Aguero and Huiguin, were finding it hard to over-come a resilent Nigerian team.

But what settled it was a corner kick, which hit the knee of defender Rojo and beat Enyeama for a 3 - 2 winner.

Lionel Messi (27), made a big difference for his team. This was by far his best performance in the mundial so far. He was so good that the Nigeria coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, said later he ''is from Jupiter.''

''Messi is one of heck of a player. He is blessed. You can't take it away from him,'' Keshi said.

''There are good calibre players in the team, but Messi is from Jupiter.''

Bosnia beat Iran 3 - 1, which made Nigeria qualify for the second round, inspite of lossing the encounter against Argentina.

''I feel honoured and happy it's going our way, I want to thank the players and the fans and some of the media,'' Keshi added.

Acknowledging the good performance of the Nigerian players, Lionel Messi said, ''We played against a team that wanted to play. I think we saw a good Argentina. We need to continue on this path,'' he said.

The Argentine coach, Alejandro Sabella, said that his team is improving as the tournament progressed, that they had 9 points but could get better.

''As we advance we start improving our structure, in general I saw improvement today. We've got nine points, but we can always get better,'' the happy coach said. Read also: africanfootie.blogspot.com

Nigeria Beat Bosnia In WC Group F

In the World Cup Group F encounter earlier today, the African Cup of Nations champions - Nigeria beat Bosnia 1 - 0 to place themselves in a better position to qualify to the second round of the tournament in Brazil.

Nigeria improved very much in this match unlike their lacklustre and sloggish performance against Iran in their first match. Today, they played a bit with passion and their paces and passes were much better, though their finishing was still lacking a bit.

Peter Odemwingie scored the only goal for Nigeria on the 29th minute, through a great pass from the energetic and pacey Emmanuel Emenike.
Both teams had good scoring chances which they missed.

Emmanuel Emenike

In the second Group G match, Ghana played a 2 - 2 draw with Germany in a very charged and entertaining match. Ghana was very unfortunate not to have won the game.

They led by two goals to one until the last minute to stoppage time, when the German substitute and World Cup record scorer, Miroslav Klose, equalized for 2 - 2.

The other African team that played today in Group H Algeria, defeated South Korea in a convincing 4 - 2. Algeria really played very well in the match and deserve to win. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

Colombia Beat Ivory Coast To Qualify

Colombia beat Ivory Coast 2 - 1 in a very entertaining Group C second 
match to go through to the round of 16 of the 20th Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

The match was very lively, as the two teams played attacking football, with each team determined to win, knowing that which ever team that wins the duel, will be the first to qualify for the next round.

Colombian boys were more dangerous of the two teams in counter attacks. On the 63rd minute James Rodriguez scored a header to give the Colombians a lead.

Both teams continued to play very well with the Africans pushing harder for an equalizer, but it was the South Americans that scored a second goal, after the Ivorian midfielder S. Die, was dispossessed of the ball not far from the Ivorian defence. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

The substitute Juan Quintero, received a good pass thereafter and did not make mistake, in beating goalkeeper Barry for a 2 - 0 lead. Ivory Coast put up more pressure on their opponents, moments it yielded result when Gervinho scored a solo effort, after he wiggled his way through three defenders to score a beautiful goal.



Didier Drogba

After that inspite of the increased pressure to equalize, at the dying minutes of the match, the Colombians held on to their 2 - 1 lead and that was how it ended. The Africans still has a great chance of qualifying to the second round.

They have 3 points from two matches, while Greece and Japan have one point each. If Ivory Coast beat Greece in their remaining Group C match, they then qualify or if they play draw and Japan loss to Colombia or draw they will still qualify.

After beating Ivory Coast, the Colombia coach, Jose Pekerman, said about his country qualifying, ''It is, of course, a huge pleasure to see Colombia coming to this level.''

''First of all, we are at the World Cup after such a long period of time, and then having enjoyed consecutive victories with players, who are here for the first time, so they are all very positive situations for us.

''However, we cannot start thinking ahead of time or what might be coming later on,'' Mr Jose Pekerman added.

The Ivory Coast coach, Sabri Lamouchi, said that he was not obsessed with his superstar player Didier Drogba.

''I am not obsessed with Didier Drogba. If you look at the team, I have seen very interesting things from my players.

''My players did not deserve to lose, a draw would have been more deserved'' he said.

''It was a very experienced Colombian team who waited for us to make mistakes, unfortunately we made some and were hit in a hard way,'' he added. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

Many people will disagree with his assesment that the Colombians waited for them to make mistakes. It was not like the Colombians played defensive game only, they were also hungry to score and win the match. Like I said earlier on, it was a game full of attacking options. Very entertaining.

The only difference was that South Americans, were better in counter attacks and they took their chances. I just hope that the Elephants have learnt a great deal of lesson from their mistakes and do better in their next match, which is against Greece. I wish them goodluck.

African Teams After The Openers In Brazil

After all the African teams at the Fifa World Cup 2014 in Brazil, have played their first matches, there is little to cheer about. Out of the five teams representing the continent, only one team managed to win their opening encounter.

It is a bit disappointing even though some may say that, the teams have only played one match each. But one has to think of a team's chance of qualifying to the second round of the tournament. A team's chance of going through to the next round is very much reduced, if they fail to win a less difficult match. Then the more difficult ones becomes an uphill battle.

In the Group A, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon were anything but domitable. The Mexicans played much better than the Lions in the match, they even had two goals disallowed.

The lone winning goal for Mexico came after the Cameroon goalkeeper, Charles Itandje, blocked a shot from Giovanni dos Santos but none of his defenders were around to clear the ball from danger. Oribe Peralta, then pounced on the ball and released a match winning goal into the net.

Gervinho celebrating winning goal with Drogba

In Group C, the Ivory Coast's Elephants were down one goal in the first half against a resolute Japanese team. Some football fans did not understand why the Ivorian coach, Sabri Lamouchi, left his star striker, Didier Drogba on the bench for over an hour. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

Anyway, two minutes after he was introduced on the 62nd minute, he inspired a big fight back, which resulted in Wilfried Bony equalizer on the 64th minute. And a couple of minutes later Gervinho headed into the net, the winning goal, putting the scoreline at 2 - 1. Who knows what could have happened if Drogba did not come in and inspire his team to fight back.

That was the only African team that won their opening match. In Group F, the performance of Nigeria which many football fans tipped as favourites to win the match against Iran convincingly was very disappointing to say the least. A couple of things were wrong with the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

First it seem like Nigeria did not research and investigate/scout the Iranian team, before the tournament began, thereby under estimating them. The Nigerian players thought they will walk-over their opponents. Another reason was that they were so slow in their passes. There was no speed and urgency in their game. Even though the Iraians packed the bus like Mikel Obi claimed, which I think was a lame excuse, they still should have won the game.

The Iranians played to their game plan, which was not to loss the match, but the Nigerian players did not put big pressure on their defence and even the few chances they had they could not convert to goals.

In Group G, it seem a bit like the same story with Ghana performance against United States. In the case of Ghana it may have been over confidence that was their undoing in the match. They may have thought that because they defeated the US in the last two World Cups, that it surely won't be a problem to defeat them again.

But they forgot that they now have the German coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who has shown that he can coach a winning team, after what he did with the German team in 2006. The Americans was itching for a revenge and it showed as soon as the referee blew the kickoff whistle.

The captain Dempsey, scored the fifth fastest goal of all World Cups in the 29th seconds of kickoff time, beating the defender Boye and released a powerful left shot that beat the goalkeeper.

Now the Black Stars knew that the Americans were there for a serious fight. They fought back and equalized through Andre Ayew, but defender Jones header in the last minute of the match, (2 - 1) gave USA a good start to the tournament.

In Group H, the Algerians started very well and even took the lead against the favourites Belgium before the interval. The star studed Belgians fought back in the second half and scored two goals to deny the Africans of victory. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

With all these results from their first matches, the African teams need to improve their games and raise them to a higher level, if they are to qualify to the second round of play. It is still not late, many of them if not all can still qualify if they work hard and determine to qualify, after all this is football anything can happen. Goodluck to all the five teams.

Ivory Coast fought back hard, to snatch a 2 - 1 victory from Japan in their World Cup, opening encounter at the Brazil 2014.

Keisuke Honda, put the Japanese in the lead, with a tantalizing first half strike on the 16th minute of play, which left the Ivorian goalkeeper Barry Copa without answer.

It was some how surprising, that the Ivorian captain and former Chelsea superstar Didier Drogba, was left on the bench by the coach, Sabri Lamouchi. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

But immediately he was introduced in the second half, he inspired his team, which had a poor first half to victory. Just two minutes after he came into the pitch, on the 64th minute Serge Aurier (FC Toulouse) delivered a good crossing, which Wilfried Bony (Swansea City) headed into the net for an equalizer.

Then two minutes later the same Aurier sent in another crossing, which the AS Roma striker Gervinho, stupped down and headed into the net for a 2 - 1 victory for the Ivorians.

Ivory Coast waisted a lot of chances to increase the scoreline, but that does not matter much now that they won the match. But it will be a big worry if they continue to waist scoring opportunities. In football you may be punished by your opponents, if you fail to take your chances.

The Elephants have the same three points with Colombia, but the South Americans are on top of the table on a goal difference. They had earlier defeated Greece 3 - 0 in their opening duel.

Gervinho celebrating goal with Drogba

After the match the Ivorian coach, Sabri Lamouchi, said, ''We did not start very well in the game, conceding the first goal from a careless mistake, then we created many good chances.''

''Having a player like Didier Drogba in the team, or among the substitutes changes a game,'' he added.

While his opposing coach, Alberto Zaccheroni, said, ''We have to give credit to the Ivory Coast - they had a great game.''

''We did not put them under enough pressure. We were not aggressive enough. We could not play as we normally do, especially in the second half after conceding the two goals,'' Zaccheroni said.

In the first match few days earlier Cameroon was defeated 1 - 0 by Mexico.
The performance of Cameroon in that match was not great, but I hope that they will do much better in their second match against Croatia.
Read melvinsports.blogspot.com

The 2014 African Cup In Groningen

Morocco amature football team has won the second edition of the annual African Cup football competition, by beating the Nigerian team 4 - 2 in the final on Saturday at the Stadpark Parrel football field in Padeppoel/Selwerd.

Though the final was not as entertaining and fun for the spectators as the two semi-finals, which were very much keenly contested by the teams, it still was a bit of fun.

The Moroccan team in the final was more organised and they played like players who have been playing regularly than their opponents. Although, the competition was for fun and coming together of Africans in Groningen, it was a disappointing final match.


Because as afore-mentioned the Moroccan team was much better. Their ball control, passes, counter-attack and finishing in front of the goalkeeper was much better. So it was not a surprise that they won the trophy.

 Morocco with their Trophy

When Nigeria was down 4 - 0, I said to the man next to me, if they continue to play in a disorganised manner, by the end of the match they may be conciding 12 goals. But they improved a bit especially the strikers, even though they waisted so many scoring oppoturnities in front of the goalkeeper. They pulled one goal back and got a penalty towards the stoppage time, the final result was 4 - 2.

 

The Moroccans were very happy that they won Nigeria in final match, because one of the players, Mr Miloud, said that before the kickoff of the final, they were a bit afraid that the Nigerian team will want to revenge their defeat in the group phase. Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com

 

''When you are on the pitch you want to win. I am very happy that we won again, because we won them in the group phase, so we were a bit afraid before the kickoff, that they would want to revenge their earlier defeat,''
Mr Miloud said.

Many people came to watch or participate in the tournament, with their wives and children. There were music, food, and play facility for children, who really enjoyed themselves, as they played with each other. It was a beautiful sunny day.

The one day competition which involved ten teams, representing different African countries, were played first in group phases. There were two groups of A and B.

The teams in Group A were, Guinea, South Africa, Congo, Sudan and Somalia. While in Group B were, Angola, Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Angola Mixed.

After the teams have played each other in a group, the two with the highest points in each group, qualified for the semi-final. The team with the highest points in a group, played the second highest points in the other team.

All the teams that participated in the one day football tournament, did try their best and enjoyed being involved. But the team I was surprised not to see, at least in the semi-final was the Guinean team, captained by a former professional footballer, Mr Camara.

 In most part of their matches, they played okay, but their defence concided many goals, which affected their qualification to the semi-final.

Congo won Sudan 3 - 0 in the third place match, Sudan won the Fair-play award. The award for the best referee of the tournament, went to Mr Riek, while Mr Bakati won the best player award.

One of the organisers of the summer event, Mr S. Toure, declared the tournament a success, when I spoke to him. He was very happy with the participation of many people, and believes that as this year's event was better than that of last year, so will next year be better than this year.

''It was a success because in the first edition (1st edition), we started with only 5 teams, but now we have 10 teams in this year's competition.''

''We are happy that many people came not only to enjoy the football tournament, but they also enjoyed the music and food,'' Samuel Toure said.

It was a good effort on the part of the organisers, to bring many African nations together, as they did to enjoy the summer and have fun. I believe Mr Toure that next year's tournament can only get better.
Read also: melvinsports.blogspot.com