Super Eagle Update- 2008 African Nation's Cup
We drew a group of Tunisia, Congo, and Tanzania. Try not to die laughing at the group. I found it hard to avoid doing it, that's for sure. The results were predictable. Tanzania went down 4-0, Congo went down 2-0, but don't let that confuse you with a close match, we had
28 shots on goal in the game, 19 of those on target. Yep, the ole Super Goalie is alive and well, checked his ratings after the match, and let's just say he isn't anyone special. We then trotted out a half strength lineup for Tunisia to rest players and protect against cards for our quarterfinal, which we had already qualified for, and we won 1-0 anyway.
Qualifying 1st in the Group gave us a first match against...Egypt, whom we had met in the 06 Finals. But they were not the same team we played then. They lost 3-0 as well. The Semi Finals was against Cameroon, our rivals of old. The Indomitable Lions however proved once again to be a victim of our attacking prowess. We scored in the first half to make it 1-0. But we could not punch through to make the kill. a disallowed goal gave me a fit of nerves, and their 82nd minute equalizer even more. But in the 89th minute a sub at the AMC spot headed home a corner kick to give us the 2-1 win and put us through to the final.
To add to my concern is that my right back, who is a high-quality player signed by Man U when Sir Alex was still there, received a yellow card ban and one of my strikers decided to punch a defender, leaving us 2 men short due to suspensions, and 2 more due to injuries in earlier matches, though only 1 of these was a starter (my poacher, but I have plenty of quality attackers to sub up front for him).
The good news is the Finals were being played against our traditional whipping boys of Ghana. By the 5th minute we had already put ourselves on top through a beautiful pass from Super Forward. But the 12th minute we've scored again on a beautiful ball into the box by Caesar's namesake...umm, no, we didn't, it got disallowed. And in the 26th minute, Caesar again puts through a forward for a goal...umm, no, it didn't count either.
You guessed it, in the 84th minute, we again prove no lead is safe. Ghana scores on its 1st shot of the match on target (shock). But in injury time, our ex-Chelsea left back is a star again. The current Celtic starter found a loose ball and hit from range to beat the keeper and win the African Nation's Cup for the 2nd time in succession, a 2-1 final.
The FA had absolutely nothing to say about this glorious win. In fact it didn't even get a news item.
But it did have a nice effect on my reputation. I hurdled the French Manager and Lyon's manager (again) to take the #1 spot in France for the 3rd time in my career (world-class). And vaulted to #25 world-wide (very good), a leap of nearly 40 positions from season's beginning. Nigeria's reputation also improved, going from #14 and behind the Aussies and #9 and behind Greece(!) and Belarus(!). I'm sure those rankings have nothing to do with researcher issues.
That said, #9 in the world for an African nation isn't shabby.
A brief note on Auxerre. We played Lyon, and for the 4th Lyon-Auxerre match in a row, the referees manage to aid in the decision of the match. This time it's supposedly my Goalkeeper who's to blame, as he draws a penalty in the 85(!) minute. His crime? "Jumping unfairly." What? Since when did the keeper not have the right to extend his arms for the ball in the box?
We lost 1-0. Lyon also, of course, won both of their matches in hand. So now we're in 2nd place on Goal Difference, level on points though. So I'm still confident. We were knocked out of the French Cup in the 10th Round by Ajaccio on PKs, this in large part due to my keeper's inability to stop more than 3 of 5 on-frame shots in the match, the result was a 3-3 draw after 120 minutes. We are into the Semifinals of the League Cup, however, so with a couple of bounces, who knows? Of course, bounces have not been aplenty for us this season, so indeed, who does know. We will have to make our own breaks, that is certain, for Lyon is making a reputation for getting more end of match calls than Man U and one can't expect that to end any time soon.
Seeing as Greece is actually above France in the Coefficient right now, that didn't help anything for us. As that put PAO through instead of us. We got a trip to the UEFA Cup.
Linear Mode
