Weekend Soccer Wrap

What an eventful weekend of soccer it turned out to be. The African Nations Cup got off to a flyer with Egypt hammering Libya 3-0 in the opening match. Ivory Coast was very lucky against a Moroccan side that dominated the game completely but was unable to convert their possession into goals. Morocco eventually lost to a Drogba penalty. Despite the hype around Drogba, he did not live up to expectation in his team’s opening match and many are saying that his mind is still in London. One player who did live up to expectation was Samuel Eto, African player of the year and favourite to retain his crown. Eto bagged a hat trick for Cameroon in their 3-1 victory over Angola. Angola did not play all that badly but it was always going to be tough for them against the tournament favourites, despite the fact that Angola have qualified for the World Cup.

It was not a good weekend for some of the African World Cup teams as Togo crashed 0-2 to the DRC. Zambia got off to an early start against Tunisia with a goal in the 8th minute to open up the scoring. Tunisia responded in spectacular fashion with 4 goals. Two late goals by Guinea raised many questions again about this troubled South African side that had seemed to have turned the corner. South Africa now needs to win their next game against Tunisia to have any chance of qualification for the next round. If they fail to qualify for the next round, surely this will mean that Ted’s contract will not be extended as he has just been tasked to guide them through the Nations Cup. Tunisia’s Dos Santos and Cameroon’s Eto seem to be the early pace setters for the golden boot award.

It is still early in the tournament but Cameroon and Tunisia are among the early favourites. The other World Cup qualifiers Ghana take on Nigeria tonight in a West Coast derby in what should prove to be a classic encounter between these 2 West African giants and giants of African football. Ghana will be without the injured Essien but will want to prove that they are worthy finalists in Germany later this year and there will be no better way to do it than to put one past their traditional rivals and neighbours.

In England, Chelsea dropped a further 2 points to bring the total amount of points dropped for the season to a whopping 7 (sic). The result against Charlton will surely not lead to Mourinho losing any sleep with his team still 14 points clear at the top of the championship. The result was a great one for Charlton in this London derby as they equalised with a goal from new signing Marcus Bent. Arsenal lost 1-0 to Everton after coming off a 7-0 high against Middlesborough. The highly anticipated match of the weekend or even the season was Man U against Liverpool. Man U snatched a late win in dramatic fashion to bring a screeching halt to Liverpool’s unbeaten record. The result showed that Ferguson knows how to play the bigger teams in the EPL since United are unbeaten against the top 5 this season. They are also responsible for inflicting Chelsea’s only defeat this season and the match at Stamford Bridge is now eagerly anticipated. Despite dropping points this weekend, Chelsea should comfortably wrap up the season as title victors with a couple of games to spare. They will have to go through a serious self destruct to avoid that from happening and with the current squad that they have, I definitely cannot see that happening though anything is possible in this beautiful game.

Barcelona did not miss Eto this weekend as they continued with their winning ways to extend their lead at the top of La Liga to 10 points.

On a lighter note, Bruinou.com registered a team into the popular Soccer 5’s in Randburg. The league takes place daily but the Bruinou.com team, called Bruinou FC, plays every Saturday in the Jabula League. The first game was against News Café Boys and Bruinou FC lost their first game 6-3. Bruinou FC started off brightly and went 1-0 up as early as the first minute. Yours truly was playing in the nets and had a shocking game, giving away 3 soft goals and before long Bruinou FC were trailing 1-4. Yours truly suffered an ankle injury and was replaced in the nets. Bruinou FC recovered to 4-3 and had a legitimate penalty appeal denied, where a defender stopped the ball on the line with his hand. The News Café goalkeeper was in absolute sensational form as he stopped everything that came his way and what he failed to stop hit the post. It was not to be as Bruinou FC continued to push forward and the gaps were exposed at the back as they began to tire against a super fit News Café Boys team. Bruinou FC eventually conceded a further 2 goals but the result was not all that bad for a team playing their first game together and things can only improve.

Log on to http://www.soccer5s.co.za/ for results and fixtures. Go to Sports, Soccer 5’s Randburg, Saturday, Jabula to find the Bruinou.com league. Unfortunately I have just checked and the results have not been updated yet but should be in the course of the week. Bruinou FC was without a kit and plan to get one soon by holding a small fund raising initiative. All Bruinou.commers are encouraged to come out in full support of the team. It was a great day of fun. Bruinou FC’s next game is this week Saturday, January 28th against The Alcohlics and the game kicks off at 4 in the afternoon. The venue has an excellent bar with very reasonable prices so come out and support Bruinou FC.

Send your questions or comments to lester@Bruinou.com