Rab’s World

The competition has ended with Egypt taking the Cup for the sixth time in the Nation’s Cup history. They scored Cameroon 1 - 0. The Egyptians have been very good throughout the tournament.It all started like this: They defeated Cameroon in their Group C match opener of the tournament in Kumasi 4 - 2. Next on the hit list in their group was their Nile River neighbor; Sudan. They ran over them with 3 goals to 0 on January 26th in Kumasi. Zambia was last to feel the blow of the Pharaohs. But for some reason on Jan 30th; they could not put down Zambia. The match was a draw at 1 -1. All that have been watching the matches gave some respect to the scrappiness of the Chipolopolos.They topped the group with 7 out of 9 points and gained the right to hold their quarter-final match in Kumasi. Angola had to come down from Tamale to battle for respect because they will be hosting the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. Plus they want to be one of the African teams playing six months later in South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010. Angola played hard but they were knocked out by Egypt of score of 2 - 1. On to the Semi finals against La Côte d’Ivoire. Many tipped Ivory Coast to exact revenge or gain redemption for losing the final the the Pharaohs in Cairo two years prior. Guess what? Côte d’Ivoire was soundly beaten and sent back across the border by a score of 4 - 1. The last three Egyptian goals were so easy and confident. Many wondered what happened to the Elephants! Egypt is on their way … again to the finals. Not against Ghana though. Cameroon secured that spot. Very tough and tight game until Rigoberto Song let down his defense. Aboutreika slipped one right past him and Kameni the 76 minute. Up until that point; these two were not letting anything get past them. Kameni was superb! So Egypt gets the Gold and the Cup/Trophy. Cameroon get the silver and miss getting the cup for a fifth time. Ghana gets the Bronze medal by defeating La Côte d’Ivoire yesterday 4 - 1 for third place. This was an exciting and excellent time in Ghana. Man!! I loved it! The final closing ceremony was explosive as the President of Ghana; Kuffour; FIFA’s Seth Blatter and CAF’s Issa Hayatou awarded the medals. Lot’s of fireworks & traditional Fontomfrom drumming.! The young Egyptian team celebrated wildly. They took a long time to leave the pitch. Let’s face it … they deserved it! 

Here are the minute by minute highlights from World Cup Blog.org