My prediction of an intriguing African Nations Championship Cup final between Ghana and Congo became a reality. Exactly a week after losing heavily 3-0 to Ghana in the qualifying rounds, the fast running Congolese turned the tables and they really deserved the 2-0 win over the Black Stars of Ghana.

This is a clear case of history repeating itself in football. Living legends like Jones Attuquayefio and Agyeman Gyau, who were prominent members of the 1968 Black Stars team in the 6th Cup of Nations in Ethiopia will recall how Ghana beat Congo 2-1 in the qualifying rounds but lost 1-0 to the same side in the final. And that was the Black Stars team gunning for a third successive Africa Cup title following the cup triumphs in 1963 and 1965. Congo thus destroyed the Stars ambition of winning the cup for keeps just as they have prevented the current generation of the Stars to become the firsts to win the novelty African Nations Championships for home based players.

To be fair to the Black Stars players, right from the beginning of the competition it did not appear that the nation attached much seriousness to the championships. Preparations were a bit haphazard and it showed in the attitude of the players in the first two matches in which Ghana had to fight back on each occasion to earn two draws against Zimbabwe and Libya.

Many hardened fanatics had even written the team off but the Stars suddenly produced some magic from nowhere and whipped Congo 3-0 to reach the semis. It was still too early to make any bold predictions but some soon began to sense the cup and unstable Charles Taylor became an instant hero for supposedly spearheading the Stars’ instant recovery. Some veteran football analysts were however not too enthused about Charles Taylor’s total contribution in a game. The observation is that he could have some fleeting moments and then get completely missing for a major part of the game and he hardly falls back to help the defenders when he loses out in some of his unproductive chain of dribbling.

This was manifest in the semi final against Senegal and Charles Taylor was rightly replaced. The Stars once again displayed their lethargic play and could not win in regulation time only benefiting from the penalty lottery to reach the final. Meanwhile, Congo fought a terrific 2-1 win over the amazing Zambians and still had enough strength to over run the obviously over rated Black Stars when it mattered to win the maiden CHAN Cup.

It must be painful, especially to Stars goalie Philemon McCarthy who did not get maximum support from his defenders on cup final day and that all his brilliant saves could not win Ghana the cup. He should however take consolation from the fact that in a competition like this no medal can be said to be inferior. The young man has a bright future.

On the whole, this novelty African Nations Championships was quite a successful tournament. It was well organized with very creative opening and closing ceremonies. There is every indication that CHAN has come to stay and all serious minded football associations must include it on their agenda.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.