Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final between the Black Stars of Ghana and the Pharaohs of Egypt in the Angola capital of Luanda is a typical case of the Biblical David versus Goliath affair. With their impeccable record and an array of seasoned stars, Egypt stands for Goliath and the Black Stars, parading a relatively inexperienced youthful side, can be conveniently called David. The story in the Bible is that Goliath was a giant with menacing looks, and David a rather frail figure but with tact he overpowered Goliath.

The road to the Angola 2010 final by both teams depicts a sharp contrast. Whilst Egypt scored emphatic victories in five matches to reach the final, Ghana lost one of their four qualifying matches and scrapped through three with narrow wins to reach the top. 

Egypt beat three of Africa’s representatives for the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, namely Nigeria 3-1, Cameroun 3-1, Algeria 4-0 and two others Mozambique 2-0 and Benin 2-0.

Ghana was beaten 3-1 by Cote d’Ivoire and won the subsequent three matches against Burkina Faso 1-0, Angola 1-0 and Nigeria 1-0 to reach the final. You could see that if mathematics had any role to play in football, Ghana would not have qualified to meet Egypt in the final. It is this seeming incongruity that makes football an exciting game and Sunday’s match could really provide an intriguing result.

The records of both Ghana and Egypt in the Africa Cup history provide interesting analysis. Ghana are four times champions 1963,1965,1978 1982 and Egypt are six times winners 1957,1959,1986,1998,2006,2008. You will realize that at the time Ghana became four times champions in 1982, Egypt were still stuck to their two wins of 1957 and 1959 that were the earliest stages of the tournament.

When Egypt hit the road again in 1986, Ghana were still at the four titles and the nearest the Black Stars came near the trophy again was in 1992 when they lost the final to Cote d’Ivoire. Both Egypt and Ghana had then been in the doldrums when the North Africans emerged once more in 1998 and that triumph in the Burkina Faso championships saw them equaling Ghana’s record of four times winners.

Since then, Egypt have shown consistent form and won twice in 2006 at home and 2008 in Ghana and are on the brink of achieving  an unprecedented hat-trick, something that Ghana tried unsuccessfully in Ethiopia 1968 when Congo Kinshasa  spoiled the party with a narrow 1-0 victory over the Black Stars. This defeat is in the records as one of the major upsets in Africa Nations Cup history.  Ghana had beaten the Congolese 5-2 in the 1965 tournament in Tunisia and won again in the group stages of the 1968 showpiece but Congo struggled through the remaining matches to reach the final and achieved a sweet revenge over the Black Stars.   

The Black Stars reached the final for an unprecedented fourth consecutive in Sudan 1970. Even though they lost 1-0 to the hosts it is still a proud record that Egypt would like to break starting from Sunday’s tie against Ghana on Sunday. Having shattered all the enviable records by Ghana in Africa including matching Ghana’s eight cup final appearances, Egypt are determined to raise the bar further up by stretching the cup wins to seven. It will be tough because of the contrasting styles of both teams.

Egypt are fast and slippery and have a lot of tricks at their disposal but can be caught on a counter by the courageous, youthful Black Stars who may be slow to attack but really solid at the rear. I don’t anticipate too many goals and it won’t be surprising if the Black Stars with their proven superior stamina could spring a surprise with their trademark narrow wins that has carried them this far.

It is hoped the referee will be more liberal than the whistle happy gentleman who handled the Algeria – Egypt semi final and took all the fun from the game with his textbook interpretation of the laws of the game. For the sake of Africa football let’s have a clean game.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports

FROM MY ARCHIVES

January 31 2006: Zimbabwe beat the Black Stars of Ghana 2-1 to oust them from the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. It was poor show by the Black Stars in unusual black jerseys. An own goal by Issah Ahmed and another clumsy clearance by the same player gave Zimbabwe a 2-0 lead till substitute Baba Amando pulled one back for Ghana in injury time.