It looks like the boys will be separated quite early from the men in the on-going AFCON 2012 as no points were shared at the end of the first round matches on Tuesday night. All the first eight matches ended in straight wins which is splendid.

Luckily the co-hosts, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea both made good starts to make the home fans happy so were the two so-called pre-tournament favourites, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, albeit  struggling to win narrowly.

Round two presents some tricky pairings where the co-hosts face opponents who lost in the first round meaning another defeat could ensure an early exit.  Star studded Senegal who face Equatorial Guinea would have to fight extra hard to beat an inspired home team bolstered with a one million dollar bonus for beating Libya.

Gabon also faces another first round loser, Morocco, and you can readily see that the stakes are high.

Analysts hold that Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire would have to up their output in the next round matches against Burkina Faso and Mali respectively to sustain their championship hopes. While Cote d’Ivoire managed to impressively hold the tough tackling Sudanese with a 1-0 win. Ghana somewhat lost their rhythm in the second half against Botswana after completely dominating the first session.

It could be argues that the red card shown to Ghana skipper John Mensah for a rather clumsy tackle midway through the second half shook the confidence of the Black Stars and that gave the rejuvenated Botswana side found enough courage to attack fiercely forcing goalie Kwarasey who had been on holiday to make save two sticky situations.

I am extremely delighted that the first round has been that exciting. It is hoped the second would produce even more thrills to emphasize the fact that African football is on the ascendancy and as the legendary Pele of Brazil predicted decades ago the World Cup will one day come to Africa

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Jan 24th 2000: Confederation of African Football (CAF) fines Ghana and Cameroun 2000 dollars each for violating the regulations on individual sponsors trademarks sizes allowed on the players outfit during CAF competitions.