Burkina Faso and Ghana will meet today for a disappointing match for both teams.
Ghana certainly wanted to reach the final and win the Africa Cup of Nations after six appearances in a row in the tournament’s semifinals; Burkina Faso, who played the best football in the tournament, maybe along with Senegal on the group stage, can’t truly feel disappointed after El-Hadary legendary night in goal, and Koffi’s tragic penalty, which has ruined their AFCON final dream.
People tend to underestimate the 3rd place match, and it is pretty clear why. A football game between two disappointed teams who lost their semifinals battle, and in general their players would prefer to be on their way home to rest, is not the most attractive background for a game.
Despite these opening attributes, tonight’s match has some importance in it.
The 2017 AFCON in Gabon wasn’t the best tournament ever. African mega national teams suffered a change of generations that harmed the numbers of superstars in the tournament; Football wasn’t at its most quality shape, and the ongoing protest of the people in Gabon against the tournament that kept the stands empty in most games was significant and did leave a bad taste. But even so, Burkina Faso was a great team to watch. The Burkinabe team was powerful and organized, and yet, very creative and dynamic. Names like the Traore’s, Naklouma, Kaboré, Koné, and the brilliant Aristide Bancé brought a lot of colour to the competition. They reminded us why AFCONs are so fun - get to know small and emerging African football nations.
Ghana also deserves a respectful farewell. Ghana did not produce attractive football in this AFCON, but they featured a great team spirit at any chance they had. They were united and cool, and it was lovely to see it. The quarterfinal against Congo DR was a terribly fun game to watch. While there’s a bribe scandal in the country’s parliament, it was fun to see the Ayew brothers bringing some happiness for the Ghanaian people. The Black Stars are saying goodbye to Avram Grant, that maybe wasn’t popular as their head coach. Still, he did succeed in uniting the broken dressing room after the Kwesi Appiah era, led the team to the 2ndplace in 2015 tournament and the semifinal in Gabon. In a deeper look, Ghana was laying on the same team of 2015, and the thing had its price. Asamoah Gyan wasn’t 100% fit, and it left the team with a minimal option on offence. The game tonight is also a good chance to see if Gyan, Ghana’s main man in past years, will reach the 50 goals benchmark.
So on this occasion – Thank you Ghana and Burkina Faso for this tournament! Your journeys were fun to follow, and hopefully, we’ll see you again in 2019. Enjoy this game of tears; you deserve it after your big effort.