Africa Cup of Nations: David knows kung fu and he’s Googled you!  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon 2010) is currently taking place in Angola. The tournament began on 10 January 2010 and will conclude on 31 January.
SuperSport, the provider of pay-television sports coverage across the continent of Africa, has a team of sports bloggers discussing Afcon 2010. Here is a short roundup of posts from SuperSport Afcon 2010 Blogs:
David knows kung fu and he's Googled you!, begins a post by Thomas Mlambo's post about Afcon 2010 suprises:
David knows kung fu and he’s Googled you!
Well, well, well, talk about an Afcon of surprises. For many years now, in football anywhere in the world, the traditional superpowers, or so-called Goliaths, have dominated and pretty much bullied the minnows, or as I will refer to them, the Davids of the game, except in the odd friendly match.
But in keeping with the way the world is now, “David” has recently purchased himself a gym contract, consults a personal trainer , does yoga every morning and rides his mountain bike on weekends, all while going to martial arts class every Tuesday, just as a way of keeping fit. David is now fit, focused and prepared. He’s not a scared boy with a rock in his hand anymore.
The end result? A nation like Malawi has won a first ever Africa cup of Nations finals match, destroying Fifa 2010 World Cup qualifier Algeria 3-0 on the second day of the tournament.
Burkina Faso then had me watching a game in Cabinda against Cote d’Ivoire where it was clear that their coach, Paulo Duarte (known as the Mourinho of Africa, as he was once “the special one's “ assistant ), had used the Internet to study the superstars they would face and had found a website called “KeepDrogbaQuiet.com”.
“Have playing standards plummeted at the Afcon?,” asks
Mark Ouma, a football analyst on Soccer Africa on SS3:
When Hassan Shetata says the competition standard at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations has dropped, it triggers an increased desire to take a closer look at proceedings in Angola.
Ever since taking charge of the Egyptian Pharaohs, coach Shehata has been a man of very few words. So something special must have triggered his comment. Three inter.pretations come to mind.
First, at face value, there is a measure of merit in Shehata’s words. The African teams in Angola who will be going to the World Cup in June — Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire — failed to win their opening matches in Angola. It could be argued that each showed the lack of commitment that drove them to prevail in Africa’s most rigorous World Cup qualifying contest. Subsequently the five teams won their second match.
Now they are all through to the quarterfinal. Going forward there are valid lessons for each of the World Cup-bound teams. The level of competition at the World Cup will be far more stringent.
Thomas Mlambo believes that “goalkeepers really can give you an upset stomach“:
I wasn’t going to write a new blog for a few days still but it’s the only thing I can do to try relieve the foul mood that watching Zambia lose to Cameroon put me in.
I’d just had a great dinner during the break between matches and had eased into my favourite position on my most comfortable chair so that I could fully concentrate on a match that would see the fluid, stylish Chipolopolo try upset the rather poor, and so far relatively toothless, lions
Then I was given indigestion…
Goalkeepers really can give you an upset stomach,
Kennedy Mweene‘s (one month) late Christmas gift to the Cameroonians, spoilt my evening.
I mean, I’m not Zambian, but still the sight of that “granny power” hopeful of a shot from Geremi actually crossing the line to bring the Lions level literally gave me heartburn.
It had me reaching for my phone to call both Ponga (Liwewe) and Mamadou (Gaye) just so that I could vent my frustration. Damnit, it’s not easy to watch football home alone; there’s nobody there to swear at when such upsetting things happen.
Mamadou Gaye, one of the most popular and controversial sports commentator in Africa, did not believe that the Super Eagles will get far in the tournament:
It’s bye bye Super Eagles Bonjour a tous, I would like to start by presenting my sincere apologies to my dear friend, the Big Boss Keshi, and all of you. Keshi is a good friend of mine, I could not control myself to see him failing, but I had no intention to undermine his qualities or character.
During his tenure as the Malian national coach I visited him at least seven times to give him my support. Once again, I say sorry to all of you that got hurt. I promise you that I will never repeat it again. Thank You.
I feel very honored and humbled by the messages you keep sending to me. I appreciate your understanding and passion for our common game of football.
At last the group stage of the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is over. With it come tears of joy and sadness. My predictions had mixed results.
For now the Super Eagles can say bye bye Angola 2010, after managing to beat the two greatest underachievers of the Nations Cup: Benin and Mozambique, who never won a single game in their history of the Africa Cup of Nations.
You might be asking yourself, why I am insisting on retiring some players? We know as a fact that in our continent most players cheated in their age.
When Angola, the host nation, was eliminated by Ghana, Lubango was so quiet even dogs did not bark that night, reports Thomas Kwenaite from Lubango, Angola:
Lubango went to sleep early on Sunday night. The hosts of the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations — Angola — have been eliminated by Ghana, who defeated them 1-0 in the quarterfinals. There were no motorbikes that skidded and screeched their tyres across the tarmac or the blaring of car hooters. I couldn’t even hear a dog bark!
Thomas also writes about his experience traveling in Angola:
We arrived in Lubango in the most dramatic fashion. Again, I must confess that I do not harbour a negative attitude towards Angola but really, to undertake a journey of 35 minutes in 10 hours and five minutes is unacceptable, with no one bothering to inform us that the plane had been delayed.
In fact, since our arrival in Angola three weeks ago, every time we undertook a trip to the provinces of Cabinda, Benguela and Lubango, we arrived at the airport as early as 7am but would reach our destination any time after 6pm and sadly, much as my Angolan friends try to make it sound as if I whine a lot, that is unacceptable. Their airline needs to jack up its act.
I am not trying to be funny but for a domestic flight to be delayed by seven hours without anyone from officialdom attempting to notify you as to what went wrong is shocking. I accepted the first day, when it took us eight hours for a 40-minute flight, that perhaps the volume of people in the country is a new experience to them and makes it impossible for them to ferry their passengers around on time.
Nigeria has secured a spot in the semi-finals after beating Zambia's Chipolopolo boys. But does Charles Anazodo still believe that the god of football is Nigerian?