After the final of the 2015 African Cup of
Nations at Estadio de Bata yesterday in
Equatorial Guinea, Ghana’s hope for a fifth
AFCON title was blighted, stretching to another
two years when they will host Africa in 2017 or
more than that if they fail to win.
Ivory Coast clearly showed their persistence on
the African continent and were awarded with
the finest trophy in the history of the game in
that West African since 1992.
First holding the Ghanaians in the first half,
breaking all fronts to shake the Ghanaian
defence line too, they extended play for an
extra 30 minutes after the normal regulation
time.
Secondly losing first two kicks whilst Ghana
made theirs, the Elephants who were playing in
their third final appearance in nine years did not
give up hope and that was rekindled by the
goalkeeper, Boubacar Barry Copa who stood
firm in the middle of the bars.
Yaya Toure would be very much proud rewriting
the history of football in Cote D’Ivoire and can
now look to retiring from the game as a local
and continental hero.
Though they lost, Ghana sweeped four out of
the five major individual awards awarded
players in the tournament.
Quite reasonable for compensating an ambitious
Ghanaian who had to fight back from a loss in
the first group game to reach the final.
Shocking to most predictions, the likes of Yaya
Toure, Javier Balboa , who were seen as top five
contenders for the MVP Award were overlooked
and instead, Ghanian youngster, Christian Atsu
was given the recognition as Orange Man of the
Competition.
Unquestionably, Atsu's against Guinea was
adjudged the Nissan Goal of the Competition
and fairly so too with Andre Ayew carting away
the Pepsi Highest Scorer award.
Another argument could be the Samsung Fair
Player of the Competition going to Kwesi
Appiah where Wilfried Bony stood a better
chance of winning; except CAF personalises its
criteria for such selections.
The Democratic republic of Congo was voted Fair
Play Team of the tournament DR Congo .
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