The Internationals: African World Cup Qualifying and EURO 2012

ETHIOPIA

June 14, 2012

A fairly uninspired game where Ethiopia was better, with defender Liban Elmi again making a case for being too good for this level, but two shots off the wood work and a little poor luck kept them off the scoreboard. This marks consecutive scoreless draws for Tadesse Makonnen’s teams: not what he wants.

Under-19 International
Togo v Ethiopia, Stade de Kégué
Togo 0 – Ethiopia 0
MoM: Liban Elmi (7.7) Togolese Best: Komi Zakari (7.3)
Attendance: 1003. Referee: Ntusi Mncwango.

June 15, 2012

An early score by Kossi Badohoun put Togo ahead, but Mohammed Abera—still for some unknown reason relegated to youth internationals—was the best player on the field by far, and the constant pressure on the Togolese defense paid off when Tafari Seid slid a neat pass across the box to Adane Metesenot, the game was tied.

It looked to go down as a tie until, with less than ten minutes remaining, Ali Tesseme found a streaking Abera behind the Togoloese line, and his drive proved unstoppable, beating Kokou Salou and giving the victory to the Ethiopians.

Under-21 International
Togo v Ethiopia, Stade de Kégué
Togo 1 (Kossi Badohoun 18) – Ethiopia 2 (Adane Metesenot 28, Mohammed Abera 82)
MoM: Abera (8.0) Togolese Best: Fábio Yacoubou (7.4)
Attendance: 2361.

June 16, 2012

Could Ethiopia build on the victory over Côte D’Ivoire and shock the home nation in their visit to Togo? To do so would mean containing Emmanuel Adebayor, something few sides have ever been able to do. There are some questions there: Adebayor has not played competitively for an entire season, having been traded three times the preceding fall. Would he come out with a hunger to dominate or would the rust show?

The game could not have started any better for the visitors: Fikru, who plays in Spain for Albacete, took a spectacular pass from Mulalem Regassa and easily beat Baba Tchagouni for an early lead.

The lead was short-lived, as a twenty yard free kick from Floyd Ayité tied the game. There was nothing Adugna Deyas could do: when a player puts the ball in the opposite corner, nestling it against the corner of the crossbar, sometimes you just have to applaud.

Ayité’s second goal was less spectacular, but no less effective: a neatly taken pass from Serge Gakpé put Togo ahead at halftime.

Even with Ayité’s two goals, the story of the day was Adebayor: he was dominant, and after hitting the woodwork twice, he added his fortieth career international goal just after halftime for the final tally.

World Cup Qualifiers (Africa) Second Round Group 8
Togo v Ethiopia, Stade de Kégué
Togo 3 (Floyd Ayité 24 48, Emmanuel Adebayor 53) – Ethiopia 1 (Fikru 14)
MoM: Adebayor () Ethiopian Best: ()
Attendance: 29,360. Referee: Jerome Damon.

CAMEROON

Danyil Oranje’s Cameroon side was the first team to qualify out of group play on the road from Africa to Brazil with a trouncing of Libya led by the efforts of Adolphe Teicou. With two games left, Oranje will have plenty of opportunity to experiment with some young players as he looks two years into the future to the 2014 World Cup.

World Cup Qualifiers (Africa) Second Round Group 2
Libya v Cameroon, June Stadium
Libya 1 (Ahmed Saed Osman 70) – Cameroon 4 (Adolphe Teicou 15 36, Achille Emana 27, Eric Matoukou 69)
MoM: Teicou (9.4)
Attendance: 49,556. Referee: Petrus Mathabela.

June 20, 2012

EURO 2012

With a single major exception, EURO 2012 went according to form: in Groups A, B, and C, Holland, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, and England all moved through to the quarterfinals. Group D, however, provided a shock as Turkey progressed ahead of media darling Spain.

The key moment occurred with three minutes left in the confrontation between the two teams, when Genoa’s Mehmet Yildiz tied the game with a great volley, taken as he was falling away from goal, twelve yards out. The tie, combined with Xavi’s being sent off early in the second half of their eventual loss to Portugal, relegated Spain to a shock exit.

Portugal’s Miguel Veloso and Mathieu Flamini of France have been the best players of the group stages.

The Internationals: Ethiopia v Côte D’Ivoire

June 9, 2012

ETHIOPIA

The story so far has been one where the Ethiopian youth have performed well, but the senior squad has continued to struggle on the international scene. The three matches against Côte D’Ivoire however, offered a reversal of fortunes across the board, culminating in what has to be considered Ethiopia’s best result in years of national competition.

Tadesse Makonnen’s under-nineteen squad was lackluster in their game, and while a scoreless draw against Les Éléphants would usually be seen as a reasonable result, this was a winnable match.

Under 19 International
Ethiopia v Ivory Coast, Addis Ababa Stadium
Ethiopia 0 – Ivory Coast 0
MoM: Liban Elmi (7.4) Côte D’Ivoire’s Best: Jean-Marc Koné (7.2)
Attendance: 1168. Referee: Eden N’Dioro.

The following day’s under-twenty-one match contained several surprises: first, the success of the Ethiopian side depended on players from clubs other than Saint George, relying instead on a lovely long pass from Defence SC’s Tafari Seid to Bahir Dar’s Mitiku Edae just before halftime and a well-struck free kick from twenty yards from Banks SC’s Bayeh Gebrekristos in the second half to provide the margin of victory.

It was no fluke: Bahir Dar’s Haileyesus Sefa was the best player on the pitch, and the Ethiopian youngsters easily outclassed a team of young Ivoirians who were much better known, featuring the talents of Adrian Veidt, Tchetche Kipre, Joanie Stubbs, and Souleymane Koulibaly. Stubs, who at one point was linked to Chelsea, plays in Argentina, while Koulibaly recently signed with Sion in Switzerland: leagues generally accepted as being far superior to those in Ethiopia.

Under 21 International
Ethiopia v Ivory Coast, Addis Ababa Stadium
Ethiopia 2 (Mitiku Edae 45, Bayeh Gebrekristos 55) – Ivory Coast 0
MoM: Haileyesus Sefa (7.5) Côte D’Ivoire’s Best: François Ouattara (7.5)
Attendance: 2791. Referee: Ntusi Mncwango

As encouraging as these results were, it was generally accepted that not only were the Ivory Coast the better team at the full international level, but the gap was imposing and significant. After all, the orange-clad visitors boasted the trio of Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, and Yaya Touré in attack, in addition to Christian Romaric, Didier Zokora, Modibo Diakité, and Hamed Diomandé, who all also ply their trade in Europe.

Indeed, at the half hour mark, the Ivoirians were dominating play with the red, green, and gold yet to manage a single shot on goal, and when Kalou nodded home a tidy cross from Touré, it certainly felt like the floodgates were about to open.

Ten minutes on, however, Bereket Addisu showed magnificent control, plucking a cross from debutante Yosef Ayalew out of the air just inside the six and directing the ball down to set up a vicious volley that Stephan Loboué had no chance of stopping.

And then, three minutes on, the Saint George striker added an improbable second, bursting past Diakité before sending the ball back across Loboué and just inside the far post: to the delight of the ten thousand fans in the stadium, Ethiopia went into halftime with the lead.

From that point on, the story of the game was simply Adugna Deyas. Ethiopia would finish with two goals from two shots. Deyas would make acrobatic save after acrobatic save throughout the second half, limiting the visitors to a single goal despite facing twenty-six shots in total.

When the referee blew his whistle, arms outstretched towards the center circle, the stadium exploded in a deafening roar of approval: it remained highly unlikely that Ethiopia would progress out of this qualifying group for Brazil 2014, but for this single day, they had proved equal—on the scoreboard if not on the field—to a team that was perennially counted as among Africa’s best.

World Cup Qualifiers Africa, Group Eight
Ethiopia v Ivory Coast, Addis Ababa Stadium
Ethiopia 2 (Bereket Addisu 40 43) – Ivory Coast 1 (Salomon Kalou 32)
MoM: Addisu (8.8) Best Elephant: Yaya Touré (8.1)
Attendance: 10,252.

Cameroon

World Cup Qualifiers Africa, Group Two
Benin v Cameroon, Stade de l’Amitié
Benin 0 – Cameroon 1 (Achille Webo 43)
MoM: Adolphe Teicou (8.4) Beninois Best: Réda Johnson (7.0)
Attendance: 35,039.