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24.12.2005 Sports News

Some Stars To Watch At Egypt Can 2006

24.12.2005 LISTEN
By Fankibi, Joseph Akwasi

The African soccer euphoria is gradually gripping the continent. This will come to its apex in less than a month when the African Cup of Nations will commence in Egypt. Whereas the five World Cup finalists of Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Angola and Tunisia will like to exert their superiorities, other soccer powerhouses like Cameroun, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and host nation, Egypt will like to appease their supporters by winning the highest prize on the continent. This will also be a very memorable edition of the tournament in the sense that three nations, Ghana, Cameroun and Egypt would each like to be the first to annex the cup for the fifth unprecedented times in the history of the competition. The following represent some the stars that are likely to be paraded in the continental fiesta (Egypt 2006) come January. This table of analyses is based on the top scores of the just ended World Cup (Germany 2006) / African Cup (Egypt 2006) qualifiers indicating the players, their nationalities and the number of goals scored during the qualifiers. NAME OF PLAYER NATIONALITY # OF GOALS 1. Didier Drogba Ivory Coast 10 2. Obafemi Martins Nigeria 8 3. Henri Camara Senegal 8 4. Aruna Dindane Ivory Coast 7 5. Sheyi Adebayor Togo 7 6. Shabani Nonda DR Congo 6 7. Amr Zaki Egypt 6 8. Francileudo Santos Tunisia 6 9. Achille Webo Cameroun 5 10. Samuel Eto'o Cameroun 5 11. Kaba Diawara Guinea 5 12. Youssouf Hadji Morocco 5 13. Fabrice Akwa Maieco Angola 4 14. El-Hadji Diouf Senegal 4 15. Jose Clayton Tunisia 4 16. Collins Mbesuma Zambia 4 17. Shingarai Kawondera Zimbabwe 4 18. Abdelhalim Ali Egypt 3 19. Tarek El-Saeed Egypt 3 20. Asamoah Gyan Ghana 3 21. Mathew Amoah Ghana 3 22. Michael Essien Ghana 3 23. Saliu Muntari Ghana 3 24. Stephen Appiah Ghana 3 25. Pascal Feindouno Guinea 3 26. Nader Kara Libya 3 27. Jaouad Zairi Morocco 3 28. Marouane Chamakh Morocco 3 29. Youssef Safri Morocco 3 30. Mwankwo Kanu Nigeria 3 31. Sibusiso Zuma South Africa 3 32. Haykel Guemamdia Tunisia 3 33. Benjamin Mwaruwaru Zimbabwe 3 34. Peter Ndluvu Zimbabwe 3 Looking at the goal-scoring distribution, Ivory Coast has two deadly strikers in Drogba and Dindane who contributed a total of 17 of their 20 goals scored in the qualifiers. For our opponents in the group stages; Nigeria has two good strikers in Obafemi Martins and Kanu who scored a total of 11 of their 21 goals, Senegal also has two equally good scorers in Camara and Diouf sharing 12 of their 21 goals and Zimbabwe has three scorers sharing 10 of their 13 goals scored in the qualifiers. The Black Stars are lucky to have 15 of their 17 goals shared among as many as five players. This is an indication that we have more players who can score when the need arises. I believe with the material at the disposal of coach Duya and from the provisional selection he's made, the Black Stars has a pretty strong squad. This is also borne in the fact that Ghana considered the least number of goals (4) in the 10 qualifying games they played. With a very excellent atmosphere in the team, proper motivation, fervent prayers, discipline, dedication, and adequate preparations, the sky would be the limit for this team. May God be with the team in CAN 2006 and even, beyond.

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