Africa Cup of Nations 2015 Final – Equatorial Guinea
Ivory Coast 0 – 0 Ghana (a.e.t)
Ivory Coast win 9 – 8 on penalties
Ivory Coast had to endure a tense ‘agony-then-ecstasy’ penalty shoot-out in order to grab their first Africa Cup of Nations title for 22 years on Sunday evening.
Following a dour 120 minutes of playing time in which Ghana’s Black Stars had the better opportunities, the title came down to a confident spot kick from unlikely hero, goalkeeper Boubacar ‘Copa’ Barry, after the 20 outfield players’ efforts failed to break the stalemate. Ghana had more than twice as many efforts on goal as Ivory Coast but, significantly, had none on target, albeit Christian Atsu and the tournament’s joint top scorer Andre Ayew each hit the frame of the goal. By contrast, although Gervinho was enterprising and Max Gradel caused problems before being surprisingly taken off after 67 minutes, the Ivorians never showed much inclination to take risks.
Extra time was a cagey affair, which was perhaps not surprising for two teams that have underachieved in the competition for more than two decades. By the end, neither side seemed unduly concerned that glory or ignominy might as easily be decided by an untimely slip or a stray lump of turf as a great strike in off the post or an acrobatic two-fingered save.
Ghana coach Avram Grant has bitter experience of a penalty shoot-out in a major final as the manager of the 2008 Chelsea side when John Terry slipped when all he needed to do was score for the Londoners to take their first European Champions title. His Ghana looked odds-on to secure a deserved win after going two up against an Ivorian side that appeared to be drained of confidence. Star striker Wilfried Bony, who is set to return to the Premier League to spearhead Manchester City’s Champions League challenge, struck the crossbar with his penalty and substitute Junior Tallo, apparently brought on specifically for the penalty shoot-out, dragged the ball hopelessly wide with his first touch of the game.
However, the pressure to score two of the next three kicks proved too much for Ghana when Afriyie Acquah had his kick saved and Frank Acheampong, also brought on in the final throes of extra time as, it would appear, some kind of penalty specialist, blazed well wide from 12 yards sending the shoot-out into sudden death.
Curiously, the ten outfield players who were not on the two teams’ lists of penalty takers were faultless with Boubacar Barry only able to get despairing fingertips to two Ghana efforts before having to watch them both snuggle into the bottom left of his net. The Ivory Coast goalkeeper teetered on the edge of unsportsmanlike conduct by shouting and employing various delay tactics in the shoot-out’s sudden death stage, but his play-acting, thinly disguised as injuries requiring treatment, seemed only to imbue a steely determination in Ghana’s unchosen few.
Insult was then added to Ghana’s injury when Barry saved his opposite number Razak Braimah’s kick, which was by no means the worst of the Ghanaian’s efforts. At 8-8, with Ghana’s three misses to Ivory Coast’s two and the formerly ‘injured’ Barry, now a potential victim to his own distractions, the only player on the field yet to take a penalty to prevent a second round of kicks, the veteran last ditch replacement for the genuinely injured Sylvain Ghobouo side-footed his effort past the outstretched hands of Braimah to send Ivorians worldwide into raptures. Barry recovered amazingly well; enough to sprint to join in his teammates’ celebrations.
In the end, Ivory Coast emerged winners by 9 penalties to 8 in a match that had parallels with the last time the two West African powerhouses met in the final. Then too, the game was won in a marathon penalty shoot-out (that time it took two more spot-kicks to separate the teams) following a 0-0 draw after extra time. Then too the Ivory Coast hero was their goalie; in 1992, Alain Gouamene was, like Barry, playing in his seventh AFCON.
The win gave Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard a second AFCON title, making him the first coach to win the competition with different teams. In 2012, his unfancied Zambia team emerged victors against his current charges.
Ghana’s underachievement in the Nations Cup in recent times far surpasses Ivory Coast’s Elephants. The Black Stars have not won the tournament since 1982 in Libya when just eight teams contested the finals.
Their failure at the last hurdle proved too much for an inconsolable Andre Ayew, who had virtually to be carried to the rostrum to receive his top scorer trophy – won by virtue of two additional assists – and runners-up medal. Ayew’s father, arguably Africa’s greatest ever footballer Abedi Pele – a 17-year-old rookie in Ghana’s 1982 triumph, played in a notably underachieving Ghana side who besides never again being crowned African champions also never qualified for a World Cup finals. Ayew and his brother Jonathan, who sat out Sunday’s final on the bench, will hope then can seize future opportunities not to emulate their father’s misfortune.
It was scarce consolation that Ghana players swept the individual awards. Ayew’s Pepsi Top Scorer award was supplemented by Everton’s Christian Atsu winning the Man of the Competion, sponsored by Orange and the Goal of the Tournament, sponsored by Nissan. Kwesi Appiah won the Samsung Fair Player of the Tournament. Andre Ayew and Jonathan Mensah also made the Team of the Tournament dominated by five Ivory Coast players.
Sunday’s final was also notable for the withdrawal of big names Gervinho for Ivory Coast and Asamoah Gyan for Ghana just when penalties were an inevitability. Gyan has never recovered from the 2010 World Cup quarter final penalty miss against Uruguay that meant Luis Suarez’s blatant last minute handball on the goal-line was not punished and Uruguay ultimately progressed after a penalty shoot-out.
So it is the Elephants who have managed to get the monkey of their backs to win a second title while the Black Stars again failed to shine to win a fifth. Many have predicted that Africa will produce the world champions before long, but on the evidence of the last six Nations Cup finals that have produced just three goals between them and off the field shenanigans that have always been a part of African football, that day is still some way off.
The 3rd and 4th place match also finished goalless
