Goals have been a scarce
commodity at recent Africa Cup
of Nations finals with only five in
the past six title deciders. And three of those came in
Tunisia nine years ago when the
hosts edged Morocco 2-1 in the
only finale to feature two teams
from the north of the continent. Penalty shoot-outs were needed
to give Cameroon victory over
Senegal in 2002, Egypt success
over Ivory Coast in 2006 and
Zambia glory against Ivory Coast
last year. The 2008 and 2010 title matches
were settled in favour of Egypt
by solitary goals with Mohamed
Abou Trika scoring against
Cameroon in Accra and Mohamed
'Geddo' Nagy against Ghana in Luanda. Neither game was easy on the
eye as underdogs Cameroon and
Ghana were not prepared to
come at the rampant Pharaohs
and erected defensive
barricades that held firm until the closing stages. A mistake by legendary
Cameroon centre-back Rigobert
Song enabled fellow veteran
Abou Trika to break the
deadlock 13 minutes from time
and there were only five minutes left when Nagy struck. [embed:video:id=213114] The last final goal-fest was 13
years ago when Nigeria wiped
out a two-goal deficit against
Cameroon at a packed Surulere
Stadium in Lagos only to fail on
penalties. Many long-time African football
followers rate the 1984 final in
Abidjan as the best with
Cameroon scoring twice in the
closing stages thorugh Theophile
'Doctor' Abega and Ernest Ebongue to triumph 3-1 against
Nigeria. Another candidate for best Cup
of Nations final must be that of
1972 when Congo Brazzaville
scored three times in seven
minutes to overcome Mali 3-2 in
Yaounde. Mali took a late first half lead
only to be rattled as Michel
M'Bono struck twice and Francois
M'Pele once to turn the game on
its head and give the central
African country their only Cup of Nations title. The decider with the most goals
saw hosts Ethiopia come back
twice in regular time before
extra-time goals from Menguistu
Worku and Italo Vassalo brought
a 4-2 tiumph over defending champions Egypt. There have been 26 Africa Cup
finals – the 1959 and 1976
tournaments used mini-league
rather than knock-out formats
– and they produced 60 goals at
an average of 2.30 per match. More News