AFCON 2023: SENEGAL’S ALIOU CISSE NAMED GROUP STAGE COACH AS COACHES LOSE JOBS
The group stages of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations witnessed served up a plethora of intriguing memories – great goals, remarkable comebacks and stunning upsets. A record 89 goals in 36 games with an average of 2.47 goals per game were scored making it a goal-fest. Defending champions, Senegal are the only team to have won all three group stage matches en route the knockout stages; a feat that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has acknowledged by naming Aliou Cisse as the Coach of the Group Stages. More plaudits for the Senegalese team is the recognition of youngster, Lamine Camara as the Best Young Player of the Group Stages having scored two goals in three games. Beyond his brace against The Gambia in the opening match, Camara has been an instrumental player for the team, adding so much to the team’s offensive arsenal with his brilliant runs and passes and eye for goal.
The aftermath of the performances of various teams during the group stages has led to a flurry of coaches losing their jobs, most notably the big guns who got ousted by the minnows. Of the eight teams that failed to make it past the AFCON 2023 group stages, five of their coaches have either resigned or been sacked. Ghana’s Chris Hughton got the boot following the Black Stars failure to progress past the group stage for a second successive tournament. Having finished bottom of their group at the last edition with a point, the Black Stars amassed two points from three games to suffer an early exit once again. A solitary win in their last ten AFCON matches across three editions is an appalling record for the Ghanaians, who are yet to win the tourney in over four decades.
Like Ghana like Algeria, the two-time African champions also suffered a group stage exit, their second successive early exit. Algeria’s coach, Djamel Belmadi resigned following the disastrous outing in Cote D’Ivoire. Since winning their second Africa Cup of Nations title in 2019, Algeria has witnessed a stunning decline in football; at the 2021 AFCON, then defending champions, Algeria earned a point from three games, finishing bottom of the group for an early exit. The Desert Foxes also failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, controversially losing out to Cameroon during the playoffs. In a group that had teams such as Angola, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, it is incomprehensible on the basis of football pedigree and the talents on display that Algeria finished bottom of the group.
North African giants, Tunisia also crashed out of the tournament at the group stage in a really piss-poor performance all through the competition. Coach Jalel Kadri resigned from his role after the Carthage Eagles amassed just two points in three games to miss out on knockout football for the first time since 2013. The 2004 champions were inexplicably awful and had a passive performance in all three group matches. It will take more than a managerial change for the Carthage Eagles to hit the lofty heights of 2004 when they hosted and won the competition.
Despite the team’s qualification into the knockout stages, Ivory Coast’s Jean Louis Basset resigned following the Elephants poor performance in the group stages. The 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea saw Ivory Coast become the first host nation to lose two group games since they did so in 1984. It was also the heaviest home defeat in the nation’s history. The hosts won a game and lost two and had to rely on the help of Morocco to qualify as one of the best third-placed teams. Jean Louis Basset has since been replaced on an interim basis by one of his technical advisors, Emerse Fae. Ivorians will be hoping for a better fortune under Fae as they battle Cameroon for a quarterfinal spot.
The Gambia’s hopes of making it into the knockout stages were shattered by a dramatic 3-2 loss to Cameroon which led to coach Tom Saintfiet resigning from his position. Despite impressing in recent years, Gambia’s performance at the tournament was disappointing as they finished bottom of the group, having lost all three matches.
While Aliou Cisse deservedly gets his credit for masterminding Senegal’s clean sweep of the group stages, Amir Abdou is deserving of all credit for masterminding Mauritania’s historic win over two-time champions, Algeria. Prior to Abdou’s appointment, Mauritania were winless in six AFCON games notching up two draws and four losses across two editions. The win over Algeria was a maiden win for the North-Western nation at the tournament and more importantly, helped them secure a knockout spot for the first time ever.
As anticipation grows concerning the knockout stages of the competition and the exciting moments it has in store for football fans, minnows/mid-level teams such as Cape Verde, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Burkina Faso may spring up more surprises leading to more managerial dismissals or resignations. This year’s Africa Cup of Nations is on course to not only break the goal record of the tournament but the record of coaches’ resignation or dismissal.
