Clear favourites, but beware the hosts

So, the Africa Cup of Nations is upon us and I don’t think you need to look too much further than Ghana and Ivory Coast as the favourites.

Ivory Coast are a bit of an obvious pick, due to the fact that they have superstars, in the form of the likes of Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Kolo and Yaya Toure, Didier Zokora and Gervinho.

For guys like Drogba, though, they will know that it’s just about their last chance to win a major tournament with their country. Also, they will want to be cashing in on what is a bit of a golden era for them. We’ll have to wait and see if the pressure of that is too much for them. Certainly, the expectation back home in Ivory Coast will be huge and I think anything less than a place in the final will be viewed as a failure.

Ghana, though, can never be written off and they will also carry the weight of expectation, particularly as the tournament is missing the likes of Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa.

Ghana have really come good in the last few years and had a great run at the World Cup here in South Africa in 2010, before losing out in that dramatic quarterfinal against Uruguay. They also have some big-name players, in the form of Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew. They will need those guys to fire for them and inspire some of the younger players, which Ghana seem to produce all the time.

What I’m always wary of is the host nation, or, in this case, the host nations. I just think that ‘12th man’ element should never be underestimated, and that’s why Gabon and Equatorial Guinea will worry a few teams, regardless of whether or not they have quality players in their ranks.

I talked last week of Burkina Faso, who reached the semifinals when hosting in 1998. That’s a prime example of what can be achieved when you’ve got your supporters roaring you on. Of course, we don’t need to be reminded of just how fantastic the support was when South Africa won the title in 1996, and the effect of ‘Madiba Magic’. So, watch out for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

In terms of the other surprise packages, I mentioned last week that Botswana and Zambia could be worth keeping an eye on. I may be a little biased, because I know a few of their players. But, I still think they could spring a surprise or two. Otherwise, Senegal could be another team to watch, although I don’t think they have the quality they had about 10 years ago. They could be worth a few bob, though.

Back home in South Africa, we’ve been training really hard with SuperSport. What has been nice is that we’ve been joined by our new signings, Mabhuti Khenyeza and Franklin Cale. They seemed to fit in really well, and that’s despite them not training much in the last few weeks. There’s also been a bit of speculation about Anthony Laffor, but now he’s gone to Sundowns and we wish him well. We just hope that Mabhuti and Franklin can do a job for us and play some part in hopefully helping us recapture that Absa Premiership title.

For now, though, we run, and if this past week has been anything to go by, we’ll be running for another few weeks to come.....

Until next week.