Good Luck Eduardo!!!

Arsenal front man Eduardo da Silva's season is over. The Gunner's striker suffered a broken foot and ankle injury in Saturdays 2-2 Premier league clash against Birmingham City. Eduardo's injury was so severe that SkyTv refused to show replays of the incident.

Eduardo's was tackled in the third minute by Birmingham defender Mark Taylor who was summarily dismissed from the game afterwards. Arsenal players were visibly shaken by the incident to their colleague.

Eduardo could well miss this summer's European Championships, and his absence will make Arsenal's quest for a first Premier league title in four years even more difficult.

Arsenal Manager, Arsene Wenger who lashed out at Martin Taylor for the tackle on his striker, asking for a Life ban on the Birmingham defender, reviewed his stance Sunday. Professor Wenger admitted that his comments uttered in the heat of the moment were "excessive". Wenger was obviously and rightfully distraught after seeing one of the Premier league's top young players go down in such horrendous circumstance.

Wenger said there was a school of thought that Arsenal could only be stopped by using rough play. 'It goes along with the idea... that to stop Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal,' he said. 'That kind of thing was waiting to happen. It's not acceptable. If that is football, it's better to stop it.

We wish Eduardo a speedy recovery, but the fear as Wenger puts it that his striker's season is over and the lad could be out much longer.

The Brazilian-born-Croatian Eduardo underwent surgery and was resting, Arsenal website stated.


link: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=510509&cc=5901

Barack Says: Yes We Can!

Black Stars Slip Through

The 'Super Sunday' clash in the African Cup of Nations, Ghana '08 between hosts Ghana and Nigeria's Super Eagles ended with the Black Stars piping their opponents to a spot in the Semi-Finals of the Competition.

Junior Agogo's 83 minute goal which looked offside from Tv replays won the game for the hosts.

The Super Eagles had gone ahead through Yakubu Aiyegbeni penalty on 35 minutes and seemed ready to spoil the biggest party in Accra. Chelsea's Micheal Essien however leveled scores with a fine header in the 3rd minute of added time.

Ghana were on the back foot for the majority of the second half with Nigeria's winger Osaze Odewingwe running riot and confusing the defense; leading to a sending off for Ghanaian Captain and defender Mensah in the 60th minute. Mensah committed a professional foul, audaciously bringing down the goal-bound Nigerian

Ghana reacted by redeploying Essien to cover for Mensah and never seemed to miss the big man. Both sides played a counter attacking option with a lot of the battles going on in the mid-field. John Mikel Obi was relatively absent for the Super Eagles as Sully Muntari threaded passes and controlled the tempo of the game.

The Super Eagles it seemed did not have any clues as to how to make use of their one-man advantage and failed to capitalize. Late into the game, Ghanaian Agogo latched onto a loose ball squared across the Nigerian goal by Muntari. Agogo tapped in at the back post uncontested, while the Nigerian defense it seemed were ball watching.

In the end it was an unconvincing victory for Ghana, but nonetheless deserved. Based on current form many pundits had predicted a Black Stars victory and the Super Eagles were merely spoilers. For the Super Eagles; it was another game where they fell well short.

The 'real' competition begins now as the pretenders and contenders are being separated.

Ghana's reward for a well fought victory; Eto'o's Cameroon or Tunisia.

Kanoute is Africa's No 1

Malian striker Frederic Kanoute has been named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Kanoute whose team Mali was recently eliminated from the African's Nations Cup this week is the first European-born player to win the award after beating off competition from Ivory Coast captain Didier Drogba and Michael Essien of Ghana.

The Sevilla striker was nominated for his role in helping Mali qualify for this year's African Nations Cup finals and triumphs last season with his Spanish club in the UEFA and King's Cups.

The lanky Kanoute is the first Malian to win the coveted award after fellow country man Salif Keita got the award in 1970; its inaugural year. Kanoute played for his native France as a junior international before switching allegiance in 2004 to Mali, his father's country. A decision he was praised for.

The other nominees for the Award Ivorian Didier Drogba and Ghanaian Micheal Essien were seen as favorites for the award. The Chelsea duo were nominated mainly on the strength of their form in the English league and European competition. Drogba's goals kept Chelsea in the Premier League title race last season and also helped them lift the FA Cup, with the Ivorian scoring the only goal of the final against Manchester United at Wembley, while Essien's antic in the Chelsea midfield have not gone unnoticed.

The award ceremony was however undermined when Essien was refused permission by his federation to travel the short distance to neighboring Togo for the ceremony; Ghana plays Nigeria in a quarter-final in Accra on Sunday. Drogba on his part will lead the Ivorians against Guinea in Sekondi in their quest to reach back to back finals.

Ivory Coast were named as the African team of the year and Champions League winners Etoile Sahel of Tunisia announced as the club of the year. Etoile Sahel striker Armine Chermiti was named the best African club competition player and Zambian Clifford Mulenga Young African Player of the Year.

Past winners of the Award include legendary players like George Weah, Abedi Pele, El Hadji Diouf, 3-time winner Samuel Eto'o, Nigerian Nwankwo Kanu and Didier Drogba.

The African Footballer of the Year award is voted for by the national coaches of the 53 CAF associations.

Super Eagles not yet out of it

The Super Eagles are Africa's top ranked team according to the latest FIFA rankings, Nigeria's high flying team has been numero uno since October 2007.

After a lack-lustre start to their campaign in the current African Nations Cup campaign, Ghana'08, the flamboyant Super Eagles go into Sunday's clash against host Ghana's Black Stars as the unlikely underdogs, and this is where it gets interesting.

The Black Stars are 3 for 3 in first round matches, while the Super Eagles are an unimpressive 1-1-1. The Black Stars are obviously favoured to rout Nigeria, but with the passionate home crowd expected at the game, Ghana's players might resort to impress the crowd to their own detriment.

The match-ups in this mammoth game are fantastic. Ghana parades some sleek and very skillful players in the midfield. Chelsea's Essien and Portsmouth Sule Muntari will marshal attacks on the Super Eagles defense led-in-chief by Everton's Joseph Yobo. Essien's Chelsea compatriot John Mikel Obi will screen the Super Eagles defense from deep in the center of play after an impressive performance against Benin.

Super Eagles' strength will be in third of the field where Martins will hope to latch on to John Utaka's passes from the flanks. Nigeria has scoring options in Aiyegbeni, Kanu, Osaze Odewingwe and Taye Taiwo from the free kicks range.

Super Eagles gaffer, Berti Vorgts has to instruct his players not to lose the midfield battles. If the Super Eagles can withstand the Black Star's early rush on goal, the game might turn on its head. Nigeria should soak th pressure and counter-attack when the Black Stars are exposed at the back.

I predict that the longer it takes the Black Stars to get a goal the more it will be 'advantage Super Eagles', as their confidence will increase. Ghana's home crowd will become impatient and the effect could lead the team to push forward in search of a goal; Nigeria will be content to just watch and pounce when this happens.

All in all it should be a spectacle, but I am rooting for the Super Eagles to finish on top.

By the way Ghana is ranked 9th in Africa.....

Link to Fifa rankings