2010 Africa Cup of Nations

2010 Africa Cup of Nations

Taça de África das Nações de 2010
Africa Cup of Nations 2010 official logo
Tournament details
Host country	Angola
Dates	10–31 January
Teams	15 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Egypt (7th title)
Runners-up	Ghana
Third place	Nigeria
Fourth place	Algeria
Tournament statistics
Matches played	29
Goals scored	71 (2.45 per match)
Attendance	543,500 (18,741 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gedo (5 goals)
Best player	Ahmed Hassan
Best goalkeeper	Essam El-Hadary

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa (CAF). It was held in Angola, where it began on 10 January 2010 and concluded on 31 January.^[1][2]

In the tournament, the hosts Angola were to be joined by 15 nations who advanced from the qualification process that began in October 2007 and involved 53 African national teams. The withdrawal of Togo after a terrorist attack on their bus upon arriving for the tournament reduced the number of participating nations to 15. A total of 29 games were played, instead of the scheduled 32 games. Egypt won the tournament, their seventh ACN title and an unprecedented third in a row, beating Ghana 1–0 in the final.^[3]

Host selection

Angola was awarded the right to host the tournament by CAF in a decision to rotate the hosting of the Cup and allow new nations like Angola, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea a chance to host the tournament. Bids from Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Senegal were rejected. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea were also awarded the hosting rights to the 2012 Nations Cup, while Libya would be hosting the event for the second time in 2014. Two-time former host Nigeria is the reserve host for the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Nations Cups, in the event that any of the host countries fails to meet the requirements established by CAF.

Qualification

The Confederation of African Football announced that the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification would also be the qualification for this tournament. Despite the fact Angola are the host of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, they also needed to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. A similar situation was true for South Africa. Although they will be the hosts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, they still needed to compete in the qualification tournament in order to qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.^[4]

Qualified teams

•  Algeria
•  Angola (hosts)
•  Benin
•  Burkina Faso
•  Cameroon
•  Ivory Coast
•  Egypt
•  Gabon
•  Ghana
•  Malawi
•  Mali
•  Mozambique
•  Nigeria
•  Togo (withdrew; see below)
•  Tunisia
•  Zambia

Venues

Luanda	Luanda Cabinda Benguela Lubango	Cabinda
Estádio 11 de Novembro		Estádio Nacional do Chiazi
Capacity: 50,000		Capacity: 20,000
Benguela		Lubango
Estádio Nacional de Ombaka		Estádio Nacional da Tundavala
Capacity: 35,000		Capacity: 20,000

Draw

The draw for the final tournament took place on 20 November 2009 at the Talatona Convention Centre in Luanda, Angola. The 16 teams were split into four pots, with Pot 1 containing the top four seeded nations. Angola were seeded as hosts and Egypt as reigning holders. The remaining 14 teams were ranked based on their records in the three last editions of the competition. Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire had the two strongest records and so completed the top seeded Pot 1. The four seeded teams were placed into their groups in advance of the final draw.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Angola  Egypt  Cameroon  Ivory Coast	Ghana  Nigeria  Tunisia  Mali	Zambia  Benin  Algeria  Togo (withdrew)	Burkina Faso  Mozambique  Gabon  Malawi

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

Referees	Assistant Referees
Mohamed Benouza Hélder Martins de Carvalho Coffi Codjia Noumandiez Doue Essam Abd El Fatah Koman Coulibaly Rajindraparsad Seechurn Khalil Al Ghamdi Badara Diatta Eddy Maillet Daniel Bennett Jerome Damon Khalid Abdel Rahman Kokou Djaoupe Kacem Bennaceur Muhmed Ssegonga	Inácio Manuel Candido Desire Gahungu Evarist Menkouande Nasser Sadek Abdel Nabi Angesom Ogbamariam Ayuba Haruna Hassan Kamranifar Fooad El Maghrabi Moffat Champiti Redouane Achik Peter Edibe Mohammed Al Ghamdi Enock Molefe Celestin Ntagungira Bechir Hassani Kenneth Chichenga

Squads

Group stage

Tie-breaking criteria

If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:^[5]

1. points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;
2. goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;
3. number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;
4. goal difference in all group matches;
5. number of goals scored in all group matches;
6. fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards;
7. drawing of lots by the organising committee.

All times given as local time (UTC+1)

Key to colours in group tables
	Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Angola	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
Algeria	3	1	1	1	1	3	−2	4
Mali	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4
Malawi	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3

• Algeria finished ahead of Mali due to winning the match between the teams (see tie-breaking criteria).

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Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Ivory Coast	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4
Ghana	2	1	0	1	2	3	−1	3
Burkina Faso	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1
Togo	withdrew, officially disqualified

• Togo were disqualified from the tournament after missing their opening game against Ghana.^[6] Group B became a three-team group.

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Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Egypt	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9
Nigeria	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6
Benin	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1
Mozambique	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1

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Group D

• The tie-breaking criteria for teams level on points consider only the results of matches between those teams (in this case, this excludes their results against Tunisia). This is shown in the sub-table above. All three teams were level on points and goal difference, and were ranked based on goals scored: Zambia 4, Cameroon 3, Gabon 2.

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Knockout stage

All times given as local time (UTC+1)

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	24 January – Luanda
	Angola	0
					28 January – Luanda
	Ghana	1
					Ghana	1
	25 January – Estádio Nacional da Tundavala, Lubango
					Nigeria	0
	Zambia	0 (4)
									31 January – Luanda
	Nigeria (p)	0 (5)
									Ghana	0
	24 January – Estádio do Chiazi, Cabinda
									Egypt	1
	Ivory Coast	2
					28 January – Estádio Nacional de Ombaka, Benguela
	Algeria (aet)	3
					Algeria	0			Third place
	25 January – Estádio Nacional de Ombaka, Benguela
					Egypt	4
	Egypt (aet)	3							Nigeria	1
	Cameroon	1							Algeria	0
									30 January – Estádio Nacional de Ombaka, Benguela

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third Place Play-off

Final

Awards

• Best player of the competition: Ahmed Hassan^[7]
• Fair Play player of the competition: Ahmed Fathy^[7]
• Discovery Player of the Tournament: Gedo^[7]
• Goalkeeper of the competition: Essam El-Hadary^[7]
• Top scorer: Gedo^[7]

Best XI

The following players were selected as the best in their respective positions, based on their performances throughout the tournament. Their performances were analysed by the tournament's Technical Study Group (TSG), who picked the team.^[8]

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Essam El-Hadary	Madjid Bougherra Wael Gomaa Mabiná	Ahmed Fathy Peter Odemwingie Alexandre Song Ahmed Hassan	Asamoah Gyan Mohamed Zidan Flávio

Substitutes

• Richard Kingson
• Gedo
• Emmanuel Mbola
• Karim Ziani
• Achille Emana
• Kwadwo Asamoah
• Seydou Keita
• André Ayew
• Eric Mouloungui
• Chinedu Obasi
• Salomon Kalou
• Jacob Mulenga

Goalscorers

Goals scored per nation

*** indicates the team played only two matches in the group stage, due to the withdrawal of Togo from the tournament.

Scoring

• Total number of goals scored: 71
• Average goals per match: 2.45
• Most goals scored by a team in the first round: 7 –  Egypt and  Mali
• Most goals conceded by a team: 9 –  Algeria
• Most goals conceded by a team in the first round: 7 –  Mozambique
• Fewest goals conceded by a team in the first round: 1 –  Egypt and  Burkina Faso*** and  Ivory Coast***
• Fewest goals conceded by a team continuing on to the second round: 2 –  Egypt
• Fastest goal in a match: 36th second: Kanouté for  Mali (against Malawi )
• Latest goal scored in a match: 104th minute: Ahmed Hassan for  Egypt (against Cameroon )
• Most goals scored in a match: 8 –  Angola 4–4 Mali 
• Fewest goals scored in a match: 0 –  Ivory Coast vs. Burkina Faso , –  Angola vs. Algeria , –  Gabon vs. Tunisia –  Zambia vs. Nigeria 
• Most goals scored by a losing team: 2 –  Zambia (against Cameroon ); and  Ivory Coast (against Algeria )
• Most goals scored in a draw: 8 –  Angola 4–4 Mali 
• Most goals scored by a winning team: 4 –  Egypt (4–0 vs. Algeria )

*** indicates the team played only two matches in the group stage, due to the withdrawal of Togo from the tournament.

Mascot

The Mascot for the Tournament is Palanquinha, which was inspired by the Giant Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger variani), a national symbol and a treasured animal in Angola. In Angola, this animal is found only in the Cangandala National Park in Malange Province.

Match ball

The official match ball for the tournament is the Adidas Jabulani Angola, a modified version of the Adidas Jabulani to be used at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with the colours of the flag of Angola.

Attack on the Togo national team

On 8 January 2010, the team bus of the Togo national football team was attacked by gunmen in Cabinda, Angola as it travelled to the tournament. A spokesman for the Togolese football federation said assistant coach Améleté Abalo and press officer Stanislaud Ocloo had died as well as the driver. The separatist group Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda-Military Position (FLEC-PM) claimed responsibility for the attack. The Togolese team withdrew from the competition the following day. The players initially decided to compete to commemorate the victims in this way, but were immediately ordered to return by the Togolese government.^[9]

Following their departure from Angola, Togo were formally disqualified from the tournament after failing to fulfil their opening Group B game against Ghana on 11 January.

On 30 January 2010, CAF banned Togo from participating in the next two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and fined the team $50,000 due to "government involvement in the withdrawal from the tournament".^[10] Togo were unable to compete until the 2015 tournament, but that ban was lifted on 14 May 2010 by a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.^[11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

• Results at CAF web site
• Official Site
• Dossier on African Cup of Nations – Radio France Internationale
• African Cup of Nations Guide
• African Cup of Nations – (Arabic)
• 2010 Africa Cup of Nations at ESPN