MALAWI VS GUINEA

Malawi will be playing for all the marbles tomorrow in Conakry, Guinea. Malawi and Guinea last met in Conakry, Guinea in September 2005. Guinea joined the list of qualifiers for the 2006 African Nations Cup finals after beating Malawi 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier.

Pascal Feindouno, opened the scoring for Guinea after 12 minutes and Kaba Diawara added a second goal in the 35th minute. Malawi, playing their first match under caretaker English coach Michael Hennigan, pulled a goal back within 60 seconds through Noel Mkandawire but Guinea made sure of the win with a goal in the second half (66th minute) from Sambegou Bangoura.

That was then and this is now. Not same coaches. Not same players. Pascal Feindouno is still in the Guinea team though. Will he score again? Malawi will need to avoid conceding an early goal. I think they learnt/learned a lesson in Ivory Coast.

Will the better side win? Sometimes the team that dominates the game doesn’t win. During the final match at the 1976 CAN finals in Ethiopia, Guinea came within minutes of winning the African Nations Cup, but a late equaliser for Morocco meant they finished runners-up. According to a FIFA publication about African football, Guinea dominated the entire match, but failed to take their several chances, including twice vis-à-vis with the Moroccan goalkeeper. Morocco capitalized on their best chance in the entire game to equalize. Clearly, Guinea was a better side than Morocco in that final game, but, lost due to the inscrutable nature of the “beautiful” game of football.

Yes, anything can happen in football. That’s why there is still a chance that either Guinea or Malawi can make it to South Africa. The Battle for Angola Part 1?

After beating Malawi 3-1, Guinea moved out of the range of the bottom three sides in World Cup African qualifying zone Group Five to ensure their participation in the tournament in Egypt in January 2006.

The Guinea national football team, nicknamed Syli Nationale (”National Elephant”), have never qualified for the World Cup finals, and their best finish in the African Nations Cup was second in the 1976. This Guinean Team went three times straight to the quarterfinals (2004, 2006, 2008) only to go out to bordering countries each time. In 2004 they lost 2-1 to Mali, in 2006 they lost 3-2 to Senegal and in 2008 they were defeated 5-0 by Côte d’Ivoire.

Will Guinea make it to the African Nations Cup Finals four times in a row?