Full time: Ivory Coast 0-0 Togo
The first rule of tournament football is you shall not talk about tourn lose the first game, and that fear dominated a poor game. We shouldn’t underestimate how good a result that is for Togo, however. Thanks for your company, night!
90 min Added minutes there will be three.
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89 min Togo’s final substitution: Razak Boukari replaces the terrific Adebayor.
88 min Aurier heads Grazel’s diniked cross just wide. It was a really good effort, flicked deliberately towards the far corner. The keeper was nowhere near it and it drifted past the post.
87 min Togo make another substitution, with Dossevi replaced by Komlan Agbegniadan.
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84 min Adebayor has had a paternal influence on the game, moving all over the field, trying to be involved in everything. It’s quite sweet actually. Togo have been terrific, they fully deserve a draw. Their two wingers, Bebou and Dossevi, have both looked really dangerous at times.
81 min Togo replace Laba with Serge Akakpo, and Ivory Coast bring on Bournemouth’s Max Gradel for Aston Villa’s Kodija.
80 min The lively Dossevi bursts into the box on the right and dinks the ball onto the roof of the net. I’m not sure whether that was a mishit cross or an attempt to chip Gbouhou, but it doesn’t really matter either way.
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79 min Bony beats Ouro with a stepover and is flattened just outside the area. The free-kick is a fair way to the left of centre and Aurier clatters it into the wall.
78 min That was a chance for Togo. Adebayor plays a nice reverse ball down the left to Bebou, whose cross is headed over from near the penalty spot by Laba. It looked a great chance, though replays showed it took a small but vital deflection off a defender just before it reached Laba.
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77 min Almost a chance for Togo. Dossevi’s free-kick from the right flashes dangerously across the six-yard box before being cleared.
76 min Ivory Coast are starting to have more of the ball, though you couldn’t really say they are dominating as they aren’t creating anything.
73 min I suppose, as terrible as this game has been, the result would be okay for both sides. Ivory Coast still have two winnable games to come against DR Congo and Morocco, while Togo - who got to this tournament by going through the cat-flap in the back door - would still have hope of sneaking through the group.
71 min “Hello from the United States,” says Joe Harvey. “As an academy washout, and a man who plays with some former professionals, how crap they are in 5 a side depends mostly on what made them special when they were pros. There are a fair amount of good players for whom once the pace is gone, the game is completely gone. Not that they aren’t functional and you wouldn’t want them on your team- practicing 5 days a week for however many years has its benefits, they just don’t set themselves apart from the pack in a very competitive league. It’s rare that they can take over a match. There are exceptions - I played with a guy who should still be playing at Werder Bremen, and he would single-handedly wrest the match from even very good opposing teams.”
On that note, I saw one of the Brazil 1998 World Cup squad playing seven-a-side recently and, seriously, he was rubbish.
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70 min One Wilfried replaces another for Ivory Coast: Bony for Zaha. That’s a surprise as Zaha has been a threat, especially in the last 10 minutes.
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68 min Zaha surges down the right onto a long pass, does a Cruyff-turn on the run to get past Djene and moves infield before hitting a left-footed shot that is superbly blocked by Gakpe. That shot was certainly on target and possibly heading towards the corner.
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67 min Bebou, who has been sporadically dangerous down the left for Togo, runs at Aurier and wins a corner. It’s headed clear.
66 min So anyway, who do you reckon did shoot JR?
65 min Ivory Coast make their first change: Seri off, Doukoure on.
62 min Kessie is given a soft free-kick just outside the Toga area. Kalou wafts it over the bar; Phil Podolsky winces knowingly.
59 min Zaha has been the most vivacious and probably the best attacker on the pitch. He plays a good pass down the line to Kessie, whose cross is headed clear.
57 min Kodija wins a corner for Ivory Coast on the left. It’s played short to Zaha, who surges past Atakora on the edge of the box and hits a rising drive not far over the top. The keeper had it covered but it was good play from Zaha.
55 min Kodija heads a simple chance wide from eight yards, then finds out he was offside anyway.
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53 min Serey Die fouls Laba, 30 yards from goal. Ayite decides not to shoot on goal, instead playing it wide to Gakpe. As the ball bounces up he heads it way from Traore, who accidentally kicks him flush in the coupon. Kapow! Another free-kick for Togo, this time just outside the box on the right. Dossevi overhits it and, though Adebayor stretches to head the ball back into the area, the attack soon fizzles out. Togo made a not inconsiderable Horlicks of two free-kicks in very good positions.
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49 min “Hi Rob,” says Kelvin. “Stockport’s Kevin Francis was crap... Please post before and after pictures.”
I wasn’t talking about my eyes, Kelvin.
48 min The players have seen the sleepy start to the first half and lowered it. The lack of urgency on both sides, even allowing for the inevitable first-match-of-the-tournament caution, has verged on the weird.
47 min David Edson has contributed to the Adebayor love-in, sending in the below clip. I hadn’t seen that before. It’s a rare type of goal: the close-range screamer.
46 min Emmanuel Adebayor begins the second half for Togo.
Half-time crapchat
“Rob,” says Steve Johnson. “You undersell how good many of these crap players are. You could stick most of them in a Championship side and they would stand out, never mind embarrassing your average Booze-Ravaged Middle Aged Wednesday Night 5-a-Siders. In fact there are a lot of ‘crap’ players who are not actually crap at all, but received wisdom or fashion or whatever it is deems them to be so. I know what I’m talking about. I am a Stockport County fan and over the years we have had a lot of crap players…”
Yes, good point. And if anyone says Stockport’s Kevin Francis was crap, I’ll take an eye out.
Half time: Ivory Coast 0-0 Togo
That was not the greatest half of football in the history of mankind. It probably wasn’t in the top gazillion. But the second half will be better! Right?
45+1 min Dossevi yelps for a penalty when a cross hits the arm of Traore. He was jumping on the spot, imploring anyone and everyone to give a penalty. It did hit Traore’s arm but I think it deflected off his chest and certainly wasn’t deliberate.
45 min “’Lively’ is probably as fulsome a praise as Kalou’s performances have ever merited,” says Phil Podolsky. “For years I’ve writing to the MBM to say ‘he can’t possibly be one of the best 11 footballers of any given nation state’ yet there he is, every time.”
What I love about crap footballers, or perceived crap footballers, is that if they played 5-a-side with us they would be the best player on the pitch by a million miles.
44 min Kodija works a shooting position in the box but it’s blocked by Ouro.
43 min Togo have had three corners in as many minutes. All of them produced sweet bugger all but, well, it’s the thought that counts.
40 min Laba, as he is falling over, stabs a good pass round the corner for Dossevi, and Serey Die has to get back and concede a corner.
36 min A bone-crunching challenge in the middle of the pitch between Ayite and Serey Die. Ayite was penalised but the Togo players were really unhappy with Sereye Die’s challenge and ran towards the referee. It was certainly a zestful tackle, and Ayite is off the field receiving treatment, though I don’t think he went over the top or anything like that. They just clattered into each other at speed.
33 min Zaha skins Djene thrillingly on the right and drives a dangerous low cross into the six-yard box. The keeper Agassa plunges to his right to make a half-save, without which Kodija might have had a tap-in, and it’s helped behind for a corner by Gakpe.
32 min At the risk of patronising 11 gentlemen who are infinitely better at football than I ever was, Togo have done really well so far. What was supposed to be a one-sided match has been pretty even in every aspect.
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29 min Great chance for Togo! An Ivory Coast corner was cleared to Adebayor, who launched a counter-attack with some deft footwork. Eventually Bebou, the lively left winger, played a fine angled pass to put Dossevi through on goal. He had to take the short first time on the stretch, and his stabbed shot was smothered by the outrushing Gbohouo. That was an excellent save, as much as anything for the anticipation and speed off his line.
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27 min A headed clearance drops to Adebayor, who tries an acrobatic volley from 35 yards. You can probably guess what happens next.
25 min “Here is the reason why the stadiums are empty...” says Matt Kidd. “In summary, tickets were given away free to the Gabonese. Jean Ping’s supporters organized a boycott. People posted pictures to social media of burned and ripped up tickets.”
24 min A cute touch from Adebayor allows Ayite to move towards the Ivory Coast area. The ball ricochets a few times before breaking to Laba on the edge of the box. Ayite is backing up the play and the two of them get in each others way to such an extent that Laba mishits a tame shot well wide.
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23 min “I assume you’re watching on telly and they’ve not stumped up flights for you?!?” says Michael Bushell. Arf! “Still, hoping that Wilf does his thing - if nothing else to highlight the FA’s general incompetence.”
22 min Nothing remotely notable has happened in the last 10 minutes or so.
21 min This game, thus far, has not been life-changing.
18 min Ali G’s favourite footballer, Eric Bailly, is of course playing at the back for Ivory Coast. There are a few England-based players in the starting XIs today: Zaha, Adebayor, Kalou, Kodija and Ayite.
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17 min The free-kick is taken by Seri and headed behind for a corner by Adebayor, doing his Roy Race bit in both boxes.
16 min Ivory Coast are starting to dominate the game, with Salomon Kalou looking particularly lively on the left. Zaha has started well too and wins a free-kick on the right edge of the area.
14 min “Sorry about your empty inbox,” says Maria Hammershoy. “I’m following. Keep it up please! Togo needs to win.”
I just want Adebayor to do this again.
12 min On reflection/after gawping at a couple of replays, I don’t think that was a foul from Gakpe. Kodija did well to get there first and manufacture a shot while off balance, and it was a decent save from Agassa.
10 min Kodija has the first big chance of the match for Ivory Coast. He was put clear by a nice through ball by Kalou but was stumbling slightly after a tackle from Gakpe and could only stab his shot at the outrushing Agassa. If he had gone down that might have been a penalty.
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8 min This has been a decent start for Togo, who have enjoyed some good possession. The whole match feels very sluggish though.
7 min A promising run down the left from Bebou, who nutmegs Aurier before playing it infield to Adebayor. He runs into trouble and that’s the end of that.
4 min It’s been a very leisurely start to the game, with both teams ambling out of the blocks.
2 min “Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!” writes JR in Illinois. “Of course it’s a holiday here in the U.S. so instead of work I get to watch some live soccerball. This will really banjax my usual podcast-listening schedule but I’ll just need to find time later. I got 7 answers correct on the quiz as well. Yeah, about 3 or 4 of those were essentially complete guesses. Then maybe 2 or 3 were educated guesses.”
Yeah, but that question where you had to write your own name was answered with total authority.
1 min Peep peep! The Ivory Coast kick off from left to right. They are in white; Togo are in red.
The stadium is surprisingly empty. My inbox is also empty, though this is less of a surprise.
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Pre-match quiz
I managed a respectable 7/10, thanks entirely to the wonders of multiple choice.
I could talk about the merits of each team, but our African football expert Paul Doyle - no Wikipedia for him! - knows approximately 471234120429452354235 times more than I do, so here’s his preview:
Ivory Coast
The holders made heavy work of qualifying, winning only one of four matches in a surprisingly closely contested group. But they have shown signs of gaining momentum in recent months and could mount a strong defence of their title if a couple of recent additions to their squad fulfil the hopes invested in them. Jonathan Kodjia has made such as an encouraging start to his international career that some Ivorian fans have suggested he is a legitimate heir to Didier Drogba, while Wilfried Zaha’s decision to join the Elephants could compensate for the injury to Gervinho. Doubts persist about the team’s midfield creativity since the retirement of Yaya Touré but they may not need quite as much as others, since they have menace out wide and one of the best defences in the tournament, albeit in front of a goalkeeper of dubious reliability.
Key player Jonathan Kodjia (Aston Villa)
Togo
Claude LeRoy will set a record by managing a team in the finals for a ninth time after getting Togo to the tournament as one of the best runners-up from the qualifying stage but the Frenchman is unlikely to mark that milestone by guiding the Sparrowhawks into the knockout stages. Despite trawling European leagues for talented players of Togolese origin he has been unable to reinforce his squad since qualification so will build the side around players who are past their best, including two who are currently without clubs, captain Emmanuel Adebayor and goalkeeper Kossi Agassa. Togo will compete ruggedly – especially midfielder Alaixys Romao – and Floyd Ayité will carry a threat from wide, but LeRoy’s side will probably be outclassed.
Key player Emmanuel Adebayor (unattached)
Team news
Ivory Coast (4-3-3) Gbohouo; Aurier, Bailly, Kanon, Traore; Seri, Serey Die, Kessie; Zaha, Kodjia, Kalou.
Togo (4-D-2) Agassa; Gakpé, Romao, Ouro, Djené; Atakora, Dossevi, Bebou; F.Ayité, Adebayor, Laba.
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Preamble
Hello. If you’re a student of African football, or you know how to use Wikipedia, you be aware that the Cup of Nations has been retained a fair bit in the 21st century. Cameroon won back-to-back tournaments in 2000 and 2002, and Egypt won three in a row from 2006 to 2010.
The Ivory Coast’s attempt to retain the trophy they won in 2015, and to win this trophy without recourse to a never-ending penalty shoot-out against Ghana in the final, starts today with what should - should - be a relatively comfortable match against Togo.
Wilfried Zaha is expected to start for the Ivory Coast and Emmanuel Adebayor, who has no club at the moment, is still working his unique magic for Togo. We’ll have team news shortly.
Kick off is at 4pm.
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