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Sports<br />
The Africa Cup of Nations 2015<br />
champions, The Elephants of Ivory Coast.<br />
Photo Credit: mirror.co.uk<br />
The African Beat of Soccer -<br />
The day Dede cried “Maamaa”!!!<br />
On a continent like Africa, soccer is<br />
the one game that merges us as one, a<br />
common language spoken by all, both<br />
young and old, males and even the females. No<br />
one is left out. Soccer affords us one opportunity<br />
to show the world what we are made of.<br />
Held every two years since its inception in 1957,<br />
the African Cup of Nations is ranked 3rd after<br />
the FIFA World Cup and the European Nations<br />
Champions leagues in terms of its cumulative<br />
TV audience. This year’s tournament came in<br />
full display with Equatorial Guinea hosting<br />
the tournament after other countries declined<br />
to do so for fear of Bad New Ebola! With<br />
Participating teams and football lovers from all<br />
walks of life; some trooping into stadia whilst<br />
other stayed glued to their television sets, this<br />
year’s tournament was poised to be a thrilling<br />
experience no one was willing to miss.<br />
Sixteen qualifying teams from Algeria, Burkina<br />
Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Togo, Cote<br />
d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana,<br />
Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal,<br />
South Africa, Zambia and Tunisia all took their<br />
turns in the group matches. The teams lambasted<br />
their opponents on the field of play. Qualifying<br />
teams progressed as expected from their group<br />
stages to the quarter finals, semi-finals, 3rd place<br />
play offs and then…. THE FINALS.<br />
When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. This<br />
was the situation in the final match between<br />
Ivory Coast and Ghana. The Elephant here were<br />
of Cote d’Ivoire but the Black Stars of Ghana<br />
were also determined to blind the elephants<br />
with the brightness of their rays. Being closer to<br />
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