AFCON final, other Confederations

The AFCON final was today and Senegal became champions after beating Egypt 4-2 on penalty shootout. The game was OK, with an attacking Senegal and a defensive Egypt, in the end a 0-0 draw that ended in penalties, Not the greatest way for a final but I guess Senegal doesn't mind.

What I have not liked are some derogatory comments about this AFCON. Now I know the world's best teams are in Europe plus you add Argentina and Brazil. But apart from say eight top level teams we have a big group of very competitive teams in the rest of the world out of Europe and South America. Yes, only two teams from federations out of these two have made it to semi finals, USA and South Korea in 1930 and 2002 respectively, and South Korea's qualification was kind of dodgy.

But in that same world cup, 2002, the USA was actually robbed of a semi final by the referee in their game against Germany. African teams have consistently been adversely affected by referee decisions as have a lot of teams from the smaller (football wise) confederations.

I watched more than a few games in this AFCON, and they were Ok to me, I saw some surprising teams and some very good goals. I saw no less quality than in the Copa America and certainly better than our confederation, CONCACAF. I think any calls on how defensive the games were can be traced back to the way football is played in European Leagues were, apart from a few top teams all the rest just try to play on the counterattack.