The Aftermath

I’m still in recovery mode after Mali’s disappointing showing against Cote d’Ivoire on Tuesday. The ACN has lost some of it’s luster for me now. It’s still a great tournament and there will still be some great football to watch, but when your main rooting interest bows out of a tournament like this, some of the appeal is gone.

It’s one thing when a team plays their best and still gets beaten, but with Mali I got the feeling that we never saw them at their best and it leaves me wanting more.

Elephants-3 Eagles-0
Unfortunately the live online feeds I had streamed for all the other games so far in this tournament decided to go on the fritz for Tuesdays games so I was unable to watch even a second of this match. However, based on what I read in Daryl’s LiveBlog of the game, it was a pretty poor showing for Mali and with Drogba’s early goal, the result never seemed in doubt. Even though only a draw or even a late goal in defeat would have been enough to push the Eagles through to the quarters, they were unable to put up much of a fight and the better team definitely looked like the better team. Any pre-match thoughts of the 2 French coaches cooperating and playing nice to earn a draw ended up being at best, misguided opinions.

Let’s point some fingers
There’s plenty of blame to go around here so let’s dish some out. First we must start with the man in charge, Jean-François Jodar. Now to be fair, I must first say that I was giving him a lot of credit for how Mali played in the first two matches. It seems like he worked out a good game plan and the team seemed well-prepared to execute that plan. However in the third match it all fell apart. The team seemed unmotivated to play in a game that they needed a result from. They seemed to be content to sit back for the draw which would have been fine if Cote d’Ivoire was taking that same approach. And what was with the half-time substitution of Freddy Kanoute? In needing a goal one would expect to see the star striker remain on the pitch, no? Maybe there is an explanation yet to come such as an injury or a feud with the coach but that remains to be seen. In some post-match interviews Jodar gave the impression that he was convinced that the Elephants were going to rest Drogba and other players who had already picked up yellow cards. That was partially true as Arouna Dindane and Arthur Boka were absent, however Drogba was there and was key in the victory. Seems to be a case of Jodar mis-reading the hand of his opponents and taking the outcome for granted. That, for a coach, is unacceptable. And why not bring back the same lineup (albeit minus Mahamadou Diarra) that was pretty effective against Nigeria? Something tells me the 3rd and crucial group stage match was not the place to introduce players that had little or no playing time in the first two games.

The players must be held responsible as well. They simply did not show up. Captain Diarra was absent because of two yellow cards (cheap ones I might add), and what about Momo Sissoko taking a trip away from the team to sign his new contract with Juventus? Was that necessary? Especially right before a key match. Reminds me of when NBA star Vince Carter split for his graduation right before a do-or-die playoff game in 2001. And as far as Kanoute goes, he looked very little like a world-class star throughout this whole tournament. He played alright at times but to me just looked too nonchalant and dispassionate. Is he not motivated enough to represent his country? We’ll see how he shows up for the World Cup qualifying.

The Bottom Line
Let’s get down to brass tacks, Mali blew it. They had a chance to cruise in to the quarters and they flat out didn’t show up. I’m sure they have left all their fans back home pretty disappointed and wondering what’s next as they now turn their focus to WC 2010 qualifying. It’s a team I still will be following and rooting for in the coming years if simply for the fact that it seems they have some great potential yet to be realized.