Egypt is dreaming to reach the finals at home, Tunisia is ready to play at its best while on the other side Senegal and Nigeria want to launch new generations of players, dreaming about Europe. Much has been happening in Cairo since Sunday, at the stadiums of Alexandria and Ismailia with the U-20 Africa Cup of nations, which stars new African talents at an historic time that saw an African team reach the semi-finals at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Morocco, and the Saudi Al Hilal reach for the first time the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Soccer is rising in Asia and Africa with all eyes on the U-20 African championship that kicked off Sunday with the 0-0 between Egypt and Mozambique at Cairo’s International Stadium while Senegal beat Nigeria 1-0. After debuting with the difficult group A, group B yesterday played with Uganda which beat the Central African Republic 2-1 while south Sudan was beaten 1-2 by the Democratic Republic of Congo. Group C is playing Tuesday with Tunisia against Gambia and Benin against Zambia.
The tie upset the Egyptian public, as stated by coach Mahmoud Gaber: “We are not afraid of challenging any adversary – he said after the 0-0 match – but we did not keep the right clear-mindedness to take advantage of the occasions we created.
This led us not to win the match against Mozambique which was able to defend itself well and try to counterattack”. The next match on February 22 against Nigeria, which will be key because even the best two thirds of the three tournaments are reaching the quarterfinals together with the first two of each group.
Tunisia is also ambitious, explained coach Adel Sellimi, and must play at its best against Gambia in Alexandria: “I told players – explained Sellimi – to feel free, to be able to have fun and be efficient on the field, to be able to play with the right discipline. We are a generation of youths with strong ambitions and we are at an important tournament to create the soccer of the next few years. We have to start well against Gambia, knowing that the path to the U-20 World Cup starts tomorrow”. The tournament will in fact take place in Indonesia, starting on May 20 and the four semi-finalists of the African continent that started Sunday will be there.
