Sport
Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Update: Equatorial Guinea 2 – Senegal 1
“It is an important victory. Today is an historic day in the life of this country,” Equatorial Guinea captain Juvenal Edjogo-Owono said. “The fans are very excited and I am very proud to be part of this piece of history.”
Unlike most of Senegal’s players, Edjogo-Owono will return to a modest career in the Spanish second tier when the tournament finishes. His teammates, most of them born outside Equatorial Guinea, have similarly low-key backgrounds at clubs in leagues as far afield as Brazil, Oman and Turkey.
That perhaps explains why the Equatorial Guinea players are making the most of their moment in the limelight, while nothing seemed to go right for Senegal.
After days of bright sunshine, a tropical downpour caused the pitch to become waterlogged before the match against Equatorial Guinea, forcing the start to be delayed by more than an hour.
The torrential rain left a sodden surface that was unhelpful to the fast, attacking football favored by Senegal’s pacy forwards. Niang said that forced a move to unusually direct tactics.
“We tried to put the ball in the opposing half and then support to find chances,” he said. “I think that was pretty successful, but then you have to score and we didn’t know how to do that.”
Now Senegal’s only objective is to salvage some pride against Libya in its final match.
“We will try to play as hard as we can and beat Libya, for our honor, for our pride,” Niang said.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
