Top 10 AFCON 2012 Flops

Here, in no particular order, are the Top 10 Flops of the recently completed 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, compiled by MTNfootball.com. 1. Attendances Though both Gabon and Equatorial Guinea did a great job in hosting the tournament, the one area they failed to come to grips with was the poor attendances. Apart from matches involving the two host teams, empty seats more often than not outnumbered spectators. The worst example was Zambia�s 3-0 win over Sudan in the quarterfinals when the Esatdio de Bata, with a capacity of 37,500, had no more than a couple of hundred people in it. 2. Senegal Enough has been written and said about Senegal�s shocking failure at the 2012 Nations Cup, so we won�t go on anymore about it here. They came into the tournament as one of the favourites and were sent packing in the group stages after three successive defeats. Ouch! 3. Demba Ba Almost all of Senegal�s attacking players were disappointing at the Nations Cup, but none of them came into the tournament with red-hot form like Demba Ba. He was banging in goals left, right and centre for Newcastle in the Premier League, but at Afcon 2012 he simply failed to shine. He then returned to the Magpies and scored in his first game back, as did Papiss Cisse on his debut for the club. Go figure. 4. Ghana�s discipline Three players sent off in the space of six games points to a serious lack of discipline in Ghana�s ranks. It was a major problem for the Black Stars at this tournament and when they look back on just why they failed to live up to their favourites tag, it will definitely feature high up on the list. 5. Gervinho CAF may have included Gervinho in their team of the tournament, but apart from his (admittedly superb) solo goal against Mali in the semifinals, he was a major disappointment for Cote d�Ivoire. His finishing, final pass or cross and link-up play was sub-standard. He then underlined his struggles with a nervy miss in the final�s penalty shootout. 6. Morocco Talked of as �dark horses� for the title, Morocco were eliminated after losing their first two group games to Tunisia and co-hosts Gabon. They at least salvaged a little pride with a win over Niger in their last match, but it was still a dreadfully disappointing showing from the North Africans. 7. Burkina Faso And we can say the same for Burkina Faso�s Stallions. Sure, they were in a tough group, but to go home with no points at all? -Just not good enough, especially from coach Paulo Duarte, who blamed pretty much everyone and everything, but himself for his side�s abject failure. 8. Goalkeeping While Zambia�s Kennedy Mweene gave a tournament-long master class in the art of goalkeeping, the standard of glove work at the Nations Cup was generally pretty ropey. The nadir was Aymen Mathlouthi�s inexplicable howler that gifted Ghana a 2-1 win over Tunisia in the quarterfinals. Asamoah Gyan Asamoah Gyan came into the tournament under an injury cloud and, apart from his brilliant free kick goal against Mali in the group phase, he looked a shadow of himself. His weak penalty miss in the semifinal against Zambia summed up the kind of Nations Cup he had. Big-name strikers taking penalties Didier Drogba missed two penalties, including one in the final; Asamoah Gyan fluffed one in the semifinal; Gabon�s star Pierre Aubameyang missed in the quarterfinal shootout against Mali; and Gervinho fired wide in the final�s penalty shootout. For some inexplicable reason, most of the continent�s best attackers were pretty useless when it came to spot kicks.