Topic: 🌍⚽Sportsbet AFCON prediction pool discussion thread - page 8. (Read 5451 times)

Now every team gets too careful and all the matches will be slower with fewer chances created. I expect more draws but there should also be surprise victories, More difficult to pick out.

The 90 minutes score is also going to be determined by the fact that there is the possibility of extra time.

- Jay -

Im fully backing you in this one. Ivory coast needed a miracle to be in the round of 16 and the results comes and they are again on track, so if they wake up they can be champions.

About Algeria, no words, the word shamefull seems short.

One funny thing, yesterday when i check what results i put on Superbru i see i put Tanzania to win, and i dont know why i think i put Congo to win becasue they have a much more better team, luckily for me Congo dont won.

Algeria were the most disappointing team since they were one of the teams I considered to be a threat, had everything they needed to get to the next round, and were in easiest group possible. Dropping points against Bukina Faso and Angola, as well as losing against Mauritania's part-time coco farmers in a must-win game, is punishable by hanging. They ought to reimburse taxpayer money; they are a disgrace. Tunisia has declined throughout the 2000s, after being one of the greatest in the 1990s.

Never underestimate the power of the best losers; this could be the story of Portugal's Euro adventure. I believe Ivory Coast has a strong chance of winning the title.

yeah, in Superbru, draw is valid only if the match goes to penalties, otherwise they take score after overtime (if there is overtime)
good round Harkorede, especially yesterday

not a lot of goals, and northern African going home (Algeria and Tunisia) not as expected
interesting pairs, Senegal is facing hosts, does Ivory Coast have something to show on that, or Senegal will have an easy go-through

The league position is still very much open - the gap between the top 5 and the bottom 5 is only 7-8 points and it's easily attainable from the R216 fixtures if someone at the bottom drop a monster round like you just did. The most insane thing of this AFCON would be Osimhem and others letting a LWB from a Spanish lower league to win the golden ball. I cannot lie; it will look horrible. J. Ayew started his career as a RB at Swansea and he's now playing as a lone attacker for his country and Crystal palace. Who knows the fate of Emilio Nsue could change after this tournament.

Harkorede, watch your back; I enjoy chasing you. 

The extra time of 30 minutes does count as far as SuperBRU is concerned, it has always been that way for any knockout competitions.

-------------------

Thanks to everyone for the wishes, I really don't know how I did it myself too, it was just such abnormal round of fixtures.
For the overall best round prize, I think the winner from game week one or two with the highest score line can consider themselves as the winner already, because everyone round henceforth would be having half of the matches we had during the group stages.

Monster round Harkorede.

I have a question about the knockout stages, It may have been answered before but I cannot dig out any info on it. Are scores taken from 90 minutes of play or is the final scoreline after extra time (for those matches that go the full length) also considered?

- Jay -

Congrats to Harkorede for winning the Round 3 Yellow Cap

Congrats to Harkorede for killing it but CasperBGD is every match increasing lead by 0.5 points It was a very weird day indeed for AFCON, 3 draws, 1 goal, it's like the ghost of past came back to haunt everyone Still, I managed to maintain and slightly improve position, should have tried 0-0 but it was impossible to pick that when the whole competition has been full of goals!

One goal in 4 games yesterday... sounds like it were quite boring games all around. Finally got some points yesterday on the draws but I had them all as scoring draws so not enough to reclaim the very top.

Monster round from Harkorede, congrats man.

You moved 14 positions higher. Wow, that was a lot of movement right now; if someone wants to reach the top, this is the round to do it in since the further we go, the harder it is. I managed to earn 7 despite starting slowly this round.

We can expect more 0-0s and penalties in the round of 16. Nigeria's bracket is the easiest; our only concern is Cameroon, and if we can go past them, we might make the final.

I was going to say this as well, no match have ended scoreless for in this tournament and one would say it's a very high scoring one so far, going by the standards set by the previous edition but there is only a goal score across 4 matches today, AFCON is really just making prediction get way more complicated, I could have had 2 exact score tonight, but I changed Morocco from 1-0 prediction to 2-0 just a few minutes before the kickoff as I thought Morocco should be able to score more than one goal.

The round of 16 fixtures are evenly distributed and majority of the matchups look a whole lot like some 50-50 affairs, It's going to be quite interesting and I guess that's the round that will likely show an hint of who the winner of the pool might be too.

Yeah - rich mom wouldn't allow some to represent their roots. She gave Dad a better life. 


Those answering Nigerian names and representing another country are not in any position to feel proud. Lol

I guess that is every country tournament that exists. I notice it mostly at World cup where nations bond together to support neighboring countries. When it comes to continental countries, closer nations mostly banter each other rather than support themselves, same way local derbies are very keenly contested more than regular matches.

Good thing is that we are getting to the business end of the competition.

- Jay -

Re mercenaries, it's not an Africa thing, it's a third world (I'm 3rd world so it's not an offensive terms against myself, is it? haha) thing. It's not for me, I was born where I was born, and raised there. Spent half my life abroad but can't get rid of where I come from. I would never represent even outside my state, let alone outside my country, but I don't hold it against or blame anyone who wants a better future.

You've got, as I learnt recently, so many South and Central Americans with dual nationality and passports. They'll happily represent their nations but live in (West/Central) Europe. Same for Southeast Asians -- if they had the chance, they'd do it. We've got a few Malaysians playing for the shirt but really not living in Malaysia, usually wealthy mom/dad who hit it off with a spouse abroad. Same as Indonesia. You know them immediately from their accents or even inability to speak the local language.

I don't bear grudges, they played with the cards they're dealt with. On the extreme, you do have even Singaporeans though who own "mercenaries". Brazilians especially in football but also Africans who are given citizenship but with zero connections, and no requirement to integrate. They compete under the Singapore flag across all sports but we all don't see them as Southeast Asian.

But hey, you've got Dutch, English, Italians and Swiss who had zero connections but came from Europe itself -- Eastern bloc, or the Caucasus or Russia. Go look in lower leagues and find them all over, with flags you wouldn't guess from their names. Players who even switch nationality throughout their careers. USA players now playing for someone else. KdB even could have registered as African if he wanted to earlier in his youth.

Playing for pride? Wonderful dream but not everyone is lucky enough to be born in a position to be proud of the birth lottery ticket he got handed.

Oh and AFCON served us our first couple of 0-0s!

Most of these "merchenaries" thought they could make it away from home and ended up being used and abandoned after competing and winning at all junior levels. This is particularly common with the England national team because the majority of the junior players are of African descent; they are used at the junior levels, but most of them never advance to the senior level, and when their African country call, the majority of them take advantage. There are plenty of them in the Nigeria team.

These were players who represented the English team at all junior levels, won everything, and then were put out to dry. One thing I've seen is that these types of players consistently give their all for their Africa national teams.

We tried to bring Ross Barkley home a few years ago, but he declined. I assume he didn't realise his England career would end in three years. Victor Moses and Igalo all returned home to win the AFCON in 2013.


That pride factor is no longer present in the Nigeria National Team; it has been gone since 2013, and we now only have players helping our corrupt FA steal. Only the older players from the 2013 AFCON winning team play for the badge. The rest are attempting to secure a better offer in Europe.

Senegal, Cameroon, Bokina Faso, Zambia, Gambia, and all of Guinea (countries )are among the few African countries that play with pride. The others are just icing on the cake.

You can't explain blowing out such a lead as if the match is fixed!
And I hear the fans had something to say about this and wanted to vent their anger on the boys for such an awkward performance from being a qualifying team to changing the narrative of packing bags and going home 

Strange things are happening in this AFCON...

Apparently, rumour has it that the Vice president of Equatorial Guinea is paying him(or team) $50,000 for each goal scored, talk about motivation, I bet they thought these guys wouldn't get a goal, and against all odds goals are pouring in & making bank and the best part is that they are still in the tournament 

---

This AFCON am still rooting for CApe VERde to do wonders as am impressed with how they are playing, year of the underdog!

the ghana football association (gfa) has reacted to its national team's elimination from the africa cup by relieving coach Chris Hughton of his duties. as the federation announced on wednesday night, the team's entire functional team has also been disbanded. as of tuesday evening, ghana no longer has a mathematical chance of reaching the round of 16...

Isn't it that most African teams don't really have that national pride between the players?
I always imagine AFCON as a tournament in which European players of African descent that haven't really seen Africa fight for spots in these teams to try and get better contracts across Europe.

That's how I basically see all of Africa's top teams - filled with 'mercenaries' - am I wrong here or not? It's just a feeling though, I didn't search for any statistics or data that would support it.

This is a great place to ask - which African teams have that 'pride' element and which are simply made of foreigners that care more about themselves than the national team's success?

Yeah, I totally agree with your points and I can categorically say you're right and we can say some players are rather tired, than others too, I mean players from England for instance play all through the festivities and whatnot(and their form from club side is a replica of what they displaying rn), all I was just saying is that it is a very wrong mindset to have and the players would be doing themselves more harm than good, because they're already being replaced by their respective clubs partially or otherwise, and whatever they're failing to do right now, they're other players who barely have a name for themselves and are giving it their all on the pitch and it often doesn't go unrewarded, look at the Senegalese team for instance, vast majority of them are playing in Europe too (top 5 leagues, precisely), and quite a number of them got a good transfer right after their last victory in the previous tournament, Algeria once had one of the most player paying at the highest level in Europe they still are but not compared to when they were probably the most feared team in Africa football.


_______________________________


That said, this has got to be the most unpredictable AFCON tournament I've seen my entire life!