After covering the knockout stages of what was arguably one of the best tournaments of all time in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, Soccer Laduma journalist Kamogelo Motecwane has returned to South Africa to give his thoughts on the football that was on show in the Ivory Coast in a three-part series.
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Cote d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast as the rest of the world seems to call it, is unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Of course, having never been there, I was going to encounter everything for the first time and there were some massive culture shocks from a day-to-day perspective, but for the sake of conciseness, we'll keep things strictly to the football.
I arrived shortly after the host nation had eliminated then-reigning champions Senegal at the round of 16 stage on penalties, an outcome that reinvigorated a country that was reeling from a disastrous defeat to Equatorial Guinea in their final group match. One local explained the feeling of losing 4-0 to the continental minnows as being "close to death", but after making it through to the knockout stages by the skin of their teeth, thanks especially to Morocco, they were able to overcome tournament favourites the Lions of Teranga in Yamoussoukro and progress to the quarter-finals.
Resuscitation, I think, would be an apt word to describe the Elephants' AFCON campaign, because their quarter-final match against Mali was the embodiment of revival. Losing 1-0 and a man down in the 90th minute to their west African rivals, Simon Adingra, who had recently come back from injury, managed to force extra-time for the handicapped home side.
It's odd because it seemed as though once they went a man down, that's when they began to pose more of a threat to the Malians, and just before that encounter could also go to a penalty shootout, Oumar Diakite backheeled a goal in 120th minute to score his first international goal and send his country to the semi-finals. I was not present in Abidjan for that game, unfortunately, as I was in the nation's capital Yamoussoukro, at its Stade Charles Konan Banny as I anxiously waited to witness South Africa participate in their quarter-final against Cape Verde.
Because the Ivory Coast-Mali match went on for so long, the Bafana match started with a relatively low attendance and subdued atmosphere, but after they booked their place in the final four, Ivorians began to joyfully flood the stadium well into Hugo Broos' charges taking to the pitch.
In my opinion, that quarter-final match was South Africa's toughest at the whole tournament, not from a football perspective, but from a mental perspective.
Having just come off the back of beating Morocco, it almost seemed that the 1996 African champions couldn't get themselves up to play against the Cape Verdeans. Bafana had moments when they clearly the superior team and it looked as if the players knew they were better than the opposition, but they were not taking their chances and that was where the danger was because the team from the west African islands, which was almost solely composed of players from the diaspora, had shown that they were quality throughout the tournament.
South Africa rode their luck a lot during that match as Ronwen Williams was called into action on a number of occasions. Ultimately, it was his heroics that saved the side and saw Bafana make their first appearance in the semi-finals in 24 years as I got to witness history, with the Mamelodi Sundowns stopper making a miraculous four saves in an AFCON penalty shootout, the first time in the tournament's history such a feat was achieved.
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There were only ever a handful of Bafana fans at any given game, and an equal number of journalists to go along with them, but that quarter-final felt like the whole country was there. It was from there where the people of the Ivory Coast, a mighty nation as far as football is concerned in the context of Africa, began to be wary of even facing this iteration of Bafana. Williams and company, fortunately for them, were not of immediate concern to them, however, as they had to tussle with the Democratic Republic of Congo while South Africa would face bitter rivals Nigeria.
Stay tuned to the website to catch the second part of Kamogelo's trip to the AFCON in Ivory Coast!
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