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Monday, February 11, 2008

Song chosen in Africa’s best eleven players


By 1970’s Gooner

Alexandre Song has been in fantastic form during the Africa Nations Cup. He put in an excellent performance last Thursday in the semi final of the Africa Nations Cup against Ghana.

He protected his defenders very well competing for every ball and when he came into possession he laid it off accurately to a team mate with that characteristic ease which typifies him.

He was, along with his cousin, Rigobert Song the outstanding player of that game.

He got a hard knock on the leg however and seemed unable to recover in time to make it for the final.

But he made it; only to pick up another injury, this time a muscle problem which forced Cameroon to make an early substitution in the 16th minute with Gilles Binya coming on.

And the injury which Eto’o was carrying proved too much for Cameroon in the end.

But despite the disappointment Alexandre will remember these last few weeks as the ones that really moved him into the forefront with everyone taking notice of his excellent performances.

So much so that the CAF has chosen him in the tournament’s best 11 players.

Yaya Toure has made it but not his brother! Not surprisingly Egypt have five players in the team.

Didier Drogba has been included but only on the bench!

The Best XI:

1. Essam Al-Hadari (Egypt)
2. Wael Gomaa (Egypt)
3. Geremi Njitap (Cameroon)
4. Hosni Abd-Rabou (Egypt)
5. Michael Essien (Ghana)
6. Sulley Muntari (Ghana)
7. Alexandre Song (Cameroon)
8. Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
9. Mohammed Abou-Treika (Egypt)
10. Amr Zaki (Egypt)
11. Manucho (Angola)

Substitutes:
1. Richard Kingson (Ghana)
2. Hani Saied (Egypt)
3. Ahmed Fathi (Egypt)
4. Saber Ben Fraj (Tunisia)
5. Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)
6. Abdelkader Keita (Ivory Coast)

Maybe playing well for the national team is the only way for Arsenal’s young stars to show Wenger what they can do because it’s more difficult to get into the Arsenal team than their national sides!

Alexandre has shown this season that he has really come on leaps and bounds and his performances in the Africa Nations Cup have paid testimony to that.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be fair, Kolo was not performing his normal standard. I do not know why, but lets hope he gets back to normal tonight (!)

/M

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Alex Song. A truly remarkable tournament in which he started on the bench and developed in to a starter for the Indomitable Lions. Two years ago the ACN proved a great platform for Eboue whose performances gave him the confidence to become an Arsenal regular. Lets hope Song, who is still only 20, builds on his performances starts bringing the same standard to his Arsenal games.

On a side note, my stars of the tournament are the Essam Al-Hadari the Egyptian goalkeeper and Mohammed Abou-Treika. I would love to see them play in the Premiership and the congratulations to the coach of Egypt whose tactics were spot on throughout the tournament.

Anonymous said...

I watched the tournament and Egypt were by far the better team both in terms of skill and organisation. This is the combination that most of the other nations were lacking especially in organisation.

AS for Song he looked impressive during the tournament and looks like another Wenger find!

Unknown said...

A lot of people that was down on Song
have forgotten how young he is. We are asking this young man to be a regular in the 1st team at 17 and 19 years of age. Lets remember he is still only 19 years old.

Anonymous said...

1970's Gooner thank you so much for updates. i leke the way you analyse Song's performances. he is such a player who is determined. he single handedly helped a disjointed cameroon reach the finals. without him, they couldnt go far.Now Arsene has problems with him because he plays the same number like Flamster does at Arsenal. Fingers crossed.
From a Rwandan gooner

Anonymous said...

I think Rigobert is his uncle and not his cousin. Shame he wasn't around for the carling cup matches aginst sp*rs!

Anonymous said...

kaihan111

Rigobert said that their fathers are brothers. So that makes them cousins!

Anonymous said...

glad to be gooners

Anonymous said...

http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=486915&lid=&Title=Alex+Song+on+Cameroon+and+uncle+Rigobert

Not according to Alex on the arsenal website.

Anonymous said...

wht about kolo eboue