Some Stars To Watch At Egypt Can 2006

The African soccer euphoria is gradually gripping the continent. This will come to its apex in less than a month when the African Cup of Nations will commence in Egypt. Whereas the five World Cup finalists of Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Angola and Tunisia will like to exert their superiorities, other soccer powerhouses like Cameroun, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and host nation, Egypt will like to appease their supporters by winning the highest prize on the continent. This will also be a very memorable edition of the tournament in the sense that three nations, Ghana, Cameroun and Egypt would each like to be the first to annex the cup for the fifth unprecedented times in the history of the competition. The following represent some the stars that are likely to be paraded in the continental fiesta (Egypt 2006) come January. This table of analyses is based on the top scores of the just ended World Cup (Germany 2006) / African Cup (Egypt 2006) qualifiers indicating the players, their nationalities and the number of goals scored during the qualifiers.

 NAME OF PLAYER	     NATIONALITY	# OF GOALS 
 1. Didier Drogba 	Ivory Coast	      10
 2. Obafemi Martins	Nigeria 	       8
 3. Henri Camara 	Senegal 	       8
 4. Aruna Dindane	Ivory Coast	       7
 5. Sheyi Adebayor	Togo	               7
 6. Shabani Nonda	DR Congo	       6
 7. Amr Zaki	Egypt 	                       6
 8. Francileudo Santos 	Tunisia 	       6
 9. Achille Webo	Cameroun	               5
 10. Samuel Eto?o	Cameroun	       5
 11. Kaba Diawara 	Guinea 	               5
 12. Youssouf Hadji 	Morocco 	       5
 13. Fabrice Akwa Maieco	Angola 	               4
 14. El-Hadji Diouf 	Senegal 	       4
 15. Jose Clayton 	Tunisia 	       4
 16. Collins Mbesuma 	Zambia 	               4
 17. Shingarai Kawondera	Zimbabwe 	       4
 18. Abdelhalim Ali	Egypt 	               3
 19. Tarek El-Saeed 	Egypt 	               3
 20. Asamoah Gyan	Ghana 	               3
 21. Mathew Amoah	Ghana 	               3
 22. Michael Essien 	Ghana 	               3
 23. Saliu Muntari	Ghana 	               3
 24. Stephen Appiah	Ghana 	               3
 25. Pascal Feindouno	Guinea 	               3
 26. Nader Kara	Libya  	                       3
 27. Jaouad Zairi	Morocco 	       3
 28. Marouane Chamakh	Morocco 	       3
 29. Youssef Safri	Morocco 	       3
 30. Mwankwo Kanu	Nigeria 	       3  
 31. Sibusiso Zuma 	South Africa 	       3
 32. Haykel Guemamdia	Tunisia 	       3
 33. Benjamin Mwaruwaru	Zimbabwe 	       3
 34. Peter Ndluvu 	Zimbabwe 	       3
 

Looking at the goal-scoring distribution, Ivory Coast has two deadly strikers in Drogba and Dindane who contributed a total of 17 of their 20 goals scored in the qualifiers. For our opponents in the group stages; Nigeria has two good strikers in Obafemi Martins and Kanu who scored a total of 11 of their 21 goals, Senegal also has two equally good scorers in Camara and Diouf sharing 12 of their 21 goals and Zimbabwe has three scorers sharing 10 of their 13 goals scored in the qualifiers. The Black Stars are lucky to have 15 of their 17 goals shared among as many as five players. This is an indication that we have more players who can score when the need arises. I believe with the material at the disposal of coach Duya and from the provisional selection he?s made, the Black Stars has a pretty strong squad. This is also borne in the fact that Ghana considered the least number of goals (4) in the 10 qualifying games they played. With a very excellent atmosphere in the team, proper motivation, fervent prayers, discipline, dedication, and adequate preparations, the sky would be the limit for this team. May God be with the team in CAN 2006 and even, beyond.