Segun Oluwaniyi

All of a sudden we have decent bench for the first time in good long while. What happened to Shola? Did he manage to get injured again?

Goalless wonder? He's scored somwehere around 40 league goals in his entire European career. Which has spanned about 8 seasons. He got 15 one season with Pompey and has barely scored other than that. Failed to score for his first twenty or so matches at Pompey as well.

Rafa's made some very good purchases at Liverpool. It's just that every year he creates new ways to waste vast amounts of money on rubbish. Like this year when he sold Arbeloa for 4 million pounds and bought Johnson for 20. Is Glen Johnson really five times better than Arbeloa? Mehdi Mahdavikia has left Frankfurt to return to Iran.

Wait? Benjani the goalless wonder?...to Liverpool?!

7 to 8 million pounds for this lad: http://www.maidstoneunited.co.uk/squad/images/0708season/chrissmalling.jpg I hope he turns out to be good (well after Man U sell him at a loss), but the price for young English talent is insane.

Brilliant news to wake up to. Decent player, and potentially a very good one at this level. Really I am very happy with this, but we still must get in one or two more in on loan.

If it was racist then I should be banned for life from this board plane & simple. Mods & Admins please read the thread & if you deem it racist ban me. I said the host nation helped but Ghana did not win on home soil in West Africa & Egypt last title was not on home soil. I think we all believe the hype about West African football because of the big name players in Europe & squads packed with European based players. Where as the likes of Algeria, Egypt & Tunisia have a large portion of there squads from there domestic leagues so they don't get the hype & have the unknown factor about them for most of us but them players have dominated in recent seasons the CAF Champions League. Black Power thread: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,59501.msg1657031.html#msg1657031 Unlike Susan Boyle I am big fan of diversity (JOKE) Fair enough if that stuff was a joke, man. just caught as really inappropiate at the time. I don't think we are overrating the Black African teams, spence. At 2006 World Cup, Black Africa qualified 4 of out Africa's five teams and in 2010, they have qualified four again. As I said, Egypt is very very good, but the others really haven't done much lately. Since winining ACN in 2004, Tunisia has struggled. Algeria had done nothing for years before their surprise qualification this time around. Morroco similarly haven't done anything for years and didn't even qualify for the Nations Cup. Teams like Nigeria, CIV, Ghana, Cameroon and even occasionally Senegal and Mali have consistently been among Africa's elite teams and in the knockout stages of the ACN. Egypt might be the best team on the continent right now, but the next four or five would be West african, imo.

At least he doesn't have to play for Sunderland. Good Lord, man.

If you're done with the racist stuff (or it was a joke) than I'll respond. Arab teams have done well of late but this was assisted by the host nation winning in 2004 and 2006. Egypt is very good, but the other ones aren't as good as the West African teams, imo. They play a different, more European style, and really right now the best teams in Africa are in West Africa, except for Egypt. Still, Algeria and Tunisia are talented and organized and you need to be wary of them.

Yeah he has, VI. Funny enough, he's much in the same situation as last time. In 2002, he qualified us for the WC, but it was very uninspiring so he was sacked. Fast forward to 2010 and he's once again qualified us for the World Cup, but no one is impressed by his team. Rumour was he would get sacked if he didn't make the semi-finals. After that horrible performance, he might still be in the firing line anyway. Penalty shootouts are amazing, btw. Still buzzing.

Phew! Lucky punt! [see what I did there? ] It's a rhyming joke I know Yak didn't play very well, but Nigeria were crying to go 4-4-2 when Martins came on. Yak is 2 or 3 strikers by himself, though. Honestly though, our coach is an inflexible idiot. How does he not understand that a team needs an attack minded player from the fullbacks or the midfielders?

Eneyama is a hero of Nigerian football. Just like in 2006, he slots home a massive penalty and makes the winning save. The guys makes the occasional error, but makes many big saves and is a great servant for his country.

Christ, man. That's ridiculous. 3 African nation titles on the bounce for the Arab nations says its not. Will it be 4? The idea that black Africans depend only on athletics and that Arabs are somehow smarter is racist, stupid, and ignorant.

Lokomotiv Mosocw. He from USSR originally, so I think he's comfortable there.

Semifinals are going to be amazing. The two biggest derbies in African football. Ghana-Naija and Egypt-Algeria. Final will once again be a North v. West clash.

YES!! Totally undeserved, but I really could not care less Semifinals!! Enyeama is a hero!! Hope I didn't scare anyone in the library though.

Becnhed for being rubbish against Egypt. Same with Taiwo. We could've used both today. Not good ... I have to say though I feel like Chelsea have ruined Obi Mikel. He used to be so much more of a creative player who opened things up when he was younger and with the under 21s. Now he's just a sort of an okayish holding midfielder type. Pretty annoying. Doesn't get forward nearly as much anymore. Obi's fine in my view. Poblem is that he's playing with two DM's. He pretty good going forward, but nowhere good enough to be the only attacking threat from midfield or from the fullbacks. We need to open up.

Becnhed for being rubbish against Egypt. Same with Taiwo. We could've used both today.

Yeah, we're awful. Had a good chance to win the cup, too. What a waste.

Another embarassment. No surprise I suppose, it is the norm. If Amodu has brains (he doesn't), he will throw on Oba and Taiwo. The play is so narrow with no attacking fullbacks and three defensive midfielders. Who would have guessed?! At least if we lose they'll throw this idiot out on his arse.

Nicky Butt is our captain, I'm suicidal. Yeah, that too.

Yakubu is our captain....I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Match could go either way, imo. I predict lots of play-acting, time wasting, handbags, feigning injury, and some violence from the fans. Generally just a display of the best attributes North African football has to offer. I predict Egypt wins 1-0 on a mistake from Chaouchi (Algeria keeper), who is a bit mad. Nigeria match on in a few minutes. We're massive favourites, but I am so nervous. It would very typical for us to mess this up.

Egypt are probaly the most successful team in African football and were the second favorites (among people with knowledge of African football, not ignorant Euro pundits) before the tournament started. So...Algeria-Egypt in the semi finals of the ACN......that could be interesting.

We showed everything, we showed that we could only have lost this match if we had had six men on the pitch," said the Inter coach. "With six men we would have lost because with seven we would still have won it. -Jose Mourinho. That is heartless. A good few. Was flicking between the Milan game, the ACN game and the Madrid game this evening. Was definitely a great day of entertainment. With all the goings on in American sport and the ACN as well I've pretty much wasted the weekend, tbh.