The African Cup of Nations. The third big championship of the year was, as usual, almost unnoticed and too bad, because this may have been one of the most significant championship of the continent. Something very important happened, but, if it was at all recognized, it was postfactum. Cote d’Ivoire hosted the finals, so the hosts and Ghana, the reigning African champion, qualified directly. 28 countries played for the 6 remaining places. It was the usual story – 4 teams withdrew without playing. The draw for the third round was perhaps a bit unfair for some teams, but no complains work against pure chance – Morocco and Tunisia faced tough opponents and were out. Meantime Togo and Malawi had it relatively easy – if they had to play against Morocco and Tunisia, they would have been eliminated.
The two final groups were fairly equal. No luck for the hosts, who finished 3rd. Togo and Malawi hardly played a role.
Group A, played in Abidjan
1.EGYPT 3 2 1 0 3- 1 5
2.CAMEROON 3 2 0 1 6- 2 4
3.Ivory Coast 3 1 0 2 4- 4 2
4. Togo 3 0 1 2 1- 7 1
Group B, played in Bouake
1.ALGERIA 3 2 1 0 5- 0 5
2.NIGERIA 3 1 2 0 4- 3 4
3.Ghana 3 1 0 2 2- 4 2
4.Malawi 3 0 1 2 2- 6 1
The first semi-final opposed Egypt to Nigeria and it was entertaining tough game – 2-2 after extra-time, so penalty shoot-out followed. Nigeria prevailed 8-7.
Algeria and Cameroon supplied the same drama, although without goals. 0-0. Cameroon won the shoot-out 5-4.
Algeria won 3rd place after bearing Egypt 3-1. Two players remembered from the 1982 World Cup – Madjer and Belloumi – were among the scorers for Algeria. Of course, more will be heard of Madjer with time.
The big final was played in front of 50 000 excited spectators. Nigeria got early lead, but Camerron equalized and more or less dominated the second half of the match.
At the final whistle it was 3-1 Cameroon and Africa had new name among the champions.
Final (Abidjan, Stade Houphouet-Boigny, att: 50,000)
18- 3-84 Cameroon 3-1 Nigeria
[René N’Djeya 32, Théophile Abéga 79, Ernest Ebongué 84;
Muda Lawal 10]
Cameroon: Joseph-Antoine Bell, Charles Toubé, René N’Djeya, Francois Doumbé, Isaac Sinkot, Théophile Abéga, Gregoire Mbida, Ibrahim Aoudou, Ernest Ebongué, Roger Milla, Boneventure D’Jonkep (Emmanuel Kundé);
Nigeria: Patrick Okala, Kingsley Paul, Stephen Keshi, Sunday Eboigbe, Yisa Sofoluwe, Muda Lawal, Ademola Adeshina (Paul Okoku), Humphrey Edobor, Bala Ali (Clement Temile), Henry Nwosu, James Etokebe;
referee: Bennaceur (Tunisia)
Everybody happy with the Cup in their hands.
Nigeria showed some consistency – the won the 1980 African Cup and qualified for the Olympic games in both 1980 and 1984. Strong, but not so strong yet.
Cameroon – champions at last. If anybody waited so long, it was Cameroon. But this time there was ni mistake. The team of 1982 was at hand – more experienced and well matched than most African teams. It was not an easy victory – Cameroon lost to Egypt in the first round of the final tournament – but as a whole, it was the most solid and effective team. Life was good.
Cameroon had to wait a long time for its first African title, but their victory was much more significant – for the first time African football showed stability. So far, strong teams were more or less one-time affair – a continental winner usually was very weak at the following World Cup or Olympics and not a factor at all at the next African Cup. Cameroon was different – the country had arguably the strongest and most successful clubs. It was the first African team to make a sensation at World Cup finals. Cameroon became world known name in 1982 and two years later the team was steadily strong, adding the African title and participation in the Olympic finals. African football was coming to maturity at last – Cameroon was expected to play well in the future. That was the big significance of the 1984 African Cup of Nations. African football was no joke anymore.