{"id":2538,"date":"2021-01-21T19:55:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T19:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T19:57:37","slug":"cameroons-congo-derbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/01\/21\/cameroons-congo-derbies\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon\u2019s Congo Derbies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (January 17th<\/sup> 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making History<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Libya and Niger drew 0-0 in the opening match of Group B in Cameroon\u2019s CHAN (African Nations Championship) but it was the second match that mattered. Almost five decades after Cameroon hosted the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) the Congos met again in Cameroon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

49 years ago the biggest surprise in AFCON history was delivered. The Republic of Congo (Formerly Conga-Brazzaville) produced the biggest shock in AFCON history. Fran\u00e7ois M\u2019Pel\u00e9 and Jean-Michel M\u2019Bono in particular established themselves and their country as a force to be reckoned. Mali boasting Fantamady Ke\u00efta and the great Salif Ke\u00efta were surprisingly beaten in the final by a team that conventional wisdom had declared was there to make up the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Their Own Script<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Congolese had read the script but rewrote it into one of football\u2019s fairy-tales. Bizarrely M\u2019Bono who had scored a brace and provided the pass for the winner was not in the Team of the Tournament. M\u2019Pel\u00e9 was. He scored the winner and was the Player of the Tournament. Incredibly, despite these achievements neither was in France Football Magazine\u2019s Top Ten African Footballers of the Year for 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a positively bizarre list. The late great Godfey Chitalu was also a notable absentee despite one of the best years ever in football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FFM was new to the award and had substantial gaps in its coverage. Chitalu\u2019s absence can be explained in tat manner, but the AFCON was covered. How the Congolese were missing remains a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 27th<\/sup> 1972 the Congos (the Democratic Republic of Congo was then known as Zaire) met for the first time in Cameroon in the African giant\u2019s first and so far only time they had hosted AFCON. They played each other at the Stade de R\u00e9unification in Doula. AS Vita\u2019s Jean Kalala N\u2019Tumba scored a brace in Zaire\u2019s 2-0 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zaire went on to top Group B but were beaten in the semi-final by Mali. The Republic of Congo advanced to the semi-finals at Morocco\u2019s expense despite an identical goal-difference on the toss of a coin. They rode their luck to defeat the hosts 1-0 and Mali 3-2 to claim their only AFCON triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Doula\u2019s Second Competitive Congo Derby<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Today Doula the second competitive Congo derby to be played in Cameroon. The DRC beat the Republic of Congo 1-0 at the Stade Omnisport. TP Mazembe striker Chico Ushindi wa Kubanza scored the winner to send the DRC to the top of Group B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ll hope history won\u2019t repeat itself. Group C begins tomorrow in Douala\u2019s Stade R\u00e9unification with defending champions, Morocco, playing Togo and then Rwanda will play against Uganda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Libya and Niger drew 0-0 in the opening match of Group B in Cameroon\u2019s CHAN (African Nations Championship) but it was the second match that mattered. Almost five decades after Cameroon hosted the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) the Congos met again in Cameroon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2540,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}