Tchanile Tchakala was on Monday promoted to coach of the Togo national team for the next six months.Tchakala, a Togolese national, succeeds French coach Didier Six, whose two-year contract came to an end in January and to whom he was an assistant.The 46-year-old Tchakala’s mission will be to qualify Togo for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco, with games against Guinea and Ghana set for September. Confederation of African Football (CAF) News
Author: CAF News
Cool, calm, calculated and never one to make hasty decisions, Côte d’Ivoire head coach Sabri Lamouchi’s style on the sidelines has a lot in common with what he was like as a player. A tireless worker, the 42-year-old former defensive midfielder – who was capped 18 times for France – was hugely influential everywhere he plied his trade, including notably at Auxerre, Inter Milan and Marseille. Known for always making the right choices on the pitch, he appears to have taken this priceless attribute into his career in the dugout.”We are trying to find our own style,” Lamouchi told FIFA.…
Volker Finke, Cameroon coachIt’s hard to put your finger on everything right after a game. In the first half we did well, despite conceding two goals. You’ve got to give to credit to Brazil, as they managed to create a lot of chances thanks to the quality they have. For that reason I’d say they deserved the win. Now’s the moment to take some time out and analyse the reasons behind the campaign we’ve had. I think that, along with the first-half performance against Croatia, the first half today was the best we’ve played in this World Cup.Luiz Felipe Scolari,…
Brazil celebrated their 100th FIFA World Cup™ match with a fittingly entertaining 4-1 victory over Cameroon to arrange a mouthwatering Round of 16 meeting with fellow South Americans Chile.A double from Neymar, now the top scorer at the tournament with a quartet of strikes, and second-half efforts by Fred and Fernandinho proved enough to secure top spot in Group A for Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team, ahead of Mexico on goal difference. Their opponents, on the other hand, say farewell to the competition without a point from three outings.Buoyed by reverberating noise in Brasilia, the hosts were fast and direct, causing…
Cameroon midfielder Alex Song has been handed a three-match ban for his bizarre elbow assault on Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic during their World Cup group game, FIFA announced on Monday.The 26-year-old Barcelona midfielder was sent off after striking Mandzukic on the back during Cameroon’s 4-0 thrashing in Group A last Wednesday.Song has also been fined 16,420 euros ($22,300) for the incident. The ban is effective immediately and rules him out of Cameroon’s final group game against Brazil later Monday. Confederation of African Football (CAF) News
Côte d’Ivoire will be without striker Didier Ya Konan when the Elephants face Colombia in Brasilia on Thursday.The Hanover forward, who helped inspire the comeback against Japan last week after coming off the bench, suffered a knee injury that will keep him out. However Stuttgart defender Arthur Boka is available after returning to training despite limping off with a calf problem against Japan. Both Côte d’Ivoire and Colombia won their opening matches and a win for either should guarantee qualification for the Round of 16.Ya Konan’s absence means there is more chance that Didier Drogba will start but Colombia coach…
Niko Kovac, Croatia coachWe didn’t start the match well, but we improved by keeping possession of the ball a bit better. We played in a very efficient manner tonight. Although Cameroon didn’t play as well as they can, that was partly down to our performance. We have to put this victory to the back of our minds for now, because our hardest challenge is still to come. The match with Mexico is going to be our cup final.Mario Mandzukic, Budweiser Man of the MatchI had trained hard for this one so that I could put in a strong performance. I…
Striker Mario Mandzukic scored two second-half goals as Croatia knocked 10-man Cameroon out of the World Cup with a 4-0 rout in Manaus on Wednesday.Croatia bounced back from their opening defeat to hosts Brazil to keep alive their hopes of progressing from Group A with an emphatic display.But Cameroon were largely the architects of their own downfall after playing the last 50 minutes with 10 men after Alexandre Song’s dismissal for a stupid a reckless punch to Mandzukic’s back. The Indomitable Lions seemed anything but as they imploded with full-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto even trying to headbutt team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo in…
The bonds in this Côte d’Ivoire squad are strong. “We’ve known each other a long time,” Liverpool defender Kolo Toure told FIFA.com about the closeness, the laid-back atmosphere that pervades Les Elephants’ travelling camp at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™. “We are family. A lot of us grew up together from boys into men.”When they arrived in Recife, on Brazil’s northern coast, the first order of business wasn’t a training session or a team meeting. Coach Sabri Lamouchi didn’t gather them around a chalkboard to talk tactics. The players, in garish orange tracksuits, completely identifiable as the world superstars…
Just one day after claiming he needed a miracle to play, Samuel Eto’o opened the door on Tuesday to his possible participation for Cameroon against Croatia in Manaus on Wednesday.The 33-year-old striker and captain of his country seemed to have all but given up hope on Monday but 24 hours later he suggested his previous stance had been nothing but mind-games. “I can’t give you a satisfactory answer,” he told reporters. “And even if I knew, I wouldn’t say.”Football is also about little pre-match secrets. It’s a strategy, it’s normal, all teams do this. I am hoping the gods grant…