It is 35 years since Ghana won the Africa Cup of Nations but coach Avram Grant is looking to use the pressure to end that long drought as a positive. “I don’t think you can achieve anything without pressure. We like to use pressure as a negative word but I think it’s good,” said Grant on Monday, on the…
It’s been a while since Africa had a world star boasting the status of George Weah, Didier Drogba or Samuel Eto’o but there will be no lack of key players with lofty ambitions when the African Nations Cup finals kicks off in Gabon on Saturday. A total of 368 players competing for the 16 teams at the tournament hail…
Ivory Coast‘s Europe-based stars stumbled in the heat of northern Gabon in their African Nations Cup opener, with the defending champions held to a goalless draw by Togo on Monday in another twist to start the tournament. Ivory Coast created few clear chances against Togo, with Wilfried Zaha’s blocked shot in the second half after a clever run probably…
Ever since he descended from the footballing heavens this past summer to become the self-proclaimed “God of Manchester,” it was generally assumed that United’s season would hinge on whether Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 35-year-old body could keep his ego’s promises. After 10 matches, the answer seemed similar to the one Fernando Torres gave to Chelsea as His Zlatan-ness managed to billow…
LONDON — Diego Costa trained alone on Sunday and Monday and will be assessed by Chelsea’s medical staff and Antonio Conte before a decision is made on whether he can rejoin the rest of the squad, sources at the club have confirmed to ESPN FC. Chelsea’s players were given two days off by Conte after Saturday’s 3-0 away win…
LEICESTER, England — With time, they no longer seem like memories. They are too strange, too difficult to explain. They feel, instead, like hallucinatory flashbacks from some fever dream. The butchers who paid tribute through the medium of sausage; the pilgrimage of the van driver from North London, drawn to a city he did not know, compelled to find…
ZURICH — The World Cup will grow to 48 teams within a decade under a plan approved unanimously on Tuesday by FIFA’s governing council, an enormous expansion of soccer’s showpiece tournament that was hailed by supporters as a victory for inclusion but that was derided by critics as the latest money grab by an organization still emerging from a…
While the soccer world was chewing over FIFA’s controversial decision on Tuesday to increase the size of the World Cup finals to 48 teams from 32, Milutin Sredojevic was trying to block out the noise. Sredojevic, a Serbian coach, is in Dubai preparing Uganda’s national team for the Africa Cup of Nations, the continental championship that begins Saturday in…
MANCHESTER, England — In the last five minutes of a nerve-shredding 1-1 draw on Sunday, as his team swarmed forward and Liverpool seemed to tilt and teeter, Manchester United Manager José Mourinho got what he wanted. He had asked his club’s fans — so frequently accused of sitting on their hands, waiting to be entertained — to create a…
Outgoing Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye has confirmed that the budget for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations has been slashed from US$ 5.4 million to US$ 3.4 million. The budget includes team’s training tour of UAE where they will camp for 11 days at the Al Ain training centre. Also factored in are bonuses and appearance fees for…
