African Nation knockout stage

This was going to go up yesterday, but I spent the day playing landlord. We'll try to wrap up the teams heading into the knockout stages, some random bits of knowledge about the matches so far, some picks from the unprofessionals, and a look at today's matches.


(ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)


Semifinal Stages

1) Ghana - Nigeria - Sunday, 2/3
4) Tunisia - Cameroon - Monday 2/4

2) Ivory Coast - Guinea - Sunday 2/3
3) Egypt - Angola - Monday 2/4

Fellow Predictions

We trolled ourselves for predictions on the semi-final matchups, and the winner. Here is a short condensed view of this.

Fan's Attic:

Ghana - Cameroon
Ivory Coast - Egypt

Ghana - Ivory Coast

ian

Ghana - Tunisia
Ivory Coast - Angola

Ivory Coast - Ghana

ian

Ghana - Tunisia
Ivory Coast - Egypt

Tunisia - Ivory Coast

me

Ghana - Cameroon
Ivory Coast - Egypt

Cameroon - Ivory Coast

Sunday's Matches

Ghana - Nigeria Home favorites Ghana are playing for pride, but the Nigerian president has assured victory, so we can only assume something strange will happen. One of those African rolling blackouts perhaps? A 419 scheme gone awry? One can hope it's interesting. We however, love the Black Stars mostly because they have a better name than anyone else in the tourney.


Ivory Coast - Guinea Guinea has a slightly weaker team with captain Balde is questionable with an injury. Working against Guinea is a man named Drogba, leading the charge for the Elephants. I don't see how Guinea can keep up with Ivory Coast.