AfCON 2012 Group “A” Profile – Senegal

The 28th edition of the African Cup of Nations (AfCON) football tournament to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea promises to be interesting even as defending champions Egypt and other big name teams misses out on the event.

A profile of the participating teams in each group would go some distance in helping to know their strengths and weaknesses before the big kick-off on Saturday, January 21, 2012 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Senegal whose national team is nicknamed the Lions of Teranga played their first international on December 31, 1961 in a 4 – 3 loss to Dahomey (Benin) in Cote d’Ivoire.

They posted their biggest ever victory in the international game on October 9, 2010 in Dakar when the defeated Mauritius 7 – 0.

Senegal’s heaviest ever defeat have been eight 4 – 0 setbacks against Nigeria 4–0 (Accra, February, 27 1963), Mali (Bamako, March 14, 1965), Congo DR, (Kinshasa; January 30, 1969), Guinea 4–0, (Guinea; May 17, 1970), Morocco, (Morocco; September 14, 1975), Algeria (Tlemcen, July 25, 1993), Zambia, (Lusaka, September 26, 1993) and Tunisia (Rades, July 15, 1995).

Henri Camara is the country’s most capped player with 99 games, and he is also the all time leading scorer with 29 goals.

Their first appearance at the AfCON event was in 1965 in Tunisia where they finished fourth after losing 1 – 0 to Cote d’Ivoire in the third place play-off.

At the 1990 event in Algeria, the Lions of Teranga once again finished fourth this time beaten by Zambia 1 – 0 in a closely contested affair.

Senegal hosted the AfCON event in 1992 in which after qualifying from their group to the quarter finals, lost 1 - 0 to Nigeria who went on to finish third in the competition.

Their best finish so far in the competition came in 2002, when they lost the final on penalties to Cameroon after drawing 0 – 0 after 120 minutes of all out action.

The West African country made its first appearance at the FIFA World Cup that same year in Korea/Japan and made a big splash at the Mundial, pulling off a huge upset by defeating World and European Champions, France 1 – 0 in the tournament’s opening game.
Senegal went on to make the quarter finals, becoming only the second African team to do so (Cameroon was the first in 1990).

After defeating France, Senegal drew with Denmark and Uruguay, and beat Sweden in extra time in Round Two, before losing to Turkey in the quarter finals.

They however failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and their football took some sought of a nose dive, culminating in their poor showing at the Ghana AfCON 2008 event and their failure to make it to the last edition in Angola.

That success in 2002, has failed to turn the Senegalese world beaters having failed to use the events in Korea/Japan as a springboard to continental success.

Apart from a number of sub regional trophies, Senegal has flattered to deceive at the biggest stage of African football.

They have won the Amilcar Cabral Cup (a regional football tourney for West African nations), on the most occasions, eight with Guinea on five and this is all that they can boast off as a football nation.

Improving this image is what the Lions of Teranga will be keen to change in Gabon/ Equatorial and they are very positive about their chances of doing well at this event.

They qualified in impressive fashion topping a group that included Cameroon, DR Congo and Mauritius.

The Teranga Lions scored 16 goals in the six games they played with top strikers Demba Ba, Mamadou Niang, Demba Papiss Cisse and Moussa Sow in among the top goal scorers of the qualifiers.

Their strikers have been in impressive goal scoring form in Europe and elsewhere for their clubs and Coach Amara Traoré will hope that rich vein form would be carried to the AfCON tourney.

At Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012, Senegal will make their 12th appearance at the competition and will play in Group A alongside co-hosts Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Zambia and would be based in Bata.

The first two teams in each group will advance to the knock out stage of the competition (quarter finals) before the last four emerge to compete to determine which two will make it to the final for the chance to be crowned champions of African football on Sunday, February 12, 2012.