Win (1), Lose (0), Draw (1)

The second game of the Africa Cup for the Simbas was against another World Cup qualifying team--Angola. Two wins in the first three games are enough to advance and Angola was considered a more likely win than powerhouse Cameroon, who the DRC plays this weekend. The game was in the late afternoon and campus cleared out. I was teaching a class to graduate students in the evening so I stuck around, and there is a lounge area near my office where I was able to watch part of the match (SRO). No matter where you are in Kinshasa, you can follow the match by the cheers of your neighbors. Even if you are hanging out with nuns, as I learned last week. (The only other time I have heard a spontaneous applause throughout the neighborhood was when Werrason won a Kora--the African music award.)

The big news of the match was a very early red card penalty against Mputo of DRC (who scored the first goal against Togo), which meant that the Simbas had to play most of the match shorthanded, and Mputo is disqualified from the remainder of the tournament. Remarkably, despite fielding 10 players, the DRC did not give up a goal and the match ended in a 0-0 tie (as did a brutal contest between Morocco and Egypt I saw the night before). In the other game from their group, Cameroon beat Togo 2-0.

So here is the breakdown. Two teams from the group of four advance to the second round. Cameroon will advance with two wins already. Togo can not advance with two losses. If the Simbas win against Cameroon this Sunday, they win the group outright. If they tie, they advance as the runner-up to Cameroon. If they lose, their fate depends on the Angola-Togo match. If Angola loses or ties, DRC advances--win, lose, or draw. However if Angola beats Togo and the DRC loses to Cameroon, it will come down to a tiebreaker based on the differential of goals scored and allowed during the tournament, with Angola currently at -2 and DRC currently at +2.