Friends become foes in Africa Cup

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Saturday, 04 February 2012

Author / Source : AFP

LIBREVILLE (GABON), FEB 3: The Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final between Gabon and Mali on Sunday is dripping with intrigue on many levels. On one hand, the last-eight clash in Libreville pits Gabon coach Gernot Rohr up against his friend and former team-mate at Bordeaux, Alain Giresse.
To add further fascination to an already compelling match-up, Giresse was Rohr’s predecessor at Gabon, before the Frenchman took up his present post with Mali.
“I met Alain at a wedding a couple of months ago and we joked about our paths crossing in the quarter-finals,” Rohr disclosed before training here on Thursday.
“We played together in Bordeaux, he’s a friend, and now the competition has thrown us together. He is facing his old side and his old fans, but now I’m coach of Gabon and he’s coach of Mali.”
Giresse had a four-year stint with Gabon before his contract was not renewed, with Rohr taking over in February 2010.
He is still held in high affection by the team he helped develop.
Panthers’ captain and goalkeeper Didier Ebang Ovono said: “He’s the ‘Papa’ to all of us. We’re in contact with him all the time.
“He helped many of us find clubs in Europe. He understood that for us to get better, we had to play at a high level.”
Ovono, who plays for French side Le Mans, added: “Alain Giresse knows us all, he knows our qualities and our faults. But we’re not individuals-we play as a team, a solid group, and that makes a difference.
“We’re a group that fights together, a group that supports itself. It’s a bit of a shame we’re meeting him in the quarters. We’d have preferred to meet him in the final.”
Ovono said Rohr, a German, had injected different qualities to the side that has surpassed expectations by finishing the first round as Group C winners after winning all three games.
“Gernot has a different approach, he has introduced a Germanic mentality to the team-we are psychologically solid.
“No matter what the match, we know we can score. We have confidence that no matter who our rival is, we know we can cause them problems. We’re not scared of anyone.”
Rohr, when asked what was Gabon’s ace up their sleeve to topple Mali, replied: “Mental strength, heart, and lots of application.
“You saw that against Morocco (when Gabon scored the winner in a 3-2 win in the eighth minute of stoppage time). We were in great difficulty in that match, but the players gave everything.”
Ovono put Gabon’s success also down to the invaluable support the co-hosts are getting from their fans.
“In the Morocco game, we were in trouble, the fans woke up and they woke us up, they gave us a boost. With them on our side we can put any team in difficulty.
“We are playing for our fans. It’s not the team’s Nations Cup, it’s not mine, it’s for the Gabonese people. It’s their Nations Cup.”
He rejected out of hand the suggestion that after their charmed first-round showing, Gabon could now be considered favourites with Ivory Coast and Mali to take the title.
“No, no, no-we’re still outsiders,” he said.
“When we began we were looking to finish second in our group behind Morocco. We did well in the group, now we’re in the knockout stages.
“The hardest stuff is to come. We’ve got to go out to face Mali with all our hearts and get our hands dirty.”
Rohr said that his side had the appetite to continue their success. “We’ve had the hors d’oeuvre, bring on the main course.”     AFP