After watching Algeria shamed at Afcon, will Uganda and others be emboldened?

If football should be known as an exercise in high aesthetics, events that have surrounded the group stage of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament will make sure that it is not lost to the fog of history. 

Just to recap, the tournament currently being staged in Ivory Coast was averse to scoreless results for a remarkable 34 matches. This is an extraordinary feat for a tournament accustomed to being met with a frosty reception. 

The characteristic fatalism that greets staging Afcon tournaments in January is informed by the assumption that its stars are supposed to arrive from Europe's major football leagues either jaded or wary of injury. This year it is safe to say that the aforesaid assumption has taken root in barren soil. 

The real triumph though is how footballing nations widely considered rank outsiders have acquitted themselves. They have gone about business with such fastidious care that powerhouses known to have a ruthless instinct for success have been felled. In Goliath-esque fashion. One such titan is Algeria whom it turns out Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojević has not forgiven for helping put a pink slip in his hands.

Whether the scoreless draw in Algeria that secured Tanzania an Afcon 2023 ticket at Uganda's expense owes less to determination than gamesmanship, as Micho seems to allude, rests on a cornerstone of conjecture. What is clear is that Uganda should not be enveloped by a deep unease when they next come up against the Desert Foxes. Which is soon (June).

While the immediate past results seem to suggest that the Cranes played two exhaustingly tight matches against Algeria, the bitter truth is that they treated the North Africans like they could walk on water. And they have been doing just that for as long as anyone can remember. 

Since Tanzania and Niger joined Micho’s charges in running a far from estimable campaign, Algeria won all but one of her 2023 Afcon qualifiers without breaking a sweat. Whether the Desert Foxes thought they could boss an 'easy' group in Ivory Coast that had Burkina Faso, Angola, and Mauritania is anyone’s guess. But if they did, as many indeed suspect, they soon found out how mistaken they were. Djamel Belmadi threw in the towel after finishing at the basement of Group D following an incredible winless streak in Ivory Coast.

The Cranes are in the same 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying group as Algeria. After two matchdays, Uganda—much like Guinea, Mozambique, and Botswana—is just three points adrift of the Algerians atop the log. While Somalia, the current wooden spoon holders, look destined to make up the numbers (or maybe not), there appears to be little to choose between the rest. Algeria inclusive. 

As a matter of fact, there is a sense the calculus has shifted after recent events in Ivory Coast. Mozambique well and truly earned its stripes despite finishing bottom of a group that had Cape Verde, Egypt, and Ghana. Elsewhere, Guinea fought valiantly to make it out of a tough group that had powerhouses Senegal and Cameroon. 

What all this shows is how destructive a mistake it can be to put a lot of stock in the form book. If the giant status of Algeria does not recede from the collective memory of teams in Group G of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, there will be only one outcome.

The Desert Foxes will come through the group unscathed and, with any luck, their reputation restored. In which case, Afcon 2023 will have taught the other teams nothing. 

For the case of Uganda—whose FA took the Cranes coaching reins from Micho’s grasp and handed them to Paul Put—nothing should be taken off the table. Even as it looks ahead to hosting its home matches at some fortress in Namboole. The team's unusual approach is not born out of calculation, or at least not primarily, but of necessity. So anything could fly. 

All said, Afcon 2023 has exuded a careful, coaxing charm thus far. The knockout stage that gets underway today teems with countless mouthwatering contests. There is every indication that the group stage performances of rank outsiders who made the cut—and they are not few—will not be a faint echo. While they surely cannot go all the way, here’s to hoping that their sweeping rebuke of the form book is not in vain.