The-Shot.Net Writers Club - Preview Group C: Cameroon, Egypt, Algeria, Zimbabwe

Group C
Nobody has doubts that title holders Cameroon will make it to the quarter finals but the task is tricky.

Cameroon can only lose while beating Cameroon in the opening match will be the great goal of Algeria. The Lions have been shaky in some of their recent opening matches. On the other hand physis should be no problem in the middle of the European season because almost all members of the squad are first team professionals. And their team organisation should be well grown after they have been provided consistence by the same coach for more than two years..
Arguably the best team in Africa, fans maybe expect too much in expecting the lions to become the first team to win the cup three times in a row. Considered how difficult it is even for a favorite to have the necessary luck especially in the knock out rounds you can imagine how rare it will be, that such a team wins three of those competitions in a row. In fact in Africa this has never been the case. In 2002 Cameroon have accomplished what no othe team had been able to since 1965: defending the title.
If you take the 0.2 (20%) probability the sportsbook companies assess to the event that the team they consider as the strongest will eventually win the competition, you might begin to understand how difficult it is. And derived from such a figure, a probability for winning three competitions in a row would be 0.008 (=0,8%)!
This shows two things: The strength of Cameroon seems still to be underrated and Lions fans should not be angry if this time it does not work out as smoothly as two years ago.

Algeria and Zimbabwe on the other hand are in a comfortable position: they can only win. They might have wished their duel with each other would have been the first match. As it is it could happen that their encounter in the third match is already meaningless. But especially Algeria, who have more experience than the debutants from the South, might be capable of snatching a point against one of the favorites, which would at least theoretically keep the door open until the last group game is played.

Egypt seem rather unsure what to expect. On one hand they have a star striker in Mido who could solve the almost traditional North African problems in front of the goal in tight matches. And they have Ahmed Hassan who has made another leap at Turkey. And they have had encouranging Under 20 results at the last two tournaments.
On the other hand they did not convince at the last two Nations Cup tournaments, they were unlucky at the World Cup qualifiers, where they could not win their crucial last match at Algeria, and their Olympic team has been taken apart in their recent three qualifiers. And they miss their influential defender veteran Hany Ramzy, a stabilizer in all his teams from being important factor in Egypts World Cup trip 1990, over two surprise German championships with outsiders Bremen and Kaiserslautern as maybe Bundesliga's most valuable African player ever, to Egypts perfect run at Burkina Faso 1998.
Anyway it seems Egypt are a little underrated by the sportsbook companies who have rated them behind Morocco. Latest in 2006 they should be hard to beat.