On Togo, Angola and Soccer on the Continent of Africa, Pt. 2

After some debate, the Togo team has confirmed its withdrawal from the Africa Cup of Nations.  The tournament kicked off as scheduled yesterday, Hosts Angola took a 4-0 lead into the last eleven minutes only to shit the bed, allowing Mali to come back and draw 4-4.  Even if every single game for the rest of the tournament had four goal comebacks, I will still only remember ACN 2010 for this incident (and being that this is 2010, I will remember forever) and this incident alone.  Any soccer that will be played will only be a footnote.  When they write about the finals of this tournament, the first and last paragraph will contain some variant of:  "the tournament was marred by an armed attack on the Togo team bus."  When the Ivory Coast win the tournament, Didier Drogba will immediately dedicate his game winning goal to the victims.  When they kickoff the next ACN in two years, the prematch analysis will focus on security upgrades.

This is all the more reason the World Cup has to be the cat's pajamas.  2010 is Africa's statement of intent to the developed world and whether South Africa likes it or not the ACN in Angola is the preamble.  The body of said statement better be impeccable or African soccer violence will forever become apart of the world sports lexicon.