26 days into the new year we are slowly reaching the climax of two international competitions, on one side of the wold Crystal Palace captain Mile Jedinak’s Australia are in the semi-final of the Asian Cup whereas on the other, Yannick Bolasie and Kwesi Appiah’s respective nations are facing now or never games with qualification still possible for the latter stages of the African Cup of Nations.
It’s Bolasie’s side who play first in the latest round of fixtures involving Palace players as the DR Congo face group leaders Tunisa in their final group stage game of the player’s first African Cup of Nations tournament. His side require a win against the leaders to qualify for the next stage of the competition, a stage that the nation last reached in 2006 when the tournament was hosted in Egypt where they went out in that round with a 4-1 defeat to their name against the hosts.
The winger has had a mixed tournament so far as after impressing many in his sides’ first game of the tournament he made darting runs and caused trouble for the Zambia defence throughout the game,but it was a different story in the second game against the Cape Verde Islands last week where the 25-year-old was substituted early on in the second half after a below average performance from the player who will be looking past that performance today.
On the other side of the world tomorrow, Mile Jedinak will captain his home nation in Newcastle, Australia as they look to book their place in the final of the Asian Cup where South Korea will be waiting after beating Iraq 2-0 today. Jedinak has only played two games in the tournament due to an ankle injury he picked up in the first game, despite making it through the whole game whilst also scoring a penalty in the 4-1 win in Melbourne on the opening day of the tournament.
Similar to Bolasie, Jedinak had a below average game in his last fixture which was against China in the quarter finals last week, where Tim Cahill scored two goals to dispose of the side who were unbeaten in the group stages of the tournament. If Australia do make it into the final, it will not only be the second time that the nation have made it into the final but also their second consecutive final after reaching it in 2011 when they lost to Japan in extra time 1-0.
In the African Cup of Nations, Crystal Palace do believe it not have another player of which we may need to remind Ghana manager Avram Grant of as Kwesi Appiah has failed to make an appearance for the nation at the tournament so far, remaining on the bench on both occasions. Nonetheless, his side can also make it through to the quarter finals with a win against South Africa in their final group game tomorrow or hope that Algeria fail to pick up a point against group leaders Sengal and pick up a point themselves in their fixture.
