There are many ways to leave a major tournament and whether the exit is dignified or downbeat, there will always be regrets.
By the end of the first day of the knockouts at the Africa Cup of Nations, the footballers of Sudan and Tunisia both harboured thoughts of opportunities missed, advantages let slip – but of the two Arab countries eliminated earliest from the Afcon, little doubt about which one carried home the most pride.
Or, better put, which country packed up its bags and, man for man, headed off to what only counts temporarily as ‘home’.
Sudan’s footballers and the team’s staff, like many hundreds of thousands of compatriots, live a displaced life and have done since civil conflict enveloped their country two and half years ago.
These elite athletes may be among the more privileged of the war’s nomads, yet they are not sealed off from the violence. Several have lost family members and loved-ones; all have become acutely aware of the small influence they can have, in a time of division, as givers of joy and distraction, and of how their progress to the last-16 of Africa’s principal showpiece brought cheer to so many Sudanese.
They were beaten 3-1 by Senegal on Saturday in a rainy Tangiers, bringing to an end an odyssey that began in one of several borrowed venues, Juba, South Sudan, 16 months ago.
There, Sudan’s itinerants, most of them attached to clubs in a league that has ceased functioning because of the war, won their opening Afcon qualifier.
Once they had taken four points off Ghana, four times African champions, in their next three qualifying matches, they were set, their ticket to Morocco for these finals stamped with the mighty Ghanaians stranded below them and without a place at the 35th Afcon.
Some context here: Even in peacetime, Sudan struggled to reach modern Afcons. This was just their second appearance in seven editions. Yet, in the midst of a horrific war, with the squad dependent on training sites being loaned to them in Saudi Arabia, on ‘home’ grounds scrounged in Juba or Benghazi, they bucked that trend and made it further at a Cup of Nations than they had done in 14 years.
Compare all that with Tunisia, a football country with a high-performing league, players in leading European clubs and a national team that is the epitome of consistency in meeting its minimum targets, if seldom dazzling at trying to exceed them.
In September, Tunisia qualified for a World Cup finals for the sixth time in eight attempts, dropping two points from a possible 30. The last time they were not on the starting grid for an Afcon was 1992. In the previous three Afcons held in North Africa, they have finished either champions, or semi-finalists, or in the quarters.
But at Morocco 2025, Tunisia were already preparing for the short trip back from Casablanca to Tunis by midnight of the first day of the knockouts.
They were ousted on penalties by a Mali who played the last 94 minutes of the 120 of their tie with ten men, a Mali who had fallen 1-0 behind with two minutes of normal time remaining.
By which time, Tunisia’s caution, their palpable nervousness of committing resources into attack appeared to have been forgiven. But they were by then weary enough, even at 11 against 10, to concede a – relatively soft – penalty and give Mali hope.
“We won most of the duels but unfortunately, after our goal, something inexplicable happened and we made a mistake,” sighed coach Sami Trabelsi.
That would be the last time he would be invited to explain the inexplicable or anything else. He and his staff were relieved of their jobs soon after their Afcon was terminated.
Which leaves the Tunisian FA six months until the World Cup to bed in a new coaching team and look for solutions to a problem that might easily be taken for habitual: a crabby, conservative posture that leaves them vulnerable to late ambush.
At the Afcon in Ivory Coast two winters ago, they were on the back foot from match day one, when Namibia surprised them with an 88th minute goal for a 1-0 victory.
They would score just once in their three matches, and, in a case of eerie déjà vu, their 1-1 draw against Mali – whose goal, as on Saturday came from a Lassine Sinayoko penalty – effectively put them on the plane home.
Well before he lost his job, Trabelsi had heard criticism that he was not being as adventurous as the talent he can call on allows. Mali certainly feared the damage Tunisia could do going forward, as their brutal marking of Hannibal Mejbri, the most dynamic Tunisian in Casablanca, testified.
So it was that Mali, underdogs, progressed to play Senegal in Friday’s first Afcon quarter-final, a Senegal who spent much of the first half against Sudan showing grudging respect for the pluck and enterprise of Africa’s brave itinerants.
The small clutch of Sudan fans in Tangier did their utmost to compete with the choreographed song and dance of their opponents. No doubt the complicity of supporters with players had an effect.
“If they continue to support like that, we’ll continue to give 150 per cent on the pitch,” Sudan striker Aamir Abdallah told The National. It was he, with a wonderful opening goal, cutting in from the right, who stunned Sadio Mane’s Senegalese. But for a sharp Edu Mendy save, Sudan’s bold start might have put them 2-0 up.
Senegal eventually imposed hierarchy, 2-1 up by half time and 3-1 winners in the end. But they had been stung, Sudan shifting from the stoicism of their group phase to the best method they knew to try to snatch a minnows-versus-mighty knockout tie.
Their admired coach, James Kwesi Appiah, always urges his players to believe – “I tell them ‘don’t belittle yourselves, you’re high quality players',” he says – and they took that attitude into their Afcon campaign and into their last-16 challenge.
None more than 26-year-old Abdallah, winning just his fourth cap, and, by his own admission, crowning the most prestigious match of his career with a wondergoal.
“Surreal,” he called his experience, as a forward with Avondale of Australia’s second tier, facing the likes of Mane, Mendy, Paris Saint-Germain’s Ibrahim Mbaye and Bayern Munich’s Nicolas Jackson.
“You’re up against players who play at the highest club levels in the world. I’ve tried to soak it all in, enjoy it and that goal, with my trademark move, was such a good feeling.”
It would be short-lived. “It’s bittersweet in the end,” said Abdallah. “I scored my first goal for the national team, but obviously we’re coming out with a loss, so overall it’s not the greatest feeling.
“It’s a difficult time for the country. And we’ve created a lot of happiness, a lot of hope. We want to continue to make people happy. Hopefully not just with goals but with wins as well.
“We saw a lot of positives. There’s lots of good things to take out and we’ll go on to the next thing much stronger.” Sudan had not cowered. Later that evening, Tunisia did.
