Central American Cup hosts Cost Rica may have been the first
to be crowned in 2013, but it was Africa Cup of Nations finalists Nigeria and
Burkina Faso who rose most in the early Ziaian rankings. Costa Rica won the Central
American Cup with a single goal in the final against defending champions
Honduras who had been held to a 1-1 draw by El Salvador and only progressed
from their group on goals scored. The Costa Ricans faired slightly better in
their group but were disappointing having struggled to beat Belize 1-0 and
drawn 1-1 against Guatemala who had earlier been held to a 1-1 draw by
Nicaragua. Belize impressed with a goalless draw against Guatemala and a 2-1
win over Nicaragua ending up in 4th place.
The Gulf Cup was won by the United Arab Emirates who
defeated Iraq 2-1 in extra time by the result of the tournament was Kuwait's
6-1battering of hosts Bahrain in the 3rd place match.
The Africa Cup of Nations began with debutants Cape Verde
holding hosts South Africa to a goalless draw. South Africa made amends with a
2-0 win over Angola and made it to the next round together with Cape Verde
despite sharing 4 goals with Morocco in their last group match. DR Congo came
from 2 down to draw with Ghana who defeated Mali 1-0 to top their group but
after losing to Burkina Faso on penalties were swept aside 3-1 by Mali in the
3rd place playoff match. Algeria failed miserably losing 1-0 to Tunisia and 2-0
to Togo before salvaging some pride with a 2-2 draw against Ivory Coast who had
already eased 3-0 past Tunisia. Burkina Faso topped their group ahead of
Nigeria on goal difference thanks to a 4 goal routing against Ethiopia, but
Nigeria knocked pre-tournament favourites Ivory Coast out 2-1 before thumping
Mali 4-1 to reach the final where they defeated the Burkinabe one nil.
Among World Cup qualifiers the Americans were beaten 2-1
away to Honduras while Mexico fired blanks against their visitors from Jamaica.
In the Asian Cup qualifiers Hong Kong celebrated a goalless
draw in Uzbekistan and China lost 2-1 away to Saudi Arabia while Kuwait
prevailed 3-1 in Thailand and Lebanon were hammered 5-0 in Iran.
Among friendly matches Kenya defeated Libya 3-0 in Tunis and
Denmark lost 3-0 away to Macedonia.