Plus, AFCON, AFC-Asian Cup, and UEFA Women’s Champions League

The theme of Week 3 in the Huntsville Indoor League is definitely Blue Moon rising.

That’s because my team, Blue Moon, put together a (nearly) full performance from the first minute to the last, topping the energetic Grape Soda squad by a 13-6 score.

Other than a mental lapse when the game was out of reach, which allowed Grape Soda to knock in a couple of goals, Blue Moon were full value for the three points.

In other action, Your Mum drew with The EH! Team 8-8, while Thunder FC defeated the Golazos by 10-6.

Up next is a bye week before action returns on February 13.

STANDINGS
(As of February 3)

AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS

The semi-finals for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) are almost set with Nigeria (1-0 winners over Angola) and DR Congo (3-1 over Guinea) winning their quarter-final match-ups on Friday.

Today (Saturday, February 3), the host nation Cote d’Ivoire takes on Mali at noon EST, and Cape Verde kicks-off against South Africa at 3 p.m.

Senegal had taken a very, very early 1-0 lead and despite a ton of possession and chances, it wasn’t until an 86th minute when former AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie knotted the score for Cote d’Ivoire.

The other match looks good too with South Africa having eliminated World Cup semi-finalist Morocco in the round-of-16 by a 2-0 score line, and Cape Verde surviving 1-0 over Mauritania.

Nigeria will play the the survivor of the Cape Verde-South Africa tie, while the winner of the Cote d’Ivoire-Mali match will face DR Congo. Both semi-finals will be played on Wednesday, February 7 (at noon and 3 p.m. respectively).

Cote d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) are flying high after knocking out the defending champion Senegalese in a come-from-behind penalty kick round-of-16 win that was exciting throughout.

The AFCON final is scheduled for Sunday, February 11 at 3 p.m. and I’m hoping for a Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria clash to entertain even the neutral fans.

Matches are available live on Fubo TV Canada.

AFC – ASIAN CUP

The AFC – Asian Cup in Qatar has been a mix of good football, intriguing upsets, and some less than appealing match-ups (at least from a neutral point of view).

Still, at the time of this writing, the host nation was gearing up for a quarter-final tie with Uzbekistan with the winner facing Iran in the semi-finals on Feb. 7 (10 a.m. EST start time).

Iran were lucky winners against Japan on Saturday morning – having gone down a goal in the first half – and being pretty much outplayed, got a tying goal early in the second half before getting a stoppage time penalty kick awarded (it was a legitimate penalty) that was converted for the winning goal.

The other semi-final will pit upstarts Jordan (1-0 winners over Tajikistan) against favourites South Korea (2-1 winners over another pre-tournament favourite, Australia) . . . Tuesday, February 6 at 10 a.m.

While normally in these situations I cheer for underdogs, I would really like to see the host Qataris against the South Koreans for sheer entertainment value.

The final goes on Saturday, February 10 at 10 a.m.

Matches are streamed live for free on YouTube.

UEFA Women’s Champions League

Although our beloved AS Roma fell short of advancing to the knockout rounds from the Group of Death, we still have a very strong team to cheer for moving forward.

I hope all Canadians come together and support the Chelsea women’s team, which features Les Rouges stars Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan.

Plus, Chelsea has a couple of my other favourite women’s players in Sam Kerr and Lauren James.

But, if you can’t bring yourself to cheer for an English club or for this particular club (which is completely understandable), then you may as well pick one of the underdogs to cheer for.

In which case, the lowest ranked team (64th according to their UEFA co-efficient) is Brann from Norway. They are easily the least likely of the eight quarterfinalists to win the title (or even advance from the next round).

On that note, the quarterfinal draw takes place on February 6 with the two-legged ties taking place in late March.

All matches are available on DAZN Canada.

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