Making History in Football: Keep Your Eyes ‘peeled’ for this Dark Horse called “Barea” Madagascar
It wasn’t too long that an “Africa” team, yes, African in quotation marks — i.e., Morocco and all the controversy around the country’s “Africanness” — flew the flag of the continent at the recently concluded FIFA World Cup in Qatar. But alas, and just like we previously pointed out about the disrespect of African football competitions in the article AFCON’s ‘disrespect’ and so what?
While this post is not about Morocco per se, it does concern that country for a very important reason.
As recently reported by the BBC, the main story of the African Nations Championships (CHAN), a tournament of African home-based footballers,
“… is still not about what happened on the pitch so much as the overall organisation of the tournament and its geopolitical implications. Defending champions Morocco did not make it out to Algeria for the CHAN, pulling out on the eve of its starting citing logistical reasons after the team was denied permission to fly directly from Morocco to Algeria using their national airline.”
Consequently we read about Ghana, Sudan, Madagascar [having] handed three points each against Morocco…
Why it matters
The 19 January 2023 marks the point of departure as Barea trashed the “African Hero,” Morocco 3–1 on that day. So who or what is Barea?
Nicknamed Barea after the island’s zebu, the Madagascar national football team, has been growing over the years and that has seen some of the clubs taking part in CAF interclub competitions.
The Islanders based team will be hoping to pull a surprise to reach the knockout stages of the competition. The national team is controlled by the Malagasy Football Federation. It has never qualified for the finals of the World Cup. It took part in its first Africa Cup of Nations in 2019.
But CHAN is a different ‘animal’ entirely. Barea beat Ghana 2–1 on 15 January 2023, Morocco 3–1 on 19 January, and Sudan 3–1 on 23 January to top their Group C and secure their place in the Quarter finals where they went on to demolish Mozambique 3–1 on 28 January. They are now set to face off with Senegal in the semi finals on 31 January, when hosts Algeria will be playing against another dark horse, Niger.
Prior to the commencement of the tournament, and according to a recent post on CAFOnline.com “Barea looking to light up CHAN debut TotalEnergies African Nations Championship.” It is worth recalling that Madagascar made its maiden appearance at the 2022 African Nations Championship, after “finishing their qualification campaign on a high, demolishing the Seychelles 4–0 on aggregate, followed up with a beating of Botswana on 3–1 aggregate.”
Here’s some food for thought that requires further garnishing:
The 2022 African Nations Championship (CHAN) quarter-finals begin on Friday, and there are plenty of captivating storylines primed to unfold. Hosts Algeria steamrolled through Group A, and look like early favourites, Senegal have scores of young talent that seem ripe for European football, and débutants, Madagascar (Barea), have also secured a historic berth in the knockout stages.
I would take this one step further to place my bet on Barea to not only debut, but clinch the title considering their consistent run up to this stage.
