Coach’s Replacement Led to Victory in 19 Days

The Ivory Coast national team players are celebrating after winning the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations on the 12th.

During the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, he served as the Ivory Coast’s acting coach and led the team to its first championship in nine years.

Ivory Coast, ranked 49th in the FIFA rankings, has regained its throne in Africa for the first time in nine years. It grabbed the top title in 19 days after replacing its coach during the championship.

Ivory Coast, led by acting coach Emers Pae Côte d’Ivoire, who was born in 1984, won the 2023 African Football Confederation CAF Africa Cup of Nations final 2-1 at Ebimpe Olympic Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at 5 a.m. on the 12th.

It is the third time in nine years that Ivory Coast has topped the Africa Cup of Nations since the last tournament in 2015. In the list of the most wins in the tournament, it has moved up to fourth place with Nigeria, following Egypt 7 times, Cameroon 5 times, and Ghana 4 times.

It was all the more meaningful journey in that it was a turnaround that he made amid super-fast efforts to replace the head coach during the championship. Up until the beginning of the championship, the Ivory Coast head coach was French coach Jean-Louis Gase. He has led the team from 2022 and prepared the team with a goal of winning the Africa Cup of Nations.

However, the team was shaken from the start. It was good to have a 2-0 complete victory over Guinea-Bissau in the first round, but lost consecutively to Nigeria 0-1 in the second round and Equatorial Guinea 0-4 in the third round. Notably, its 0-4 defeat by Equatorial Guinea, which is ranked 88th in FIFA rankings, was a shocking result.

Ivory Coast, which had only three points 1 win and two losses and was lagging behind in third place in Group A, can now decide whether to advance to the round of 16 only by comparing the results with those of the third-ranked teams in other groups. Consequently, the Ivory Coast Football Association dismissed Gase on April 24 and assigned Pa to act as coach. As the team’s performance and results were not good in the group stage, it was relentless.

Ivory Coast barely managed to qualify for the round of 16, which is where the top four teams from each group ranked third. It was the last team to advance to the round of 16.

Under acting coach Paier, the team continued its journey of turning the tables in the tournament. After losing the first goal in the round of 16 against Senegal, the team scored a dramatic equalizer at the end of the second half, and won 5-4 after a penalty shootout to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals against Mali, the team also scored a dramatic equalizer at the end of the second half after the first goal and a come-from-behind goal in overtime, to secure a 2-1 victory and advance to the semifinals. Coincidentally, the journey of the tournament to the semifinals was almost the same as that of Korea’s 2023 Asian Football Confederation AFC Asian Cup led by German coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Ivory Coast, which gained momentum, defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 in the semifinals with the support of its home fans, and in the final match against Nigeria, it won a thrilling 2-1 come-from-behind victory and won a dramatic victory thanks to consecutive goals scored in the 17th and 36th minutes of the second half after the first goal in the 38th minute. In particular, Ivory Coast striker Sebastien Alle Dortmund returned to the ground after two testicular cancer surgeries and four chemotherapy treatments, and scored a come-from-behind winning goal to lead his country to victory in Africa on the day, marking the grand finale of Ivory Coast’s great drama.

“The competition ended with a fairytale-like ending by acting coach Pae,” the British public broadcaster BBC said. “The team that advanced to the round of 16 by itself has transformed Ivory Coast into a team that showed incredible mental strength by overpowering Senegal and Mali after extra time and winning the semifinals against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The team ended up being the runner-up as a member of the Ivory Coast national team in 2006, but now has a victory in four matches as a coach. Notably, it showed calm performance after the first loss in the final. “This competition will remain in the memory for a long time with record goals, constant ups and downs,” he said.

Sebastien Alle, who underwent two testicular cancer surgeries and returned to the ground after four chemotherapy sessions. He scored the come-from-behind winning goal in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final. 슬롯