The African Cup of Nations final between Egypt and Cameroon was not nearly as sexy as the third-place game, which host nation Ghana came from behind to win 4-2 over Ivory Coast. Still, the battle between North African power and West African power offered a clash of styles and philosophies that was dramatic in itself. Egypt had been, leading up to the final, the best team in the tournament and had hammered Cameroon 4-2 in their opening group round match. Cameroon, on the flip side, had meandered their way to the final by stifling their opponents and relying on the threatening presence of tournament lead goal-scorer Samuel Eto'o to open up opportunities for his overlapping midfield. Could the Indomitable Lions reverse their fortune and African history to prevail against the determined defending champions?

Egypt opened the game perfectly, playing compact, moving the ball rapidly, and taking possession of the midfield. Cameroon's midfield general, Alex Song, labored on his heavily wrapped leg and came off after 12 minutes. Song did not play in the first contest between the teams and it was his emergence in Cameroon's midfield as a ball-finder and distributor that had given the team their shape in the tournament. Without him, they had no player focused on moving the play from side to side, meaning that the Egyptians could force Cameroon up the lines and defend in numbers that nullified the speed advantage.

Egypt got chances early too, exploiting the absence of Andre Bikey-suspended for his red card inducing body-block on a medic in the semi. The only good news for Cameroon in the first half was that their goalkeeper Kameni looked unbeatable and Egypt failed to score despite peppering the goal with accurate strikes. Amr Zaky is a talented forward, great in possession and deadly as a shooter. The youthful Mohammed Zidan, who scored twice in the first match in Cameroon, watched from the side sporting a fine new haircut for the final.

There was a sense at half-time that even though Egypt had utterly dominated the game, Cameroon might wear them down physically, rely on Kameni to keep the score at nil, and then win on a brilliant counter attack created by Eto'o. Rigobert Song, Cameroon's captain and last defender, had had a fantastic tournament and made two saving tackles on Egyptian onslaughts in the first twenty minutes of the second half. But the shape of the field just got worse and worse for Cameroon. Their forward line was fifty meters from the back line, the midfielders all lost in between, and Egypt looked to be playing with fifteen players, such was their time on the ball and their control of the game.

As the game wore on Egypt had fewer and fewer chances and Kameni saved those easily. Egypt brought Zidan on with thirty minutes to play, and his nerves actually disrupted the flow of their attack for ten of those minutes. It looked like extra time was in the future. As Cameroon chased and kicked, kicked and chased, they had more and more opportunities to win individual challenges, and ultimately began to establish possession for the first time in the game.

Then disaster struck. Egypt played a long clearance ball over Rigobert Song's head and he went back for it with Zidan nipping at his heels. He could have played a back pass to his keeper; he could have cleared the ball into the upper deck; he could even have played square to a fellow defender. Instead he took a disastrous touch back and showed Zidan a glimpse of the ball. He took another disastrous touch back to keep it from the little striker and the two men fell in a confused heap inside Cameroon's box. Just as help arrived for Song, Zidan toe poked the ball free across the face of goal and Mohammed Aboutrika slotted home. 1-0 Egypt. It was a horrible mistake from an experienced defender and a terrible way to decide a game in which Kameni really did look likely to stop everything and anything.

The final fifteen minutes of the game were frenetic and Cameroon managed to fire a few dangerous crosses into the Egyptians box, but they never created any real chances. Egypt are the deserving champions for a record sixth time. Having won the tournament twice back-to-back in an era when West African nations can claim to have the most intense concentration of football talent outside of Brazil, Egypt have proven again that passing, shape, and movement beat individual ability consistently.

There may be a tendency for Americans to think that Egypt is not really an African nation. But the regional styles of Africa are what make this tournament so appealing, and I think there is not a cleaner footballing style anywhere in the world than in North Africa today. Also, the Pan-African nature of this tournament is a healthy counter-balance to the colonial tilt of its football history. At a time when many of the national federations are still a mess and allegations of the human-trafficking of young players to European countries are rife, the positive impact of the African Cup of Nations is its ability to bring world-wide attention to an Africa united by the thrill of its own talent playing on its own soil. My heart was set on victory for the host country Ghana, but my respect to the Egyptians, who won with dignity, pride, and effort... and an African coach!