Equatorial Guinea defeated Senegal 2-1 yesterday. Kily Álvarez smashed the goal that Senegal back home and advanced "The National Lightning" through to the final eight. Equatorial Guinea's Brazilian coach Gilson Paulo was delighted with the win. The team is however made up in its near entirety of people born outside of Equatorial Guinea.
Of the three Keepers, one was Born in Brazil, one in Cameroon, but the reserve keeper, Felipe Ovono was born in Equatorial Guinea.
The defense has four Spaniards, including the aforementioned Kily, an Ivorian, a Liberian and José Bokung, born and bred Equatoguinean - He didn't dress for the win over Senegal.
In the midfield there is a Nigerian, a treble of Cameroonian players, a Colombian, an Ivorian and a Spanish co-captain.
Up front there are five Spaniards, including the captain and another Cameroonian.
Obviously the 10 Spaniards would have a rough go at getting into the Spanish 1st team. We aren't quite sure how the Colombian ended up in the mix other that Spanish is spoken in both nations. But the other country's players couldn't make it into their home side. They're now getting to show the countries of Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Cameroon and Nigeria what they missed out on as Equatorial Guinea goes on. Only Côte d'Ivoire who is in the mix has a chance to show they made the right decision.
So why does everyone want to come play for Equatorial Guinea? Other than the chance to play international football, the President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo loves his football. He paid the national team over $1,000,000 when they defeated Libya. The question now is, how much he will pay them now that they have advanced?
