The beauty of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations is one thing that never stops exciting and instilling in me some pride regarding the level African football has reached. The quality of every tournament is usually assessed on several grounds - quality of play, fair play, quality of officiating, behaviour of the fans and players as well, the state of organisation, among others. From what we have seen so far the dexterity with which some goals have been scored in the tournament, the fighting spirit that has been exhibited by some teams like Benin, Namibia and Zambia, touted as smaller teams, and the tactical skills that have been displayed by some coaches - it is clear that this tournament is one of the finest (if not the best) of its kind. Certainly, one cannot say that the organisation of Ghana 2008 has been the best, especially looking back at Egypt 2006. Issues of accreditation, ticket racketeering, extortions from food vendors and the 'incompletion' of minor construction works were some mishaps that nearly threatened the success of the tournament. But, as could be seen, the quality being exhibited by the various teams has overshadowed these setbacks. I would attempt not to assess issues about refereeing, coaching, quality of play, fair play, since I am not an expert in football. My interest, nonetheless, lies in some of the surprises that have characterised the tournament so far. Indeed, in every tournament, there are occurrences that go contrary to commonly held views or common sense, and this tournament has been no exception. It has been a competition that has left some analysts and commentators with their mouth agape and disabled from making outright predictions of the outcomes of fixtures. Some analysts and commentators have been forced to eat back their words or predictions, or sometimes reverse their previously held positions when their predictions turned out to be the opposite. The surprises began in Group D when Namibia proved to be a tough customer, though ranked the lowest among the 16 teams in the tournament. The naive Namibian side lost in their first match by 5-1 to a more experienced and organised Moroccan side, and by that performance, many soccer pundits were tempted to conclude that Namibia were not capable of snatching a point in the tournament. It was, however, a bolt from the blue when Namibia came back more revived and determined to manage a 1-0 loss to Ghana, which was ranked 8th among the 16 nations. Guinea, who are the highest ranked in the group, 33rd position in the world and 3rd in Africa, routed Morocco in their second group match 3-1, but could not beat Namibia, a side that lost heavily to Morocco. Interesting, isn't it? In Group C, we saw similar occurrences, when Cameroun, currently ranked second in Africa, lost heavily to fourth-ranked Egypt, but thrumped Zambia comfortably. However, Zambia who lie 11th in Africa, went on to draw with Egypt, even though they lost easily to Cameroun. Also in Group D, Angola, who were placed 12th in Africa in the FIFA rankings, were determined to shock the world, and without doubt, went on to do just that. They came from a goal down to thrash the 7th in Africa, Senegal 3-1. Football never stops springing surprises. One other occurrence I found very shocking, but excited was the outcome of the Cote d'lvoire-Mali encounter. Contrary to speculations that both sides were nurturing plans of drawing their match in order to allow Mali to qualify, Cote d'lvoire came out strongly to silence speculators by beating the former 2-0. By this feat, they sounded the alarm to all concerned that African football had come a long way and was obviously above such ignominies. Indeed, today, African football has been plagued by so many shockers, and these are what make the game beautiful. In any case, any football fixture whose outcome could be predicted, is apparently not worth watching; a competitive match is one in which both the "strong" and the "weak" have to fight hard and be relentless to either maintain or discard their stereotype. This is exactly what we are seeing in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations. Also, past performances or successes cannot guarantee the success of any soccer nation over other nations considered smaller. In fact, I am tempted to say there are no more smaller teams, but there are developing teams with big dreams. And these they can realise with just some added determination, commitment and professionalism. We can only hope for the better. Long live cup of nations.