Equatorial Guinea 2009-10 Home
Brokal isn’t a brand you normally see about, but they did alright by Equatorial Guinea. Stripes down one side using the flag colours and the same for the colouring around the collar. The stripes also running down the back is a nice touch. However, that’s not a lot to the shirt and it certainly isn’t what you first notice. Why are the numbers shiny gold? Who knows! But they are and they definitely stand out. Weird shirt, but a decent one. Thanks Obama.
The design came about for the 2009 and 2010 CEMAC Cups. In 2009, despite losing to Central African Republic and drawing with Congo, that was enough for Equatorial Guinea to reach the semi-finals. Here they would beat Chad before the Central African Republic would return to end their hopes of winning. 2010 would be simpler in that they’d just lose their group stage games to Chad and Congo and go straight out.
Underwhelming is generally the word of the day for Equatorial Guinea. Until the latest set of qualifiers they’d never won more than a single match in a World Cup campaign. They also hadn’t managed that in AFCON qualifiers, but co-hosted the 2012 edition to qualify for the first time. They’d host the 2015 edition alone, get two qualifying wins first in 2019 and actually qualify through the qualification process for 2021! Additionally, every AFCON they’ve been to got them to at least the quarter-finals, with them finishing 4th in 2015! They’ve played every CHAN qualification since 2018, qualifying on their debut and narrowly missing out in 2020, though they’d lose every game at the finals themselves. Never a major force in the UDEAC or CEMAC Cups, they did manage a CEMAC title in 2006 for their only title as a senior side. They have had a bad habit of naturalising players too, but that’s hopefully behind them.
On the other hand, their women’s side has been successful. They reached all 4 AFCONs between 2006 and 2012, hosting and winning both 2008 and 2012 while finishing 2nd in 2010. This allowed them to reach the 2011 Women’s World Cup where they’d lost by a single goal to Australia and Norway and by 3 to Brazil. However, the golden era was going to come to a close. They were banned from several tournaments, the 2012 and 2020 Olympics along with the 2016 and 2020 WAFCONs. They lost all 3 matches at the 2018 WAFCON, leaving only a 2020 UNIFFAC title as a local success. Men’s youth teams are not massively common and have fallen afoul of bans before. Generally they perform poorly and haven’t had any significant success since the early 1980’s. Considering that led to a ban, I’m not sure that really counts. Their women’s youth football has been reasonably active, but have faced a lot of walkovers so are not very experienced. They’ve been to the final qualifying rounds before but either withdrawn or been soundly beaten.
They’ve never played beach soccer, but 2016 did bring futsal to the nation. Their double headed tie for qualification against Zambia in 2016 had them fall just short, falling out on away goals only, but Cameroon withdrew in 2020 to send them to their first ever futsal AFCON! Here they would beat Mauritius (who would subsequently withdraw) before being soundly beaten by Morocco and narrowly beaten by Libya to go out in the group stages.
Drawn against South Sudan in 2022 preliminary qualifiers, they would have been confident in progressing and did so narrowly. This put them in a tricky group with Tunisia, Mauritania and Zambia which they actually excelled in. Only 2 points behind Tunisia, they came the closest they ever have to a men’s World Cup, far better than expected. I suppose that means we’ll await a ban in the near future then?
Adam's National Shirt Collection 