A Sparrowhawk sighting in Paris

With the final round of joint qualifiers for South Africa 2010 and the next African Cup of Nations upcoming, Togo is gearing up by taking on Burkina Faso in Paris on Wednesday. With the Burkina Faso-ites (also known as the Stallions) getting ready to take on Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, and Guinea in Group E, this will be an important tuneup for them as well. I honestly don’t know a thing about them as they seemingly came out of nowhere to go undefeated in the previous round of qualifiers. They seem to be a growing strength in African football after finishing 3rd in the ‘01 U-17 World Cup and then finishing behind Ghana, DR Congo, and South Africa in a tough Group 2 of World Cup 2006 qualifiers.

It should be interesting to see what kind of lineup takes the field for Les Eperviers. One person we know won’t be featured is Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese striker picked up a hamstring injury in Sunday’s North London Derby and will miss the next 3 weeks at least. Luckily we are still a month and a half away from Togo’s opening fixture of Round 3 of qualification against Cameroon, so hopefully Ade will be fit by then as we all know Togo’s dreams of back-to-back World Cup qualification rests squarely on his shoulders.

It’s almost impossible to follow Togo’s friendlies so if you’re in Paris, please stop by the game on Wednesday and let me know what you see.