Angola 2-0 Togo

The Palancas Negras recorded a convincing win over Togo in their latest friendly match played in August 12.

Manuel Jose played two different sides on each half of the game.
The Girabolistas (Angolan league players) + Mantorras all played in the first half of the match and struggled to break-down an unimpressive Togo side. The only positive during the first half was Mantorras’ display which showed everyone why he is still at SL Benfica despite his fitness deficiency.

The second half featured the National team regulars such as Flavio, Ze Kalanga and Mateus. The Palancas showed a tremendous improvement during the second half and it was not long before Flavio and Mateus scored a goal each to seal the result.

To be fair to Togo, they had administrative issues in the run-up to the match and only arrived in Portugal a couple of hours before the match.
As a result of these issues, Togo looked to be playing without a centre-forward, as their star player Adebayor looked like a lost child on the pitch and played most of the match as an ineffective centre-midfielder. Adebayor dropped to midfield in order to collect the ball, because he was not receiving any service in his preferred position.

Although 2-0 is not a bad result, it does not summarise the amount of chances that the Palancas wasted. On a good day, it would have been 4-0, but you won’t hear many complaints about the performance (they have moved up a level from the Angola that lost to Cape Verde).

The Palancas Negras’ next games will be against the Ivory Coast and Senegal on 5 and 9 September.

Bring on the competitive teams!