The first round of matches of this year's African Cup of Nations have been interesting to say the least. Right from the first match, everyone saw that this year's CAN promises fireworks, and rightly so, the matches have been far from boring. Before I review the first round of matches, I must bring attention to the effect that the event has had on Ghana.

The CAN has no doubt invigorated every type of business. There are traders selling Ghana paraphernalia everywhere in the streets of Accra. With an estimated one million foreigners in town, the food industry has seen a lot business and the bars are full to bursting with all kinds of people trying to catch a glimpse of the matches. And in all this the sex trade can't be forgotten. There are rumours going round that some people have even been arrested for taking advantage of prostitutes. All these things add up to the animation of the city during the CAN.

Flags displayed at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra

Now on to the matches! Ghana's first game against Guinea was a very nervous affair even though the host saw a better part of the game. That was because Ghana missed a lot of goal opportunities and we started to wonder if they would score a goal at all. Tensions were heightened by the fact that Guinea equalized minutes after Ghana had scored. It wasn't until the last minute when Sulley Ali Muntari of Portsmouth and Ghana restored Ghana's dream with a brilliant strike to close the game at Ghana 2: Guinea 1. It was indeed a worthy opening game.

Morocco and Namibia's game was reduced to a mere warm up for the Moroccans; the Namibians succumbed to a 5:1 score line. Which means Morocco and Ghana top Group A at three points each.

Group B is living up to its reputation as the ‘group of death'. With the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Mali and Benin, you can't ask for a better group. The match between Nigeria and the Ivory Coast was the talk of the town. The match itself was stressful and as expected by many, the Ivory Coast won by one goal to nil. Nigeria didn't play badly though, they gave the Ivory Coast a run for their money. But the lone effort of the Ivorian player Solomon Kalou (who also plays for Chelsea) was enough to relegate them to the bottom of the group. In their game Benin put up a spirited performance but it wasn't enough to beat Mali, who won one nil. Actually, before this match started, there was a power cut in the stadium resulting in a delay of about 15 minutes. I don't know why but I'm not surprised...

In Group C there was a shocker; Egypt 4: Cameroon 2. It's not the fact that Egypt won that surprised me but that Cameroon played so badly, especially in the first half. They played as if they had no midfield. Credits to the defending champions though, they were just superb. Zidan was simply fantastic!! The second game between Zambia and Sudan was predictable. The final score was Zambia 3: Sudan 0 was and all I can say about this game is that Sudan played well but it seemed that they lacked ‘bite' in the final third of the field.

Group D is what soccer pundits call the ‘group of equals' and rightly so. With Tunisia, Senegal, Angola and South Africa, you can expect some exciting games. No surprise, Tunisia and Senegal came to a 2:2 draw and Angola and South Africa also drew.

My predictions:

Semi finals: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Cameroon.

Finals: Ghana and Ivory Coast.

And the champions? Ghana of course!"