Since last we checked in on the Seattle Sounders playing at the Africa Cup of Nations, Georgi Minoungou and Burkina Faso and Nouhou and Cameroon both advanced with wins in their final group stage games. Burkina Faso beat Sudan by a score of 2-0 to finish second behind Algeria in Group E, while Cameroon won 2-1 against Mozambique to earn second in Group F, having tied group winners Côte d'Ivoire on both points and goal difference but having scored one fewer goal.
Against Sudan Minoungou earned his first start of the tournament and played the full 90 minutes. He started on the left wing, but frequently moved centrally to operate as more of a second striker than a winger. It was from that position where he made his greatest contribution in the 16th minute, applying pressure in Sudan’s half and winning the ball with a tackle before finding his teammate Stephane Aziz Ki in space on the right. Aziz Ki then sent in a cross to forward Lassina Traore who headed the ball home at the back post to give Burkina Faso a 1-0 lead.
Minoungou created a number of other opportunities for teammates, although Fotmob only credited him with a single chance created. Twice he beat a defender 1v1 on the left wing before finding a teammate at the top of the box, only to have their shots sent into orbit. He had a couple of shots of his own, and on one occasion had an argument for drawing a penalty as his feet were taken out from under him during his shooting motion. He was still able to get a shot off, but couldn’t get enough power on it to get it into the goal and no call was coming.
Jump forward about a week and for the second time in the tournament Minoungou came on as a halftime substitute. Côte d’Ivoire already had a 2-0 lead after completely dominating the first half of the Round of 16 match, taking 13 shots to Burkina Faso’s 2 and holding 66% of possession through the opening 45 minutes. As he did against Algeria and Equatorial Guinea, Minoungou came on to try to spark something in the attack. He had one particularly good moment, receiving the ball out on the left wing and taking on defender Guéla Doué before passing him and playing a ball to Dango Ouattara, who was tarting to the near post. Ouattara got a sliding touch to the pass but goalkeeper Yahia Fofana was able to stop the shot. The chance was pretty clearly Burkina Faso’s best of the game, as it was their only shot from inside the 6-yard box and one of only 2 shots from inside the penalty area. Minoungou put in a solid all-around performance, completing 2/4 dribbles, taking 4 of his 25 touches inside the area, and drawing 2 dangerous fouls in quick succession that both drew yellow cards. He also added 2 recoveries as well as winning 4/9 duels. Sadly, his side were simply outmatched and a late goal for Côte d’Ivoire made it 3-0 to end Burkina Faso’s run at the tournament.
Things looked worrying for Nouhou as halftime approached in Cameroon’s final group stage game. The two sides were level 1-1 when Nouhou, once again wearing the captain’s armband, came out of the game with what seemed like a possible hamstring injury in the 42nd minute.
Fortunately Cameroon manager David Pagou indicated postgame that the substitution had merely been a precaution, and Nouhou was back in the XI for the Round of 16 match against South Africa. He was largely anonymous, taking only 24 touches and completing 11 of the 15 passes he attempted while winning 2/4 aerial duels and 2/6 duels in total. Most of his work came in clearing the ball (6 clearances, 5 headed clearances) and tacking on 4 recoveries as South Africa held 66% of possession and took 18 shots to Cameroon’s 10. Cameroon did win 2-1 to advance to the Quarterfinals against the hosts Morocco, but Nouhou started and ended the game with two notably poor contributions. First, in the 2nd minute of the game he was shown a yellow card for appearing to elbow a player around the neck and shoulders as he attempted to shield him off of the ball. It was an innocuous play otherwise, but Nouhou looked to size up the approaching player before raising his arm.
Then in the 88th minute when South Africa grabbed their lone goal, it was Nouhou’s mark who scored. As the ball is sent in from Cameroon’s right side, Nouhou tracked the goalscorer Evidence Makgopa from the left side of the box to the right, but never got goal side or ball side of the player and appeared to drop off as Makgopa moved to the near post where he got a touch to put the ball in the back of the net while Nouhou crashed into his own goalkeeper. Rather than attempt to defend his man when the ball came in, it seemed as though Nouhou was trying to get to the goal line to backstop GK Devis Epassy. This is foreshadowing.
For one final time in the tournament, Nouhou was again the captain playing on the left in a back-3 for Cameroon. He was much more involved with Cameroon keeping 59% of possession, and he completed 40/43 passes, took 55 touches, and won 3/5 ground duels and 1/1 aerial duels. Unfortunately, those things don’t win a game on their own. Morocco opened the scoring in the 26th minute through Brahim Diaz off of a corner, and Nouhou had a curtsied seat for the goal. As Achraf Hakimi prepared to send in the corner, Diaz hurried from an offside position to get in line with the defenders. The rest of the Cameroon defense stepped up except for Nouhou, who kept Diaz onside. The initial ball was headed on by Ayoub El Kaabi to Diaz, and initially Nouhou grabbed him – literally holding him onside – before strangely pushing him towards the ball, which allowed him to get a touch and send it beyond Epassy to make it 1-0 for the host nation.
Morocco would make it 2-0 in the 74th minute. This time from a free kick, and as the ball flew out to Ismael Saibari just outside of the 6-yard box Nouhou once again dropped to the goal line directly behind his GK. Perhaps that’s his instruction, to backstop the backstop in case the ball squirted through, but it seemed more valuable to cover an unprotected part of the goal like the far post when the GK is at the near post. Regardless, Nouhou went behind the ‘keeper and Saibari sent his shot to the back post to secure Morocco’s place in the semifinals.
On the whole AFCON was something of a mixed bag for the two Sounders involved. There were promising moments as well as plenty of frustrating ones. Hopefully the experience will help to spur them on to better moments in the 2026 season.
