AFCON 2015 final result: Ivory Coast 0-0 Ghana (Ivory Coast win 9-8 on penalties, after extra time)

Ivory Coast *0-0 Ghana – The Lineups:

Ivory Coast starting XI: Barry, Aurier, Tiene, K. Toure, Bailly, Kanon, S. Die, Gradel, Y. Toure, Bony, Gervinho #AFCON2015 — Just Football (@JustFootball) February 8, 2015

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B oubacar Barry’s first trip to an Africa Cup of Nations came in 2002, part of a squad that included two highly-rated youngsters on the books at ASEC Mimosas. Their names were Siaka Tiene, 19, and a 20-year-old kid named Kolo Toure. That was 13 years ago.

Barry wouldn’t feature at that tournament, and with Ivory Coast failing to qualify in 2004 he would wait another four years before making his bow at Africa’s showpiece event. On January 28th 2006, Barry came on as a substitute for Jean-Jacques Tizie in the Elephants’ final group stage game against Egypt.

Ivory Coast had already qualified, so an eager, bright-eyed Barry was given his opportunity on the grand stage. Barry was introduced at 1-1. Within two minutes of coming on, Egypt scored. Eight minutes later they scored another.

Since that day nine years ago, Barry and Ivory Coast have been together through a decade-long emotional catherine wheel, culminating on Sunday evening in Bata when Barry, now 35, aged and likely playing in his final Africa Cup of Nations, scored the winning penalty against Ghana to hand Ivory Coast their first AFCON trophy in 23 years and only their second in history.

Boubacar Barry: an ode to every man

If there is one thing that perhaps stands the Africa Cup of Nations out as an international tournament, it is its inherent ability to pluck moments of incredibly romantic beauty from what can often be a sea of mediocrity and chaos. The tournament is no World Cup or Champions League, and it would be dishonest to pretend the competition is a bi-annual coming together of the world’s best players. Quite simply, it is not.

There are stars, sure. Oil-rich billionaires just paid £28million to get Wilfried Bony to play for their football team, and some of the world’s greatest ever players have graced Africa’s main event.

But amidst the peaks of sporting prowess, skill and athleticism, there are also some very plain footballers, players you won’t read about in sports newspaper columns around the globe. The Africa Cup of Nations involves players at the height of the game, multimillionaires at Manchester City, Roma, Barcelona. But there are also players from Deportivo Mongomo – three times winners of the Equatoguinean Premier League – or College Europa of the Gibraltar Premier Division.

It is the sudden thrusting of these absolute journeymen into the international spotlight that often provides the most powerful stories at the Cup of Nations. The remarkable adventures of hard-working but ultimately limited footballers fulfilling lifelong dreams is what makes this competition so compelling. In a sense, it is the sporting equivalent of the Oscars for runners and make-up artists, the people in football’s shadows who do their business away from the glitz and glamour. It is the tournament for every man. Boubacar Barry is every man.

In almost every sporting sense imaginable, Barry is unflinchingly ordinary. He was never the greatest shot stopper. He isn’t hugely reliable at aerial duels. He can be eccentric, but not in an Oliver Kahn, you’ll-never-beat-me kind of way.

His kicking is wholly suspect. He smiles a lot. He chews grass at odd times. He’s good to have around, a religious and philosophical man, but leaving a few stellar seasons at Lokeren to one side, Barry is the personification of the enthusiastic but ultimately limited footballer.

Via his loyal service to his country, he’s also been through a world of heartache.

Ivory Coast and heartbreak: once brothers

Barry was there at AFCON 2006 when Ivory Coast lost agonisingly on penalties in the final to Egypt. He was there in 2008 when the Elephants romped their way through the group stages and smashed Guinea 5-0 in the quarter finals – the bubbling bubbling bubbling of a golden generation cultivated in the halls of Abidjan’s famous ASEC Mimosas academy, a developmental school of which he too was part – only to somehow get destroyed 4-1 by Egypt in a semi-final capitulation.

Barry played at AFCON 2010 on the haunting terrains of Cabinda, in a three-team group stripped of Togo after their team bus was attacked by gunmen, a nervy, tense town after three people were murdered and Togo were forced to pull out of the competition.

Barry watched as Ivory Coast somehow went from the elation of an 89th minute goal against Algeria to go 2-1 up in the quarter finals’ dying minutes to stone cold knocked out, a stoppage time equaliser transforming into extra-time elimination.

“Is the problem physical or psychological?” Ivory Coast’s then-manager Vahid Halihodzic pondered, scratching his head after the game. “It cannot be physical because when you are one goal up with only one minute left, you just sit back and clinch victory.” Barry and his team-mates cried. It can’t get worse than this, they thought. They were wrong.

It did. Barry was there in 2012 to witness one of the greatest stories in modern football history as Zambia won AFCON 2012. Zambia’s triumph was a life-affirming and heart-warming victory for anyone with even an ounce of sensitivity. Unfortunately for the Ivorians, however, it came at their expense. Barry didn’t even concede a single goal, for crying out loud: the Elephants kept clean sheets in every game but still lost in a thrilling penalty shootout.

“Their victory over us (Ivory Coast) was the choice of God,” the crestfallen but philosophical keeper, now in his thirties and used to hard knocks, commented afterwards. “We tried our best, but if you are a spiritual person you could easily infer that the game was decided even before kickoff. The hand of God was upon the Zambian team.”

2013 brought no more joy. “I have bad memories,” Gervinho lamented almost ghost-like after Ivory Coast lost to Nigeria at AFCON 2013. The pain was becoming too much to take. A last-minute penalty conceded to Greece at Brazil 2014 summed these cursed Elephants up. All they needed was a draw and it was 1-1 in stoppage time. Long after Giorgos Samaras danced off into the night after sending his country through, Barry lay on the floor at the Estadio Castelao flat on his stomach, absolutely emotionless. A bottle of crushed emotions now flowed like a river.

At 35, Barry has waited 13 years for his moment. He wasn’t a first choice at AFCON 2015, but, as if scripted, Sylvain Gbohouo’s injury in the semi-final meant Barry would play one game: the final. “After Gbohouo’s injury the coach (Herve Renard) had a chat with him to get him in the right frame of mind,” Yaya Toure would reveal post-match.

Destiny

Barry’s eccentricity was epitomised by a strange bout of cramp during penalties, followed by time out to nurse a wrist injury, pauses that delayed the shootout and gave cause to wonder whether this strange, blue-shirted keeper was a master in the dark arts of psychological warfare or had the stamina levels of an office worker keeling over after some recreational five-a-side.

Then he made history. There’s an air of destiny about Boubacar Barry being the man to score the winning penalty that finally gives Ivory Coast their second Africa Cup of Nations crown. Penalties flew wide and they sailed stylishly into the net, but in the end it came down to keeper vs keeper, Barry vs Brimah Razak.

It could have been Kolo Toure, arguably the player of the tournament, a pillar of strength and consistency in a young, newly-constructed defence. It could have been Yaya Toure, another veteran of this team and a man who, like his brother had to endure tragedy during the World Cup when their younger brother Ibrahim sadly passed away. It could have been Siaka Tiene, a man who has shown fierce dedication to his country, and, like others, had to bear their fury and disappointment on so many occasions.

But it was Barry. First he saved a sudden death penalty from opposing keeper Brimah Razak. Then, after a deep breath, he planted his own spotkick into the net to finally win the cup.

F or so long African football has talked about this fabled Ivorian golden generation and the ASEC Mimosas talent factory, a school that produced Didier Zokora, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, the Toure brothers and others. ‘Who will step up to win us the crown?!’ it’s so often been asked. Few would imagine a decade later, that man would be Boubacar Barry – stoic, personable, without a hint of stardust, ordinary.

“We have to praise Copa (Barry),” Ivory Coast captain Yaya Toure commented after lifting the trophy.” He’s had difficult moments, especially at home where he was often heavilry criticised. Today he’s won us the trophy.”

“I am not big in size or talent. But I thought of my mother who loves me,” said Barry afterwards. As acceptance speeches go, this summed it all up.