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BATA, Equatorial Guinea - Equatorial Guinea taking over late as host of the African Cup of Nations may not be great for the tournaments troublesome last-minute planning, but its pretty good for the home team.Six months ago, Equatorial Guinea was thrown out of the African soccer championship for cheating in qualifying. On Saturday, it will play in the tournaments opening game against Republic of Congo in front of its own red and blue-clad fans.How did that happen?Equatorial Guinea stepped in late last year when Morocco pulled out as host because of Ebola, fearing the deadly virus might spread during the 16-team, three-week tournament. With its decision to stand in, Equatorial Guinea earned a spot for its team in place of Morocco.When the Equatorial Guinea team learned it would participate in the CAN (African Cup), it was very quick. Quick, quick, Equatorial Guineas newly-appointed Argentine coach Esteban Becker said on Friday. And we have organized the team for a new coach. But the players mentality ... for them the mentality is very happy for the African Cup.The national team is theoretically picked from a population of just over 700,000 people, although foreign-born players once dominated the Equatorial Guinea lineup and sometimes got the country into trouble. Equatorial Guineas initial disqualification last year was for selecting a player from neighbouring Cameroon.At this African Cup, the teams strength will again be playing at home, as it was three years ago when it co-hosted the Cup of Nations and reached the quarterfinals, surprising Senegal on the way.Were not thinking about the quarterfinals, the semifinals or the final, captain Javier Balboa, who once played for Real Madrids reserve team, said ahead of this campaign. Game by game by game.In 2012, Equatorial Guineas riotous home support spurred it on. But on Friday, just a few supporters stood outside a broken-down ticket office on the outskirts of Bata Stadium, one wearing a wooly Equatorial Guinea hat and team scarf in the 30-degree heat and sweltering equatorial humidity. It didnt look like a mad rush for tickets on the eve of the opening night, when Burkina Faso also faces Gabon in a double-header at the same stadium.Fearing poor crowds — a problem at many African Cups — the government announced this week that ticket prices would be reduced to cater for the many poor.They will start at 500 Central African francs, or around $1, in the remote host towns of Mongomo and Ebebiyin. The cheapest tickets will be $2 for games in the bigger cities of Bata and Malabo, the capital. And for 40,000 supporters, their tickets to a game will be free, bought for them by the countrys president. Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced his gesture to the country on national television this week.Let those who have the means help the poor, Obiang said. Myself, I bought 40,000 tickets.A charm offensive, maybe. But for this curious country halfway up the west coast of Africa, where Spanish is spoken, oil is big business and the autocratic Obiang has been firmly in charge since he took over in a coup in 1979, the tournament could be a major boost for its image if it comes off.Still, it is a risk.There are already problems with the organization, including no running water and dangerous electric cables at one teams hotel, no rooms at all for another squad, and a training ground located in the middle of the rainforest and a two-hour drive from its base for a third, tournament favourite Algeria.Coach Claude Le Roy, whose Republic of Congo plays Equatorial Guinea in the opening game, has complained bitterly about the standard of his teams hotel. Le Roy declined to answer questions on the issue on Friday, telling reporters to go ask organizers the Confederation of African Football about the running of the tournament, which he has said should have been delayed to give Equatorial Guinea more time.As Le Roy spoke at Bata Stadium, the lights suddenly failed, temporarily plunging a media room into darkness. As they flickered weakly back on again, Le Roy started laughing.___Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP Cheap Phillies Jerseys . It was a day that saw England slump off a World Cup field once again battered and bruised. This time there was no red card to wonder about, no goalkeeping error or individual mistake. They were thoroughly beaten by something they have nothing of – genuine world class ability. Philadelphia Phillies Store . He was with the New York Jets in 2011 when the NFL locked out their players after they failed to agree on a new contract. Willy went undrafted but was given a look by four NFL teams before heading north. https://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/. The South Africa international, who rejoined the club last month on loan from Tottenham, opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a powerful shot into the roof of the net. Philadelphia Phillies Shirts . The mood in Seattle was electrified as the parade featuring the NFL champions began near the Space Needle and made its way to CenturyLink Field, the home of the team. At a ceremony inside the stadium, the team thanked its loyal followers -- the 12th Man -- capping a day of boisterous celebration that drew an estimated 700,000 revelers to Seattle. Stitched Phillies Jerseys .FIFA says it is relaxing the rule which forced match officials to leave its international list at the end of the year they turned 45.Throughout the NHL playoffs, I have forecasted each round simply by using shots on goal and goaltender save percentage to come up with a baseline for the series. Its not intended to be some magical formula and doesnt apply any context, like, for example, taking injuries into account. This remedial statistical method has gone 9-5 in picks through the first three rounds. Heres a quick look at the five series that went the wrong way: In the first round, Columbus came in ahead of Pittsburgh, though that required Sergei Bobrovsky to perform better than Marc-Andre Fleury (not an impossibility given Fleurys playoff track record), but Fleury and Bobrovsky each had a .908 save percentage in Round One and Pittsburgh dominated puck possession to an extent that they did not during the regular season. Minnesota upended Colorado, in Game Seven overtime, which wasnt altogether surprising. I would have easily been able to talk myself into the upset had the Wild not gone into the series with Ilya Bryzgalov as their starting goaltender, because the Wild were a superior possession team. Darcy Kuemper returned for four games and helped tilt the series back in Minnesotas favour and Semyon Varlamov, whose regular-season play fueled the Avalanches top seed finish, was only okay in the postseason, posting a .913 save percentage in seven games. The touchiest series for this years playoffs was the San Jose-Los Angeles matchup in Round One. The forecast had the Sharks favoured by the slimmest of margins (18.15 expected goals to 18.09 expected goals) and, when they had a 3-0 series lead, that coin flip looked to be falling the right way. We know how that has turned out since that point. In the second round, the Boston Bruins were favoured over the Montreal Canadiens, and while the Bruins controlled large portions of the series, they couldnt solve Carey Price, who had a .936 save percentage in the seven-game upset. Then, in the Conference Finals, the forecast put the Chicago Blackhawks over the Los Angeles Kings, due to a goaltending advantage, because Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick hasnt been great in this years playoffs. After what was a sensational series, it was safe to say that neither team held a goaltending advantage -- both Quick and Corey Crawford struggled -- and the Kings took Game Seven in OT. So, those misses are on the record as we head into the Stanley Cup Final. The expected goals for each team in the series are determined by taking each teams shots for and against over the course of the season, as well as through the first round of the playoffs, and splitting the difference. So, for example, the New York Rangers, over the regular season and playoffs have averaged 32.4 shots on goal per game and the Los Angeles Kings have allowed 27.0 shots on goal per game; the average of those two numbers, 29.70 shots, is the number that is thenn multiplied by (1 - the opposing goaltenders save percentage) to determine an expected goals per game for the Rangers.dddddddddddd Finally, the number is multiplied by seven to indicate an expected goal total for a seven-game series. Theres no guarantee that scoring more goals in a series will result in winning four games first, but the odds certainly favour the team that scores more. So, lets see how the numbers shake out for the Final: Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Los Angeles 31.5 27.0 Jonathan Quick 0.912 16.54 N.Y. Rangers 32.4 29.1 Henrik Lundqvist 0.922 18.30 Verdict: While the Kings and Rangers are very similar in their playoff puck possession rates, the Kings were tops in the league during the regular season and ran through a more difficult gauntlet in the Western Conference to reach the Cup Final. The difference in shot rates during the regular season is pretty small, however, with the Kings earning 54.7% of the shots as the Rangers earned 53.0% of the total shots. Over the course of a game, that amounts to about one extra shot on goal; hardly the kind of difference that couldnt be overcome by better goaltending. Which brings us to the advantage to which the Rangers will cling. Lundqvist has been one of the games top goaltenders since coming into the league in 2005-2006, and is performing at a high level in this years playoffs as well, so couldnt he stop an extra shot or two per game? At the other end, Jonathan Quick has traditionally been a very good playoff goaltender in his own right, but his .906 save percentage this year has dropped Quicks all-time playoff save percentage to .922, falling fractionally behind Lundqvist. Certainly, some of the blame for this seasons save percentage can be attributed to the calibre of teams that the Kings have faced on their way to the Cup Final, with San Jose (sixth), Anaheim (first) and Chicago (second) all among the top-scoring teams in the league this season. By comparison, the Rangers got through Philadelphia (eighth), Pittsburgh (fifth) and Montreal (21st), so there is some quality of competition favouring Quick. It would be an upset if the Rangers won the series but a seven-game series, if otherwise close, can easily be decided by goaltending and, right now, its not unreasonable to hold higher expectations for Lundqvist. Lets see if King Henrik can get the job done. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy Sports on Facebook. ' ' '