African Champions Again

Algeria
Despite taking a mix of young and fringe players, we were able to once again lift the CAF Cup of Nations trophy in the 2014 edition. Here's a quick summary.

In the group stage, we played our strongest opponents first in Tunisia and Senegal. Both ended in scoreless draws so we needed a win against Burkina Faso in our final group match to advance. It wasn't easy, as the two teams traded goals but we were able to emerge 5-3 winners to win the group.

Winning the group turned out to be important as it gave us a much easier draw. In the quarterfinal, instead of playing Egypt we got DR Congo. DR Congo turned out to be a spirited opponent and we had to earn our 2-1 win.

In the semifinal, we met Ivory Coast. CIV also brought a depleted squad. After regular time couldn't settle a 1-1 scoreline, we scored goals in the 107th and 119th minute to eliminate the Elephants 3-1.

In the final, we got our nemesis Morocco. Our rivals survived a group with Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and then defeated Cameroon and Egypt to earn their way to the final. Abdelkader Ghezzal broke the gridlock in the 59th minute, and it would be all we needed to win the tournament by a 1-0 score.

It was a bit of a shallow victory given the relative lack of competition we faced compared to the 2012 victory but we're not going to give it back and it wasn't exactly easy.

Next up is friendlies against Norway and Uruguay before we open World Cup play against Paraguay.

Palmeiras
We have three cups to defend this season, the State Championship, Serié A, and the Copa Libertadores. Here's a look at the squad for 2014:

---Goleiros
Renan Ribeiro (BRA)
Santos (BRA)

---Zaguiros
Maurício Ramos (BRA) 28
Jeci (BRA) 33
Rafael (BRA) 18
Franco Rodríguez (CHI) 18
Roni (BRA) 17

---Laterais
Fágner (BRA) 24
Leandro Grimi (ARG) 29
Gabriel Silva (BRA) 29
Rafael (BRA) 17

---Volantes
Souza (BRA) 25
Sandro Silva (BRA) 29
Anselmo (BRA) 25
Fernando (BRA) 22

---Meias
Cleiton Xavier (BRA) 30
Rodrigo Dantas (BRA) 24
Gabriel Pimba (BRA) 23
Artur (BRA) 16
Marquinhos (BRA) 24

---Atacantes
Ciro (BRA) 24
Neymar (BRA) 22
Adílson (BRA) 18
Fabinho (BRA) 18
Maikon Leite (BRA) 25

As you can tell the squad has gotten a lot younger. The club is not in financial crisis but I am trying to to improve the financial situation by selling the higher salary veterans and purchasing young players with hopefully high potential for the future.

We have learned our group for the Copa Libertadores. We've been drawn in group G with Olimpia (PAR), LDU de Quito (ECU), and São Paulo state rivals Corinthians. We should be able to advance from that group with ease, even if we did drop both matches to Corinthians.