International tournaments usually last between six to seven games max - in a time frame of a month or less. There’s just not enough turnaround time for experiments. However, there have been some extreme cases.
In the 1998 World Cup, Cha Bum-kun was sacked as South Korea coach after losing the second group game 5-0 to the Netherlands. He was replaced by Kim Pyung-seok who salvaged a draw in the final game against Belgium albeit it wasn’t enough to keep the Asians in the competition.
During that same World Cup, Polish coach Henryk Kasperczak was replaced by Ali Selmi after Tunisia lost to England and Colombia.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who was coaching Saudi Arabia at the time, became the third coach to be sacked at the World Cup in France. He was fired after a humiliating 4-0 defeat to the hosts in their second game.
All three countries that changed their coach during the 1998 World Cup finished bottom of their respective groups.
The decision to switch coaches might have been left a bit too late but after a poor showing in the first group game, a coach is generally given a chance in the second game.
Usually, two games are enough to get countries eliminated so that’s where the problem lies.
Unlike the aforementioned coaches, Jean-Louis Gasset was in charge of all three group games for Ivory Coast at AFCON 2023.
However, a 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea, who are ranked 88th in the world, was the final straw for the Ivorian Football Federation who cut ties with the French manager.
Up stepped Emerse Fae with no experience in coaching senior team football. He was in the right place assisting Gasset, but through fate, his development had been accelerated.
In a split second, a coach, who has only led the U17 and U19 teams of Nice and the reserve team of Clermont, was at the forefront of the battleground leading a country he once played for.
At the time the news was relayed to Fae, he wasn’t certain he would get the chance to coach Ivory Coast as they had to rely on other results to progress.
A ghost can’t be afraid
Fae’s first senior game as a senior coach was against reigning African champions Senegal.
Tasks don’t come tougher than that, especially in front of a home crowd. A tough task grew even tougher after conceding in the first few minutes against a side that had comfortably won all three group games.
Just as the Ivorians waited until the final moment to secure qualification to the round of 16, they stayed patient and found an equaliser in the dying embers of the game.
The Elephants eventually beat Senegal on penalties progressing to the final eight.
After the game, the man who scored the two most important penalties, Franck Kessie, said: “We were beaten in front of our country, in the stadium named after the President, that's where we felt this humiliation. After Morocco's match, we had nothing more to lose!”
“As they say: a ghost can't be afraid,” he added.
This is an Ivory Coast team that have stared in the face of elimination and are now somehow in the semi-finals of the AFCON.
There’s a new sense of belief among the Ivory Coast players which is very palpable. No matter the circumstance, they just don’t give up.
Against Mali in the quarter-finals, they were 1-0 down, a man down in added time. What were the odds that Ivory Coast would find a way to win this match despite being handicapped? Well, they did just that and the impressive bit is that the final result was deserving.
Fae revealed in his first talk with the team: "I told the players we were dead after the defeat against Equatorial Guinea, and we were resurrected after the Morocco game with Zambia."
In the team’s first training session after a remarkable victory over Senegal, Fae drew the attention of everyone and challenged the squad.
“Well done team. We now have a problem. The problem is that you set the bar high and you can’t come down. We need to continue at the level.”
When you outplay the reigning champions and eventually beat them, and when their main man Sadio Mane admits that “the best team won on the day”, you are contenders.
How long will the miracle of the Elephants last?
Nine years ago, Ivory Coast were in a similar position – in the final four of the AFCON. Perhaps, the pressure was more profound then as the country hadn’t won the trophy for 20+ years and had been close on several occasions with their golden generation.
Similarly, the Elephants had to navigate their way past a tricky DR Congo side. A lot has changed since then with both teams but the stakes are still high.
DR Congo haven't won the trophy in 50 years. Coincidentally, on the two occasions the Leopards have gone all the way in the competition, they beat the host country in the semi-finals. In 1968, they beat hosts Ethiopia and went on to win the trophy at the expense of Ghana in the final.
Six years later, they defeated hosts Egypt in the semi-finals before beating Zambia to win their second AFCON title.
The warning marks are very visible for Ivory Coast and Fae is aware.
“It’s true we’ve been struggling at the beginning of matches. In the matches against Senegal and Mali, they scored first. This match against DRC Congo, we’ll try to impose our rhythm and control the match from the start,” the 40-year-old told the press ahead of the semi-finals.
The last time a host country won the AFCON was in 2006 with Egypt. No host country since then has reached the final of the competition.
If Fae looks at the other teams remaining in the competition, he will admit that there won’t be a better time to make history.
The French-born Ivorian coach is two wins away from history and what a truly extraordinary story it would be if he could transform this Ivory Coast side from despair to champions of Africa.
