Ivory Coast fans are forgiving

The Ivory Coast once again came short of living up to high expectations with a shock loss to Zambia in the African Cup of Nations final. Making it all the painful was the fact that team captain Didier Drogba blasted a penalty kick over the crossbar in the 70th minute of the scoreless deadlock before eventually losing 8-7 in a nervy shootout.

In many parts of the world, this kind of disappointment would've resulted in furious mayhem. Fans of The Elephants, however, were not only calm and forgiving, but happy about what their team did accomplish. And when they went to the Felix Houphouet Airport in Abidjan by the thousands to greet the returning team on Monday, they brought signs to express their good will...

Granted, the men holding these signs do look quite serious, so there's a chance their writings are extremely sarcastic, but that's probably not the case. After all, they only have to wait another year until the next African Cup of Nations in South Africa, so there is still hope for Drogba and company.

Anyway, there might be a lesson here. Your favorite team chokes and once again fails to live up to potential? Don't react like an escaped lunatic. It rarely helps.