Soon after South Africa was given the right to host the world’s biggest show, the first on African soil, soccer analyst started talking up the chances of African teams. Some went as far as predicting an African triumph, while others put the semi-final as the farthest an African team would go.
Ivory Coast was particularly singled out as the continent’s brightest prospect of at least making it to the final and possibly winning the coveted trophy. Ghana, after their strong showin at the nations cup in Angola was also mentioned as possibly going as far as the semi-final, while Nigeria who finished 3rd at the nations cup in January was not given much mention. Algeria was even given more a chance of doing well than the Super Eagles
after their conquest of African champions Egypt in the qualifiers.
Cameroun, with a new found spirit and form was also fancied, while host South Africa were considered as Africa’s weakest team going into the world
cup.
Well, after 2 matches of the first round, the mist is getting clearer, and the teams that might eventually make it to the second round from an African
perspective have begun to stake their claim.
So lets take a closer look at the African challenge so far. Have things gone the way they were predicted, or have the bookmakers been proven wrong.
We start with host South Africa.
Going into the pening match against Mexico, the Bafana Bafana were on a row of about 10 or so matches without any loss. A stark contrast from about 3 months to the kick-off when they lost close to 10 matches in a row.
What a cracker of an opening match, and what a cracker of a goal scored by Tsabalala. Sadly enough, most opening matches always end in draws, and this one was no exception.
I think they played very well, and i felt bad that they did not win that match. But hey, Mexico is no small team. A young, well drilled and very talented team isn’t the perfect opponent for your opening match at the world cup, particularly if you are the host.
Then came the second match against Diego Forlan’s Uruguay.Bafana’s display was shocking, they looked a very different team from the one that almost beat Mexico. Needless to remind us that they lost by 3 goals to nil, and the situation as it stands now is that South Africa faces an early exit from their own world cup, embarasssing. The slight hope they have is if they can beat France by as much as 4 to 5 unreplied goals, and hope that
Uruguay who has a better goals difference than Mexico beat the Mexicans. A tall order, considering that South Africa have a problem scoring goals.By the way, i think Mexico and Uruguay will play safe and go for a draw which will qualify both teams for the second round.
Not a good prospect fo Africa from the South African side of things then.
Not so good a pospect for Africa too is Nigeria, who are fast becoming perennial failures. Like i said from the start of this post, Nigeria was not given
much of a chance,and true to the bookies’ predictions, the so-called “Super Chickens” have once again lived up to their tag.
Don’t think i am too hard on Nigeria here, i am Nigerian, and frankly, the way we play football will have the greats of Nigerian football weeping and shedding blood for tears instead of water.
They played relatively well against Argentina, and were just unlucky not to at least get a draw. The game against Greece, well, forgetable. The worst game i have seen any team play in international football in a long time. Chances are, only one team play that kind of football, Nigeria.
How did our game ever got to such a dreadful standard. From the defence to the attack, no quality. As far as i can see, we have only one player, and that is the goalkeeper. He single handedly kept us in the game with Argentina, and again in the game with Greece.
You always expect players to be motivated by the heroics of one of their colleagues and pick themselves up.
In the 2 matches we have played so far, one thing was glaring. We have no midfield, our midfielders were just walking around the pitch, not marking
nor making runs off the ball. When the opponent was attacking, instead of puching them back, they prefered to escort them to our goal mouth.
In the game against Greece, the presumed weakest team in the group, our display was shocking. Surely after scoring a goal early in the match, you
would want to go for another one to make life more comfortable for you before halftime. We just sat back, and instead, Kaita gets foolish and commits an unprovoked attack that gets him sent off.
In my own opinion, after getting reduced to 10 men, a team needs to mount some form of offensive to curtail the opponent’s intent of mounting any
sustained attack on your defence. How the hell did we think we could have soaked up all the attack from the Greeks without conceeding any goal.
Frankly, we don’t have any senior national football team, Super Eagles is dead. They died when players like Siasia, Amokachi, Okocha and the rest
got old and retired from the national team. Before we have a team like that again, all the idiots in the so-called glass house, that is the Nigeria Football Federation would have all been killed or buried alive before they can be any hope for Nigerian football.
A nation that is always the first to win for Africa, a nation that is blessed with abundant raw talents. Africa’s first winner of the under 17 world cup,
the olympics gold medal i football, a nation second only to Brazil in terms of football talents, but yet, a nation that cannot even raise a fit team of players who can reresent their country with pride. Players who will play football with all their hearts, players who will rise to the occassion when the need arises, players who should know that losing two consecutive matches in the most talked about soccer football world cup of living memory, players who should have known that when Super Eagles went to their first party at the world cup, beat Greece convincingly,players who should have known that Greece had never ever scored a single goal at the world cup, talkless of winning a match, players who should have known that Greece’s jinx should not have been broken on the sweat of eagles and the GREEN WHITE GREEN, the most sacred and respected national team color in the world. I weep as i type, for this is the saddest time of my life as Super Eagles supporter.
Well, enough of weeping. Lets look at the bright side, if there’s any.
Nigeria play South Korea in their last group match, and technically, Nigeria can still qualify for the second round. Right now,the Koreans have 3 points
and a -1 goals,while Greece has 3 points with a -1 goals difference also.
Argentina with 6 points will definitely win the group as i can’t see Greece
causing any upset by beating Argentina in the last match. This is were Nigeria has a glimmer of hope. With 0 points and a goals difference of -2, if they can beat Korea by 2 goals or more without conceeding any, that will take them to 3 points with a 0 goals or better still a positive goals difference, and they will qualify with Argentina who should definitely beat Greece to claim maximum 9 points and win the group outright.
But be that as it may, i have sworn not to watch Nigeria’s last group match because i don’t believe that those band of mediocre and unpatriotic idiots will even grab the opportunity to redeem themselves.
Next up is Algeria, who i think did really well in their second match against England after losing to Slovenia in their first match. The Fenecs, as the Algerian national team are called came to this world after a 24 year absence. They won their qualifying group, dumping Egypt enroute. They beat the
Pharoahs in an ill-tempered play off match in Sudan after the two teams were leveled in every aspect during regular qualifying. At the nations cup in Angola, they finished 4th after losing to Nigeria in the 3rd place match.
Considered to be the weakest of the continent’s 6 challengers, Algeria came to South Africa with nothing to lose. It showed in their first match when they lost to Slovenia, but in their second group match against England, we saw a different team as they pushed Rooney and co. all the way and got a deserved draw.
As it stands in their group, Algeria or any of the other teams can still make it to the second round. The permutations might take up a lot of space, but all Algeria needs to do is to beat the USA and pray England beat Slovenia, and they will qualify with the English to the last 16. If they show the same spirit as they did against England in their match with the Americans, then they should make it through. Africa’s challenge from the Camerounian point of view is disastrous. They played very poorly against Japan, and were made to pay with a 1 goal defeat. Talisman and captain Samuel Eto’o did not come to the party, infact the whole team did not play as if there was anything at stake.For a team with such pedigree, their display was really shocking.
Their second match against Denmark was pumped up a 100%, and deservedly, they scored first, be it from a Danish defensive blunder. They
generally looked like a team with a point to prove, then it started going wrong. If they team played well, it was not in defence. It was shambolic at
times, the way the Camerounians defended, and it was no surprise when the Danes equalized. The defense went to sleep, and Romedahl got behind them and cross the ball in for Bendtner to slide home.
The second goal for Denmark was more embarassing. You don’t escort an attacker into your 18 yard box, and then leave him with a cear sight at
goal. Intelligent attackers take full advantage of such opportunities, and that is what Romedahl did to score the winning goal for the Danes.As soon as the goal was scored, i knew it was all over. As it stands now, even if Cameroun beat the Dutch, highly unlikely, the other match between Japan and Denmark who both have 3 points each will never favor them. What a dispair.
Cote ‘d’ Ivoire was rated as Africa’s brightest prospect at this world cup, and you would agree with the bookmakers. With so many players at top European clubs, they play with a lot of passion and commitment, and it takes common sense to tip them to go far. But with 2 matches already played, they have just a solitory point. Don’t get me wrong, they did very well against Portugal, playing for most of the ame without their talisman Drogba. He fractured his arm during a friendly for prior to the world cup. That injury i think is what is really hurting their chances now. They don’t attack,knowing that there is no fit Drogba to finish up front. Drogba himself is so scared of falling and hurting the arm again that he did not commit himself to challenges on the pitch.
Against Brazil, we all expected more from the Elephants as the Ivorians are called. They tried, but defensively very porous,and the moment Brazil scored the first goal, you always had the feeling that more might come. 2 more goals came, including the second goal that was handled twice by Fabiano before he scored. The funniest thing was that i saw the referee telling Fabiano that he handled the ball before scoring, and the question is why did he still allow the goal. I think referees generally turn the blind eye when a bigger team like Brazil is playing, not fair at all.
The Ivoirians are virtually out of it now, with Portugal crushing North Korea by 7 goals today in Cape Town. To qualify ahead of Portugal, the Ivoirians will have to beat North Korea by more than 10 goals, and assuming that Brazil beat Portugal in the last group match.
So, Cote ‘d’ Ivoire are definitely out of it now. Brazil and Portugal might just decide to play out a draw, and then any win for the Ivoirians by any scoreline will purely be academic.
In all, a very bad world cup for Africa. The only consolation is the fact that the fiesta is in Africa, but surely we should have prepared and done better than this. Abissmal. Surely, in Africa’s own world cup, Africa should have done better.
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