The Hindu : Sport : Tough road ahead for Africa's five participants

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Sport

Sport

Tough road ahead for Africa's five participants

The level of competition is really high: Drogba

Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast): Africa's best hope at this year's World Cup was drawn into the tournament's toughest group.

That doesn't mean one of the five teams from the continent won't spring a surprise like Cameroon did in 1990 and Senegal repeated four years ago, both reaching the quarterfinals. It does make the task much more difficult, though.

The Ivory Coast, led by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, was expected to have the best chance to advance through the group stage. That was until December, when the Elephants were drawn into Group C along with two-time champion Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia-Montenegro.

``Anything can happen in football, so if we're among the 32 best teams in the world at some point we will get the opportunity to reach the quarterfinals or the semifinals or the final,'' Drogba said.

``Or we will be eliminated in the first round because the level of the competition is really high and the teams that reach this far are the best.''

The Ivorians, one of four African teams making their debut at the World Cup, should be a tough team to beat with European-league veterans Bonaventure Kalou, Kolo Toure, Aruna Dindane and Didier Zokora.

The easiest group at the World Cup also contains an African team, Angola.

But few are giving the Black Antelopes a chance to reach the knockout stage from Group D, which also includes Mexico, Portugal and Iran.

``Angola is the most humble team at the World Cup, and so it's not going to be easy for us,'' Angola coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves said. ``Our plan is to try to draw with the bigger teams. But for us, we are already winners for qualifying.''

Optimistic

The team is led by Fabrice Akwa, the striker who scored the goal against Rwanda that helped Angola qualify for the tournament ahead of perennial African power Nigeria.

Despite the difficult road ahead, Akwa is still optimistic.

``We know the favourites in our group are Portugal and Mexico, but we are going there to surprise these teams,'' Akwa said. The other three African teams playing in Germany are Ghana, Togo and Tunisia. None is favoured to reach the knockout rounds.

Four-time African champion Ghana boasts Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, but plays Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States in Group E. Togo faces 1998 champion France, Switzerland and South Korea in Group G.

The only African team in the tournament that has played at the World Cup before, Tunisia, is in Group H with Spain, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia striker Zied Jaziri believes his team's opening match against Saudi Arabia is the most important.

An open game

``They can beat us, but we can also beat them,'' Jaziri said.

``It's an open game and a very important one, particularly as we will meet Spain afterward in the second game, which will be a very difficult one for us. It could be decisive.''

Tunisia has the added advantage of being coached by a man with a proven record. Roger Lemerre led France to the European Championship title in 2000, and then helped Tunisia win the African Cup of Nations in 2004.

In between, however, he coached France in the 2002 World Cup, where the defending champion was eliminated in the first round without scoring a goal.

Tunisia's attack centres around Brazilian-born striker Francileudo Santos, the speedy striker who has an impressive 18 goals in 28 appearances. — AP

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