New Kings of African Soccer
By Danusa Ocholi
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The race for the FIFA World Cup tickets has seen some African soccer giants biting the dust
It is gravitating into one of the most keenly contested soccer battles. The race for the South Africa 2010 World Cup Finals is becoming so fierce and intense that even the fate of many of the most highly rated teams in the game is currently hanging in the balance.
In the Africa zone of the World Cup qualifying matches, only two of the continent’s "super powers" in the game, Nigeria and Cameroon, and a relatively small side, Benin Republic, have so far been able to advance to the next and final stage of the qualifying series. They attained this after five rounds of matches. With only one round of the games left, some of the strong forces like Egypt African champions, Tunisia, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco and several others will have to wait for next month’s games to know their fate.
The World Cup qualifiers in the continent will also produce the 16 finalists for the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola, which will be held six months before the World Cup. Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin by their performances have already booked their tickets for Angola 2010 Cup of Nations. South Africa are in danger of not making it to Angola as a result of their loss at home to Nigeria last weekend.
Adegboye Onigbinde, a FIFA instructor and coach of Nigeria to the 2002 World Cup Finals in Korea/Japan is excited with all these developments in African soccer. He told Newswatch that if many teams had not emerged at this stage, "it is a good omen for African soccer. It means other teams are not resting on their oars. It is a wake-up call for the so-called big teams."
So far, the Nigerian team has had an impressive outing. It won all the five matches they have played so far. The most recent was their 1-0 victory over South Africa in Port Elizabeth last Saturday, August 6th. After surviving continuous pressure in the game for 70 minutes, Nigeria, who were without their key players like Nwankwo Kanu, Obafemi Martins, Vincent Enyeama, and Mikel Obi, scored the back-breaking goal through Ikechukwu Uche.
South Africa, however, qualified automatically for the 2010 FIFA World Cup as hosts and they will be joined by five other African nations at the quadrennial 32-team showcase of international football. The Super Eagles’ victory confirmed Nigeria’s dominance over South Africa’s Bafana Bafana. The Nigerian national soccer team has not lost a competitive match to their opponents since an apartheid-induced ban was lifted 16 years ago. The encounter was also the fifth consecutive win for Nigeria in the 2010 FIFA World Cup/CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifying competition. They have equally not conceded a goal in 450 minutes of action.
Shaibu Amodu, Nigeria’s coach, said after the match, South Africa did create a lot of chances but "we came to win and so I’m delighted. Winning becomes a habit and that is what I want to instill among my players."
Joel Santana, the Brazilian in charge of the South African team, said the match was the best performance by South Africa since he took charge. He said the team could have scored six or seven goals.
Benin Republic went through to the next round of the World Cup qualifiers when they overcame the formidable challenge of Angola last Sunday. A 3-2 win in Cotonou guaranteed the passage for the small West African country. Razak Omotoyossi, Nigerian-born striker, scored twice for Benin to increase his tally of goals in the qualifiers to five. The defeat for Angola leaves the 2006 World Cup finalists facing the prospect of early elimination.
Cameroon, on their part, came from behind to prevail over Cape Verde Islands 2-1 last Saturday - to book their ticket to the finals of African qualifying phase for the 2010 World Cup. Playing without Samuel Eto’o, their star attacker, they advanced to the next round, courtesy of the second half goals from substitutes Achille Emana and Alain Nkong on the Atlantic Island.
Cameroon have 13 points and Cape Verde with nine could join them as one of the best eight runners-up from the 12 groups if they overcome Tanzania in Dar- es Salaam next month.
Burkina Faso, Egypt, Libya, and Cote d’Ivoire require a single point each from their last group games next month to also advance to the next round. They drew 0-0 at home to Tunisia in Ouagadougou to maintain their three-point advantage in group nine while Cote d’Ivoire drew 1-1 in Mozambique to stay three points clear in group seven.
Mohamed Aboutrika, a playmaker for his side, scored a 31st-minute winner for Egypt as the African champions beat DR Congo 1-0 in Kinshasa in group 12.
Libya’s 1-0 win over Ghana put the North Africans on top in group five. Gabon moved level with Ghana in second place after a 3-0 away win over Lesotho in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The group five contest between Ghana and Libya in Tripoli ended in a 1-0 win for the home side, thanks to the goal which came six minutes from the end of the game from Ahmed Osman. The result saw the Libyans move to the top of the group with 12 points from five matches, three better than the vanquished Black Stars.
Willy Endzanga scored a second half winner for Congo as they beat Mali, coached by Nigeria’s Stephen Keshi, 1-0 in Brazzaville to ensure both sides share the leadership in Group 10.
Burkina Faso, regarded as giant killers had their hopes of joining the three candidates in the next phase put on hold after a goalless top-of-the-table showdown with Tunisia in Ouagadougou. Sierra Leone, rated among the minnows, climbed above 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa into second spot in group four after defeating Equatorial Guinea 2-1 in Freetown with goals from Kewullay Conteh and Sheriff Suma.
Kenya moved three points clear of Guinea at the top of Group two by edging Namibia 1-0 in Nairobi with Jamal Mohammed converting a penalty on the stroke of half-time after John Njoroge was brought down.
Gambia thrashed Liberia 3-0 in group six of the West Africa derby to move above Senegal into second place, one point behind Algeria.
Malawi moved to join top of group 12 with a 3-0 win over Djibouti and Libya followed suit with a 1-0 win over Ghana to establish themselves at the top of group five.
Djibouti has no point from their five games so far and are out of the running for a spot in either the 2010 CAF Africa Cup of Nations or the FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa after conceding 26 goals and scoring only two. The next round of matches will be decided between October 10 and 12.
Nigeria will square up against Sierra Leone in Abuja, while Malawi will slug it out with Congo DR. Cameroon will be at home to Mauritius. Gabon will play host to Libya while Rwanda will play Ethiopia. It will be Tanzania at home to Cape Verde, while Namibia will receive Zimbabwe. Equitorial Guinea will also be at home to South Africa while Botswana will engage Mozambique at home. Tunisia will play Seychelles; while Senegal will square it up against Gambia; it will be Morocco versus Mauritania and Cote d’Ivoire versus Madagascar and Ghana slugging it out against Lesotho in Accra.
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