adminJOHANNESBURG – Africa will be hoping that the combined experience of major tournament soccer can help elevate the same five teams that qualified for the last World Cup finals to improved performances when they reassemble at next year’s showcase in Brazil.
Algeria and Ghana completed the continent’s five-team line-up for the 2014 finals on Tuesday, joining Cameroon, Ivory Coast and African champions Nigeria, who had all booked their places at the weekend.
The familiarity of the finalists has given Africa renewed hope that one of its teams can advance further than the three quarterfinal appearances the continent has managed since 1990.
“We want to do something interesting in this World Cup, the previous two were difficult,” Cote d’Ivoire captain Didier Drogba said after his team beat Senegal 4-2 on aggregate in their playoff to qualify for a third successive finals.
“In Brazil, we hope to have a few more chances and at least get past the first round,” he told the Ivorian Football Federation website (www.fif-ci.com).
At 17th, the Ivorians are the top-ranked African side but are one in transition with the 35-year-old Drogba and many of his experienced colleagues nearing the end of their international careers.
Looking beyond Cote d’Ivoire 23rd-ranked Ghana, effectively robbed of a semifinal place by a controversial Luis Suarez handball at the last World Cup in South Africa, were the most impressive in regional preliminaries.
They were devastating in hammering Egypt 6-1 in their playoff first leg last month and never in any danger of losing out on qualification in Tuesday’s return in Cairo, despite going down 2-1.
Nigeria established a new team and set their sights on peaking for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but hastily fast-tracked those plans when they emerged as surprised winners of the African Nations Cup at the start of the year.
The inexperience of their squad was exposed at the Confederations Cup in Brazil in June but since that World Cup test event, their improvement has been steady. Evidence of their potential was displayed on Monday when they drew 2-2 with Italy in London, some 48 hours after beating Ethiopia to secure a fifth World Cup qualification.
Africa’s most populous nation will now have legitimate hopes of also proving competitive in Brazil next year.
Algeria and Cameroon both finished the year much better than they started it but have not provided the same conviction in their form.
Algeria scraped past Burkina Faso to win on the away goals rule, seeing the ball bounce back to safety off the woodwork in the last minute of Tuesday’s second leg in Blida.
Cameroon secured qualification in a much more emphatic manner but their 4-1 win over Tunisia at home on Sunday was a rare display of competence.
“It puts aside a lot of recent disappointments. There is no reason that if we are united, we can compete with bigger teams at the World Cup,” Jean Makoun, who scored twice in that victory, told the French sports daily L’Equipe this week.
Meanwhile, Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi has revealed that he learnt invaluable lessons from current Spain coach, Vicente Del Bosque Gonzalez.
The 62-year-old Spanish trainer has been in charge of the Spain squad since July 15, 2008 and has led La Roja to successes at the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa as well as the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. He is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of the game having previously led Real Madrid to La Liga titles in the 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons.
Further successes with Real at the Super Copa de Espana (2001), Copa Iberoamericana (1994), Uefa Super Cup (2002), Intercontinental Cup (2002) and two Uefa Champions League titles (2000 and 2002) stamped his position as one of the true greats of coaching.
Keshi has now revealed that his alliance with the experienced trainer has rubbed off positively on his development as a coach.
“I had serious discussions with Del Bosque in Brazil during the 2013 Fifa Confederations Cup and we shared ideas. He told me he was impressed with my work and asked that I continue in the same path,” Keshi exclusively told supersport.com.
Nigeria suffered a 0-3 beating in the hands of Spain at the tournament but del Bosque picked positives from the performance of the Super Eagles.
“The Spanish coach said he saw great talent in my team and only asked that little changes be made in certain areas.
“I also met the Uruguayan coach (Oscar Tabarez) in Brazil but we really couldn’t share so many ideas because of the language barrier,” he said.
Keshi has recorded great successes with Nigeria since he replaced Samson Siasia in 2011. He led the Super Eagles to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations Cup in South Africa and recently guided the team to a place at the 2014 Fifa World Cup finals in Brazil. Nigeria could meet Spain the group stages of the 2014 World Cup with both nations already through to the finals. – Soccernet.
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