There's a tense and thrilling weekend ahead in Africa, where traditional heavyweights risk being toppled by emerging new powers. Paul Doyle sets the scene
Friday September 2, 2005
Hats off to the Ukraine, who seem set to reach the World Cup for the first time in their short history. And hearty handshakes to the plucky players of the Solomon Islands who somehow overcame New Zealand to set up a showdown with Australia for the right to be beaten by the fifth place team in South America. Those two stories apart, nothing extraordinary has happened on the road to next summer's jamboree in Germany. Oh wait, what's going on (cue Toto melody) down in Africa? Why, only the most extraordinary World Cup qualification campaign anywhere - ever!
Four of the five African qualifying groups are led by countries who've only ever experienced the World Cup on TV. Of the top seeds, only continental champions Tunisia currently lead their group. Regular World Cup participants Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa all face embarrassing elimination and the sensation of the 2002 World Cup, Senegal, seem to have fallen victim to the complacency they so famously exploited against France three years ago. Africa, then, is abuzz as it awaits this weekend's qualifiers, the result of which could mean that the continent will send an unprecedented four debutants to next summer's ball.
Not since the origins of the tournament has any confederation sent so many newboys - Europe hasn't delivered more than one debutant since 1958, while the representatives of Asia, South America and Concacaf are so predictable you sometimes wonder why they bother with a qualifying round at all.
The competitiveness of all five groups vindicates Caf's decision to merge the qualifying campaigns for the World Cup and the African Nations Cup (the group winners go to Germany, the top three go to Egypt for the 2006 continental championship).
But the fact that Togo, Angola, Ghana and the Ivory Coast are all now favourites to qualify from their groups - and Zambia, Zimbabwe and DR Congo are still in with reasonable shouts too - also demonstrates the strength in depth that now exists in Africa. The continent is starting to capitalise on the playing resources that have always been abundant. If Ghana, Zambia or South Africa make it, they will pick squads featuring numerous players from their domestic or other African leagues.
The likes of Togo and Zambia represent Africa's increasing sophistication in another way, too: they are both managed by Africans who enjoyed successful professional playing careers, studied to be coaches and then returned to Africa to use their skills. Indeed, Kalusha Bwalya of Zambia and Togo's Nigerian manager Stephen Keshi (the most capped ever Super Eagle) took their coaching badges together in Holland and often talked about the impact they would have on the development of their continent's football when they went back. No doubt they would have preferred not to find themselves going head-to-head in Group 1, whose denouement is perhaps the tensest and most intriguing of all.
Group 1:
Togo 8 played/17 points
Zambia 8/16
Senegal 8/15
Congo 8/10
Mali 8/5
Liberia 8/4
Anyone who declared just over a year ago that tiny Togo would top this group would have found themselves the owner of a shiny new conical hat, featuring a large and incriminating letter D. Not only were the Sparrowhawks a non-entity in African football, but they lost their opening match 1-0 in Zambia, who also weren't expected to prove quite so pesky to star-studded Senegal and Mali. Even when Togo recovered from their reverse in Lusaka to trounce Senegal 3-1 at home, that was explained as a freak occurrence, certainly not something that could be sustained over a ten match campaign. Their subsequent win in Mali was put down to outrageous complacency by Fredi Kanouté and Co., whose displays were so lacklustre home supporters stormed the pitch and attempted to batter them.
So when Keshi's band of upstarts took on Zambia and Senegal within two weeks of each other last June, they were expected to be unceremoniously toppled. Instead, inspired as ever by Monaco striker Emmanuel Adebayor, Togo demolished the Copper Bullet Boys (or Zambia, if you prefer) 4-1, Adebayor netting twice. They then headed to Dakar, where Senegal's players and manager were under intense pressure to compensate for a drab start to their campaign (and a petulant showing at last year's African Nations Cup). Senegal were at full-strength, manager Guy Stephan for once not having to suspend anyone for breaking curfews or, in the cases of Habib Beye and Lamine Diatta earlier in the campaign, neglecting to turn up at all. Faced with the likes of Diouf, Henri Camara, Pape Bouba Diop and Mamadou Niang, Togo were expected to simply erect human walls around their goal and pray for a 0-0 draw. Instead, Keshi fielded three strikers and gave the order to attack at every opportunity. The result? 2-2. Meaning Senegal are two points behind Togo with an inferior head-to-head record. Such was the dismay in Senegal that Stephan, the head of the FA and even the Minister of Sport were sacked.
Keshi's adventurous approach should not really have surprised. His whole modus operandi since taking control in April 2004 has been about building confidence. Togo have been so desperate for success on the international stage, they recruited five Brazilians for their appearance in the last African Nations Cup. Keshi jettisoned this policy and concentrated on the country's talented youth, insisting they could be as good as anyone else in the continent. Infused with this faith, the Sparrowhawks play without fear - whether they're brazen enough to continue taking risks now that they're so close to a miraculous qualification remains to be seen. This Saturday's home tie against Liberia shouldn't be too taxing, but their visit to Brazzaville on the last match day will be nerve-shredding if all three points are required.
But they may not be. Because rivals Zambia and Senegal clash in Lusaka this weekend and if that ends in a draw and Togo dispose of Liberia, Keshi's crew will be through.
Even if Togo flunk at the finish, fans of fairytale endings could still cheer a Zambian qualification: coming, as it would, twelve years after 18 of the country's players were killed in a plane crash on their way to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal, which, if they'd won, would have virtually ensured their presence in USA 94. Coach Bwalya was in the squad that day, but due to club commitments was to take a later flight.
"The World Cup qualifiers will always be something special for our country and for me," he says now. "Those 18 people died for the World Cup and it is up to the players now to take up the mettle and take the country further."
Group 2:
Ghana Played 8/15 points
South Africa 8/15
DR Congo 8/12
Cape Verde Islands 8/10
Burkina Faso 8/9
Uganda 8/7
02/09/2005, 1:40 PM
NeilMcD
They've been champions of Africa four times and have won world championships at youth level, but ridiculously, Ghana have never qualified for the World Cup. Like a fat man in a swimming pool, their flopping has at times been hideous to behold - so much so, indeed, that fear of repeating such failures is likely to prove more dangerous to Ghana now than either of their remaining opponents. Level on points with top seeds South Africa, but with a better head-to-head record having beaten the Bafana Bafana home and away, the Black Stars will this weekend host Uganda, who normally wouldn't be expected to bother a side boasting the best midfield in the continent (though Sulley Muntari is out injured, Michael Essien and exquisite Fenerbahce playmaker Stephen Appiah will both play) and the current top scorer in the African Champions League (always nice to be able to namedrop Enyimba's Joe Tex Frimpong). But Ghana will be nervous, and possibly no one more so than manager Ratomir Dujkovic, who has taken the monumental gamble of leaving out one of the country's most experienced and capable players - Roma's pitch-thumping former Bayern Munich defender Samuel Kuffour - on the grounds that Kuffour's public apology for previous criticism of the manager "was not sincere enough". Kumasi's National Sports Stadium may yet heave to chants of "are you Mick McCarthy in disguise?"
Even if Dujkovic's men do overcome nerves and Uganda this Saturday, their final game in Praia against the uncharacteristically troublesome Cape Verde Islands could yet give Ghanaian fans another collapse to grieve. South Africa, meanwhile, may be desperate to again take part the World Cup before hosting it themselves in 2010, but capitalising on any Ghanaian slip-up will only be possible if they beat robust Burkina Faso away this weekend and then quash DR Congo at home in October. Congo manager Claude Leroy said right at the beginning of the campaign that his intention was to reach the last group game knowing that a win in Johannesburg would see the Simbas secure what would, if it wasn't for the fact that Togo and Angola look likely to reach Germany too, be the most improbable World Cup qualification ever.
Group 3
Ivory Coast Played 8/19 points
Cameroon 8/17
Egypt 8/13
Libya 8/11
Sudan 8/5
Benin 8/2
This was dubbed the Group of Death long before it emerged that all the other groups would be just as competitive. Egypt and Cameroon are always formidable, Libya are improving thanks to enthusiastic investment by Colonel Gaddafi and the Ivory Coast are endowed with their finest ever squad, over half of whom have come through the fertile football nursery that is Asec Abidjan.
For a while, the Ivorian elephants looked like trampling all before them, as they began their campaign by flattening Libya and then stomping Egypt in Cairo. Egypt are now out of the running, having since lost in Abidjan and Libya, but the Ivorians' charge was halted by Cameroon, who beat them 2-0 in Yaoundé last year, becoming the first side to find a way of shutting out the twin-pronged attack of Didier Drogba and Lens speedster Aruna Dindane, who were ably abetted by PSG's Bonaventure Kalou and dazzling Auxerre winger Kanga Akale. (The trick, it seems, is to throw in a debutant goalkeeper - in this case Hamidou Souleymanou - and gasp in astonishment as he conjures up save after extraordinary save). Libya then repeated the feat, holding the Ivorians to 0-0 in Tripoli, all of which sets the scene for a gargantuan clash in Abidjan this Sunday, when Cameroon come to a town they've never even drawn in needing nothing less than a victory.
Both sides are close to full-strength, Arsenal's Lauren has refused to come out of international retirement to help Cameroon. For the Ivorians, Lauren's Arsenal team-mate Kolo Touré will be responsible, along with fellow-centreback Cyril Domoraud, for containing Samuel Eto'o. That task may be facilitated by the fact that Cameroon's major problem is that they can't find a central midfielder who can be relied upon to regularly pick out the Barcelona striker. Many have been tried, both by Winfried Schaefer, who was sacked as manager after the side's stuttering start, and by current incumbent Artur Jorge. Eric Djemba-Djemba has been the choice of late, but his performances have been of the variety Manchester United and Aston Villa are all too familiar with.
Group 4
Angola Played 8/15 points
Nigeria 8/15
Zimbabwe 8/12
Gabon 8/9
Algeria 8/7
Rwanda 8/5
This group promises the biggest shock of all: the elimination of the mighty Nigeria. And not by Zimbabwe, recent winners of the Southern African Cup (Cosafa Cup), but by unheralded Angola, a country that has long dominated the continent's basketball but never achieved anything on the football pitch. The Palancas Negras (Black Impalas), as Angola are known, have already faced the Super Eagles twice, winning 1-0 in Luanda before claiming a 1-1 draw in Nigeria, the first time since 1981 that the Super Eagles dropped a home point in a World Cup qualifier. Angola's remaining fixtures, at home to Gabon and away to Rwanda, are by no means walkovers, but Nigeria have even tougher assignments: away this weekend to a talented Algerian side who'll be playing their first game under new management, and at home to Zimbabwe, who still have an outside chance of qualifying.
Nigeria's surprisingly unimpressive form - which has led to the suspension (not sacking, that's too costly) of manager Christian Chukwu, can be partially explained by the lack of creativity when the ageing Jay-Jay Okocha is missing and the wayward shooting of the many strikers they've deployed - with the honourable exception of the prolific Obafemi Martins.
Much of the credit for Angola's rise, meanwhile, goes to their manager Luis Olivieria Gonçalves, another African coach having success where foreigners have failed. Gonçalves led Angola's youth teams for years (winning the African championship with the U-20s in 2001) and, as such, has been working with many of the players since they were children. The team captain was 15 when Gonçalves first started working with him, while Benfica striker Mantorras was just 12. He has also, of course, kept up the tradition of scouring Europe - mainly Portugal - for players of Angolan origin, which explains the presence of Uniao Leiria's Freddy and Mauro and Marco Paulo. Angola are meticulosuly organised in defence, conceding jsut two goals in the campaign so far.
Group 5
Tunisia Played 8/17 points
Morocco 8/16
Guinea 8/11
Kenya 8/10
Botswana 8/9
Malawi 8/3
This is the only group where the top seeds are where they're supposed to be. However, Roger Lemerre's chances of managing a team at the World Cup four years after masterminding France's humiliating attempt at defending the trophy, will no doubt depend on the outcome of the last group game, when Tunisia host Morocco in a repeat of the 2004 African Nations Cup final which Tunisia won 2-1.
Morocco manager Zaki Badou is another African playing legend now at the helm of a national team. He has moulded a slick and virile young team, spearheaded by excellent Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh. The Atlas Lions are unbeaten in the group so far but trail Tunisia because of costly draws in Malawi and Kenya, whom they destroyed at home.
It's Tunisia's turn to go to Kenya this weekend, and having beaten the Harambee Stars at home just two weeks ago (Kenya have wound up cramming fixtures in to make up for a suspension imposed by Fifa over dodgy dealings in their FA), they fully expect to win. Similarly, anything other than a Moroccan victory at home to Botswana would be shocking
