Africa Expects (But Disappoints)

Pele once predicted that an African country would win the World Cup before the end of the 20th century. Obviously, he's a better footballer than prognosticator. However, there was still talk that African teams should do well in 2010 given the "home field advantage." Instead, their performance was abject. With six African teams and eighteen matches, there were only three wins for Africa: Ghana against Serbia courtesy of a penalty, South Africa over a disintegrating 10-man France, and Ivory Coast over whipping boys DPRK. Ghana was the only team to move on to the round of 16, and that was only with four points and two goals - both penalties. Algeria, Nigeria, and Cameroon went out without a victory. Cameroon, supposedly in the middle of a "golden generation," didn't get a point; the only other team to match this dubious achievement was North Korea. New Zealand performed better than half of the African contingent.

What happened? There are a few different things to look at, apart from endemic problems like poverty, malnutrition, and HIV that reduce the talent pool in the first place.

South Africa, for all their passion, didn't get to the tournament on merit. We know this because they actually participated in World Cup qualifying despite being the hosts; these qualifiers doubled as qualifiers for the 2010 African Nations Cup. South Africa didn't make it. Only DPRK are ranked lower than them in the (admittedly haphazard) FIFA rankings. The same might be said of Algeria, who required a playoff in Sudan to get past African Champions Egypt.

In the case of Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast, you're looking at the age-old problem of poor decisions by African football federations. Togo just about refused to play in the 2006 World Cup over unpaid bonuses. Other examples are highlighted in this Sports Illustrated article. Similarly, Ivory Coast and Nigeria both sacked their managers only a few months before the tournament, bringing in Sven Goran-Eriksson and Lars Lagerback, respectively. While these two Swedes are experienced in international football, they didn't have enough time to work with the teams. Lagerback took over at the end of February and Eriksson only took over at the end of March. Some will point to the fact that Ivory Coast were drawn in the "group of death" with Portugal and Brazil but Portugal were there for the taking in the opening match. Cameroon manager Paul Le Guen made some bizarre decisions. He may have won Ligue 1 with Lyon, but so did other lesser lights like Gerrard Houllier and Alain Perrin. Since then Le Guen has failed at Rangers and Paris St. Germain. He was probably a poor appointment.

One thing to look at is a typical flaw in the African game: goalkeeping. Check out where the keepers play their club football:

Algeria: Gaouaoui (ASO Chlef, ALG), Chaouchi (ES Setif , ALG), M'Bolhi (Slavia Sofia - BUL)
Cameroon: Kameni (Espanyol - ESP), Hamidou (Kayserispor - TRK), Assembe (Valenciennes - FRA)
Cote D'Ivoire: Barry (Lokeren - BEL), Zogbo (Maccabi Netanya - ISR), Yeboah (AESC Mimosas - CIV)
Ghana: Adjei (Liberty Professionals - GHA), Ahorlu (Heart of Lions - GHA), Kingson (Wigan - ENG)
Nigeria: Enyeama (Hapoel Tel Aviv - ISR), Ejide (Hapoel Petah Tikva - ISR), Aiyenugba (Bnei Yehuda - ISR)
South Africa: Josephs (Orlando Pirates - RSA), Khune (Kaizer Chiefs - RSA), Walters (Maritzburg United - RSA)

In other words, only Cameroon can call upon keepers from top leagues. Kingson of Ghana plays for Wigan, but he's not first choice and Wigan aren't good anyway. This talent shortage is probably down to poor coaching, as this article points out. A lot of Africa's football is played in small makeshift pitches with shirts for goals. I suspect you don't get a lot of kids playing keeper, which becomes a vicious circle. Without top-class keepers, you don't get kids in the next generation aspiring to be keepers. You also don't end up with good coaches when your keepers retire.

It's all a bit disappointing as this will likely impact attendance and atmosphere. Furthermore, it casts serious doubt on FIFA's decision to include six African teams, more than any other region except Europe. Some good teams like Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Asian champions Iraq, and Ecuador (shout out to Courtney!) missed out so we could watch Algeria play some of the most negative, boring football of the tournament? Hardly seems fair.