Africans back to start after 16-year efforts in World Cup
28/6/2006 14:48
African football slipped back to the start despite some impressive efforts
in 16 years, as their only survivors from the group stage out of five
continental representatives, Ghana, crashed out of the 2006 World Cup with a 3-0
complete loss to five-time champions Brazil.
Ghana paid for some cavalier
defending and waywardness in front of goal in Dortmund on Tuesday, going down to
a Brazil side still lacking their traditional samba-style and swagger.
The
holders' all-time leading scorer Ronaldo sliced the Ghanaians' defence in just 5
minutes to set up a new goalscoring record of the tournament, as the Reald
Madrid striker received a pass from AC Milan sensation Kaka and drove long from
20 meters to mug Ghana keeper Richard Kingson with a trademark stepover and slot
home his 15th goal in World Cup finals.
Adriano and Jose Ze Roberto extended
the Brazil's advantage on the board, scoring respectively on the 46 and 84
minute to help the defending champions see off a spirited Ghana and progressed
through to the quarter-finals with relative ease.
It has been the fifth World
Cup that African teams marched in dubbed "Dark Horses" before being sent packing
with few of them made real big upsets.
Sixteen years ago, when Cameroon
scored past a sleepy Argentine goalkeeper at the Italian World Cup in 1990
before giving England a struggle in the elimination round, Africa announced
their emergence in world soccer with that big upset.
Then there came the
positive talks about the continent's rising trend, but not much turned into
truth.
Nigeria made some of their voices heard by the world in 1994 and 1998,
and Senegal became the only second African team reaching the World Cup
quarter-finals at the highly unpredictable 2002 tournament jointly held by South
Korea and Japan.
No further progress was made four years later in Germany,
however, as the knockout phase of this year's World Cup featured only one team
from the continent while all other four sides bowed out from the
groups.
Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco and Nigeria kept as the only other African
teams to reach the second round besides Ghana.
The next tournament, four
years from now in South Africa, seemed like the perfect opportunity for Africans
to make breakthrough, but their collective performance in Germany give a
pessimistic look to the prospect.
Angola scored just one goal; Africa's great
hope, Cote d'Ivoire, managed just one victory in three outings; Togo returned
home without winning a point; and Tunisia had only one point to show for their
trouble.
Ghana came out the only one escaping from what finally turned out
the real Group of Death as Italy finished the winner of Group E and the Czech
Republic and the United States out.
Yet silver lining remains for the
Africans.
Among the five countries representing Africa at Germany 2006, four
of them, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Angola and Togo, were making their debuts on the
world stage. Only Tunisia, from the north, had seen action at the world's
biggest football event before.
Traditional powers Nigeria, Cameroon, South
Africa, Egypt and Morocco were all watching from afar as the world waited to see
how well the new boys would fare four years before the party swings by Africa
for the first time.
It means that, for Africa, there will fill eight to ten
countries for their future Nations Cup and subsequent World Cup qualifications
to mark on the international stage.
Meanwhile, the world just stands in
waiting for a re-start from the Africans after the last representatives for the
continent were returning home from Germany.
Xinhua By sportswriter Zhang Han
|
