Round up Africa World Cup

Well, that’s it. The first World Cup on the African continent is over, and in the final it was clear that Spain deserved to win it, becoming the ninth winner of a World Cup, the first side to win the tournament after losing their opening game (1-0 against Swizerland), the first European side to World Cup outside of Europe, the lowest-scoring winner of a World Cup so far (they scored only eight goals in the tournament) and the first winner of a World Cup in Africa. But what of the African teams?

With six African nations competing, the prospects seemed good for at least a couple of them to make an impression in this year’s tournament: but one by one, it became clear that this was not to be their time.

The hosts were unlucky to concede late in their opening game, earning them a draw that proved insufficient to propel them out of the group stage even after their 2-1 victory over France later on.

A promising Côte D’Ivoire got drawn in a “Group of Death” for the second tournament running and were edged out of a second-round place on goal difference after Portugal blasted North Korea 7-0.

Algeria, probably lucky to be in the tournament to start with thanks to their surprise 1-0 victory over African Cup of Nations holders Egypt in Omdurman, showed impressive team spirit at times and held a sub-par England side to a goalless draw but still proved unable to record a debut World Cup victory.

Cameroon fell victim to their own poor preparation and infighting, losing all of their group-stage games in spite of being Africa’s highest-ranked team and boasting the prodigious talent of Samuel Eto’o, among others.

Nigeria had high hopes and high expectations coming into the tournament, but a poor run of form, poor discipline against Greece and some desperately bad luck against South Korea led to a first-round dismissal that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called an embarrassment to the nation.

All of which leaves us with Ghana, who this year equalled the best previous result for an African nation in reaching the quarter-finals, after beating the USA 2-1 in the last eight. The real injustice here is, of course, that they did enough to be the first African nation to reach the semifinals, and would have been there if it were not for a blatant, cynical handball on the Uruguayan goal line from Luis Suarez to deny them a last-minute winner. Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting spot-kick, and there was not enough time left in the game for Suarez’s red card to make any difference: In the resulting penalty shootout, the South Americans took the game 4-2.

Regardless of the outcome for the host continent however, the tournament’s organisation has been widely recognised as a success story. South Africa has shown that it can host a major international sporting event without any major problems, giving itself- and the continent of Africa- some excellent positive publicity in the process as well as attracting and successfully managing huge numbers of tourists from all around the world. The next question is- where do they go from here?

The infrastructure improvements and sporting arenas constructed in order to make this World Cup possible have the potential to provide a real benefit to South Africa, but a great many of the jobs created in their construction and operation for the tournament will now, in the short term at least, be lost as the howls of the ubiquitous vuvuzelas fall silent and the stadia lie empty; waiting, perhaps, for the next major sporting event to visit this country.

The World Cup has been a success story so far, but it must be made clear that this is only the beginning. Its legacy in South Africa will be judged, in the long run, by its lasting effect on the nation and not just what happened over five weeks in 2010. The future holds promise, but we are not there yet.

Update

Côte d'Ivoire played impressively in their last group match against North Korea, but ultimately their 3-0 victory over North Korea proved insufficient as Portugal, in one of the dullest confrontations of the tournament so far, drew 0-0 with Brazil to take them one point clear of the West African hopefuls. The Elephants will be able to take away positives from their World Cup experience, with two strong performances, but you do have to wonder what they might have achieved in any of the other groups.

This means that Ghana are carrying the hopes of Africa with them in their quarter-final against Uruguay this Friday. The Black Stars have impressed this year, in spite of a group stage loss to Germany- victory over an impressive Serbian team and a passionate display in the last 16 against the USA have so far seen them equal the best World Cup performance by an African team, following Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) to be the third African team to reach the quarter-final stage of a World Cup.

They will have to be on top of their game to proceed beyond Uruguay. The South Americans are on form this tournament, and apart from a shaky start against a French team that had yet to collapse into anarchy they have won every game they have played. On the other hand, it could be argued that they have not really been tested yet- and the questions posed of their defence by the South Korean team on Saturday indicate that it is not impossible to score against them. If the Black Stars can replicate the form they showed in the first half against the USA, they will definitely be in with a chance!

Update

Well, the group stages are almost over but there are still a few teams with everything to play for- and a few teams for whom progression has already faded as a tantalising dream, missed either by a whisker or a country mile. Here’s Computers 4 Africa’s take on the tournament so far:

It’s been a turbulent time for the hosts. South Africa did well in their opener against Mexico, putting in a spirited performance against an excellent Association Football team. Bafana Bafana did less well against the marauding Uruguay side- but then, so did everybody in Group A- but they bounced back to give a spirited, vintage performance against an admittedly fractured French side. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough- they fell short on goal difference at the last- but with a point score equal to that of second-placed rivals Mexico they can leave the tournament with their heads held high. Honestly nobody expected them to do well in this tournament, and recording a win against France- even a France team as fractious and divided as that on display yesterday- is no mean achievement.

Cameroon have had a torrid time of it, the African Cup of Nations quarter-finalists losing both of their opening games against Denmark and Japan. The Danish side is well-regarded, the Japanese a little more unknown- though Cameroon’s widely publicised problems with team coach Pul Le Guen can’t have helped. Their only remaining hope to salvage some face from this tournament comes against the Netherlands on Friday, but given that the Dutch are expected to do very well in this World Cup and will want to keep their momentum up after winning both of their opening games, it will not be easy. Indomitable the Lions may be, but for this tournament they have been beaten back.

Nigeria came achingly close to qualifying for a place in the last 16 yesterday, Argentina’s convincing win over Greece meaning that they just needed to win their game against the South Koreans. With veteran player Kanu back in the team and Yakubu leading the charge, they looked likely to do it at numerous stages throughout the game, too- they led 1-0 during the first half and had numerous chances to put another in even in the closing stages at 2-2, with Yakubu surely feeling disappointed with his miss in the 68^th minute. Nigeria did finally produce the exciting, attacking football they are capable of in this game, but you can’t help but think that if they’d brought their A-game out before, particularly against an inferior Greece side, they would be celebrating today instead of heading home disappointed.

Côte D’Ivoire must surely be rueing their abysmal luck in the draw. For the second World Cup running they were put in a “Group of Death,” and while they’ve done well against some stern opposition and they’re not technically out of the tournament yet there was always going to be a mountain for them to climb and it’s going to take something of a miracle for them to progress at this stage. A draw against Portugal gave them a respectable start, and there is no shame in losing to Brazil- but it is the result achieved by Portugal against North Korea, a game the Elephants had no control over, which has made their final task all but impossible. It is well within their ability to beat the North Korean side, make no mistake- but with a goal difference of nine to make up, they must surely be hoping that the Brazilians put in some serious demolition work of their own if they are to have any real hope of qualifying.

Algeria have managed to punch a little above their weight in this tournament. Aided by an abysmal showing from England, they are technically still able to qualify- although it would take a win over an in-form United States team and a victory for England for them to do it, which seems unlikely at this stage given that the States will absolutely be looking to win the game in order to seal their place in the last sixteen and England- as you almost certainly know- have been playing extremely badly so far this tournament. Nonetheless, expect the Desert Foxes to play their hearts out this afternoon- a last-16 place would be a fantastic achievement for them.

All of which leaves us with Ghana. The Black Stars need at least a draw with the Germans to make sure of their progression into the last 16, giving them the best chance of any African side. They will still stand a good chance at progressing as long as they don’t lose by more than one goal this afternoon, though that would put them at the mercy of the Serbian team- if the Serbs beat Australia, then Ghana must win or draw.

The issue here is, of course, that they are playing against Germany. You can never expect the Germans to be anything less than fully committed, especially at a World Cup, and they will be a dangerous side to face regardless of their poor form against Serbia last Friday. Expect a tough match.