Algeria

Algeria’s football team, “Les Fennecs” (The Desert Foxes), was the first African side to beat a European national team at the World Cup when they defeated West Germany 2-1 in 1982. Since then they’ve had a turbulent path, qualifying for the finals this year in a huge playoff with reigning African Cup of Nations holders Egypt only to suffer a disappointing 1-0 defeat in their first game of the tournament against a poorly-regarded Slovenia team.

The remaining teams in Group C are England and the USA. Unfortunately for the Algerian side, both of these opponents will be fielding stronger teams than the Slovenia side that eventually made a shot count on Sunday, and while “Les Fennecs” did appear to be slightly better on the pitch against Slovenia until they had a man sent off, they are likely to struggle against the two group favourites.

On the other hand, the Algerians have shown a flair for taking on “tougher” opposition recently- notably they were semifinalists in the African Cup of Nations, and beat the eventual winners Egypt in order to secure their place at the World Cup finals.

Slovenia have been to the World Cup once before, in 2002, and in spite of avoiding defeat completely in their qualifying campaign they failed to score a point in the group stages of that tournament. This time around they finished second in their qualifying group to Slovakia, and won the drawn two-leg playoff against Russia by virtue of scoring one of their goals away from home. This year they have already bettered their previous record, recording a first World Cup victory as well as their first group-stage points. Given the strength of opposition in Group C, they will be delighted if they make it into the last 16.

The United States aren’t really known for their footballing prowess, but their national team has been steadily growing in strength since the 1980s, and they are currently a respectable 14^th in the FIFA world rankings after reaching the final of the 2009 Confederations Cup against Brazil. As such, they will definitely be looking to secure a place in the knockout stages this year, and are likely to put in a strong showing- if Algeria are to make it out of the group, they will need to play with purpose against this team.

And then there is of course England. England are almost certainly the toughest team in this group, with a FIFA ranking of 8^th in the World and a very strong qualifying campaign behind them in which they won nine of their ten games. They do have a reputation for dropping their game against “weaker” opposition, however, and also for making silly mistakes in big games. Algeria will certainly be hoping that the English team lives down to this reputation when they play them on the 18^th!

Algeria itself is currently in a period of almost unprecedented stability in its post-colonial era, and with that has come a lot of growth- including a dramatic increase in literacy rates and quality of education, resulting in an almost 70% literacy rate and a reduction in the number of Algerian citizens living in poverty to an estimated 23 per cent- lower than South Africa’s 50 per cent- in spite of the average GDP per person being only £7,100 (in SA the figure is £10,000).

Algeria has undergone a struggle for independence from the French as well as a series of long civil wars, and is still feeling the after-effects- but it is coming out the other end still fighting, with its education system and job market continually improving. If this continues, then who knows? Perhaps the Algerian team will start to become a force to reckon with in future tournaments!