When host South
Africa takes to the field against Mexico on June 11 at the Soccer City
Stadium, it will be the 708th game in the FIFA World Cup’s history.
A momentous
occasion it will be not only for the South Africans but the whole of
Africa as the biggest football show on earth is finally taking place in
Africa eighty years after the first edition held in Uruguay.
For Danny Jordaan,
CEO of the Local Organising Committee of the World Cup, it will be
mission accomplished after four years of painstaking planning and
organising. Four years during which Western media sustained pressure,
through fiercely critical reports, on FIFA to rethink its decision to
hand South Africa hosting rights of the tournament.
The battle has
indeed been fierce. From security concerns raised by the media in the
West, which has created fear in the minds of tourists in that part of
the world, the gang-up against the Vuvuzela, which was only resolved
last week after Jordaan assured that the decibel levels are not such as
would make it difficult for team benches to communicate with their
players, the organising committee faced immense challenges.
Jordaan and the
South African government can justifiably feel proud of their
accomplishment. The $4.6 billion reportedly spent on hosting the
tournament, including costs of building and renovating ten world-class
stadia, have clearly not been in vain.
The 32 teams are
now in town and the party is about to begin. Africa will be on fire for
the next one month. In South Africa, Nigeria and elsewhere on the
continent, people will talk about nothing other than football.
Festival of football
Indeed, it will be
a festival of football as the best players on the continent converge on
African soil to titillate football fans with their vast array of
football skills.
Never has Africa
been host to such deluge of football talent and it may be a very long
while before such constellation is seen here again. Cristiano Ronaldo,
Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Kaka, Franck Ribery and Ji-Sung Park are
some of the foreign talent that will set Africa at the Mundial. So also
will our African brigade of Didier Drogba, Osaze Odemwingie, Samuel
Eto’o, Rafik Saifi and Kwadwo Asamoah.
Our own Super
Eagles, long derided by their countrymen for their listless performance
under former coach, Shuaibu Amodu, seem to be sputtering into life
under new coach, Lars Lagerback. In the two friendly matches they
played last week under the direction of the Swede, Nigerians got to see
the Eagles coming together gradually as a unit. Tonight’s game against
North Korea, presents Lagerback another opportunity to firm up his
strategies for the tournament. With the Eagles’ final squad known, the
Nigerian coach can now turn his attention to sorting out those minor
details, which have a way of unhinging even the most carefully thought
out plans if unchecked.
In the case of the
Eagles, the defence is a key sticking point. With the reliable
Onyekachi Apam failing to make the cut through injury, Lagerback is
working round the clock to ensure that he melds the defence, which
includes Rabiu Afolabi returning to the squad since his stint with the
team in the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan; a match rusty Danny Shittu,
who sat out the entire season on the bench at Bolton and Joseph Yobo
who did not enjoy enough playing time in his club, Everton, into a
tight unit.
The African challenge
The Swede is a wily
tactician and has been sounding confident about his squad’s chances at
the tournament. Upon the Eagles’ arrival in Durban on Wednesday,
Lagerback told reporters: “We have a very tough group, the quality of
the opposition is very good, and what I know is that all the teams want
to win. The Super Eagles are ready to take on the world’s best. We know
there are high expectations, especially from our fans. If we give our
100 per cent, we can beat any team. But I am happy with everything so
far.”
Lagerback’s
confidence notwithstanding, the Eagles have their work clearly cut out.
Their progress in the tournament clearly would ride on the outcome of
their opening game against Argentina on June 12. The South Americans
have a formidable squad and are among favourites for the title. To get
past or even to survive them, the Eagles have to be at their best,
something Lagerback is hoping to achieve.
Aside the Eagles,
Africa’s other teams are hoping to make a statement, none more than
hosts, South Africa. The Alberto Parreir-coached squad, which went on a
training tour of Brazil and Germany, returned confident of their
chances in the tournament. The team’s Brazilian coach returned to South
Africa in a dilemma after home-based players in his team improved
massively during the training tour.
Despite their new
found form, pundits are not expecting them to go through in their
group, which includes two former world champions, Uruguay and France as
well as Mexico. However, given their performance at the Confederation
Cup, which they hosted last year, it may just be a mistake to write
them off.
Africa’s other
gladiators, Cote d ‘Ivoire, Algeria, and Ghana, are also not going to
the mundial to make up the numbers. The Didier Drogba-led Ivorians, who
exited in the first round at the last edition of the World Cup in
Germany despite boasting what was considered a decent squad, are eager
to make a statement this time round.
Ghana’s chances of
making it out of their group appear very slim given the absence of key
players like Laryea Kingston and the inimitable Michael Essien, who was
finally ruled out following his failure to recover from a knee injury
which hit since January this year.
Algeria, lumped
with England, USA and Slovenia face an uphill task in that group. On
the surface, the North African side will find it difficult to break out
of this group; however, the Algerians are nobody’s fools and on a good
day can mess up things for even the most technically balanced side.
Their major weakness seems to be getting them to rein in their
exuberance. Here, coach Rabah Saadane, has serious work to do.
Powerhouses weigh in
On the whole, it
promises to be an exciting tournament with traditional power
houses-Brazil, Germany and Italy expected to be threats to their
opponents. The Brazilian squad is, as usual, oozing class. Such is the
quality of the team that t wo-time World Footballer of the year,
Ronaldinho, failed to get a look in from Dunga despite switching over
to Milan to resurrect a flagging career.
The German team,
including exciting young forwards like Lucas Podolski, Bastian
Scheinsteinger and Toni Kroos and the experienced Miroslav Klose, will
give their group opponents, Ghana, Serbia and Australia, enough to chew.
