When will Africa’s Time Come?
Now that the World Cup dream for Africa has come to a close for 2010, one has to wonder when Africa can finally become the third continent to win a World Cup. With this year's prize being taken home by another European nation, when will it be Africa’s turn?
Due to the fact that 2010 marked the first time that a FIFA World Cup took place in Africa, many were hoping that this would be the year when one or several African teams would truly reach the next level and become legitimate contenders for the World Cup. Things almost worked out that way, but not quite.
Granted, there were some key injuries to African stars including Didier Drogba of Cote d’Ivoire and Michael Essien of Ghana but in general, it was a disappointing tournament for African teams.
Cameroon did not earn a single point in the group stage, Nigeria squandered chance after chance and failed to seal a victory and Cote d’Ivoire could not find the big win over Portugal or Brazil. Algeria did not score a goal and hosts South Africa gave a respectable showing with four points but were eliminated on the aggregate tiebreaker with Mexico.
The only African team to really give the continent hope was Ghana. Ghana was also the only African team to move past the group stage in 2006.
This year Ghana arguably should have reached the semifinal, which would have made them the first African team to go that far. They came closer than any other African country ever did, even closer than the 1990 edition of Cameroon. Ghana pressed late in extra time against Uruguay and a Luis Suarez handball prevented a winning goal. Suarez was penalized and Ghana was awarded a penalty kick. With the chance to send his country and his continent into the last four, Asamoah Gyan, who was a major reason Ghana went as far as they did, struck his penalty off the crossbar. Gyan recovered from the devastating miss to convert his penalty in the shootout but it was not enough. Ghana was eliminated 4-2 on penalty kicks as all of Africa’s hearts were broken.
So this tournament did deliver us a thrilling ride from a young Ghanaian team but the question is, when is it finally going to happen? Some argue that the day is drawing closer and closer and positive signs were shown when the U20 World Cup was won by Ghana, beating Brazil in the finals. The good news is that Ghana is a young team and their players will receive more opportunities in the future.
In a continent with as much hard luck as Africa, a World Cup title would truly lift the spirits of the whole continent and hopefully the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will bring in convincing success for Africa. In order for Africa to win the World Cup, they must have more than one team rise to the occasion each tournament. We saw Cameroon do it in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana the last two tournaments. Africa needs more possibilities of a champion once the knockout stage is reached.
Next tournament, hopefully we see a balance of power in the football world. After all this is the World Cup and while the two continents deserve their championships, it should be time soon to see a continent other than Europe or South America crown a world champion. Africa has been the continent that has shown the most promise to unseat the traditional powerhouses and it’s time for them to do it. Sepp Blatter predicted an African team winning at the turn of the 21st century, so for the sake of balance in football, let’s hope that more new champions are crowned in the coming years.
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