World Cup Soccer 2010: How did the African teams fare in South Africa?
South Africa 2010 welcomed a host of first timers. It was the first time that the mega-tournament landed on African soil and it was also the first to feature six teams from Africa. The story began in Italy 1990 when the Roger Milla-inspired Cameroon surprised the whole world with their ability and reached the quarter-finals of the tournament. FIFA then decided to increase the number of berths for the African countries from two to three for USA 1994 and then to five for France 1998. As a result, the total number of participating teams had to be increased from 24 to 36 as well.
South Africa as the host nation opened the World Cup with a nervous first half against Mexico in Group A. They came out more relaxed after the break and took a surprise lead by a sublime effort by Siphiwe Tshabalala. A victory was denied by the Mexicans as they found the equaliser just six minutes from time. The host team was put under pressure to build upon their performance in the opening match but stumbled under the weight of it to lose 3-0 to Uruguay. South Africa defeated former world champions France with a humiliating 2-1 score in the final group match but could not progress from the group stage because of an inferior goal difference to Mexico. In this process, South Africa became the first ever host nation which failed to qualify for the second stage of the World Cup.
Nigeria had a difficult start to their campaign as they faced Argentina to kick-off Group B. Only the heroics of their goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama kept their deficit to a single goal. In the second match, Nigeria was in the lead and controlled the match until Sani Kaita was sent off just after the half hour mark for an alleged stamp. Greece punished the Super Eagles and turned the tables to complete a 2-1 win. Nigeria put in a much improved performance in the last group match and could have qualified for the knock-out stage had Yukubu Aiyegbeni not given the World Cup history its most horrible of misses. Nigeria could only manage to get one point with this 2-2 draw with South Korea.
Algeria will be hailed for the fighting spirit they showed in their World Cup campaign. They lost to Slovenia by a single goal in the Group C opener and held group-favourites England to a goalless draw. Their last group match against the USA remained goalless until the 91st minute of the match when a goal from Landon Donovan sent the Algerians packing.
Cameroon had a disappointing campaign overall and were one of the only two teams who were unable to take any points from their three group matches (the other being the bottom ranked North Korea). They suffered a minor shock in the opening Group E match when they lost to Japan which was followed by 2-1 defeats by both Denmark and the Netherlands.
Ivory Coast held Portugal to a goalless draw in their opening Group G match but lost to the five-time champions Brazil. This proved to be a fatal blow as their fate was no more in their hands. Despite winning the last group match with a crushing 3-0 win over North Korea, the Elephants’ run subsided in the group stages.
After the successful hosting of the mega event, the other big thing for Africa was the Ghanaian run in the World Cup. In each of their first two matches in Group D, the Black Stars benefited from a sending off and a penalty kick which earned them a victory over Serbia and draw with Australia. Despite losing their last group match to Germany, Ghana managed to progress through to the knockout stage with a superior goal difference over Australia where they were the only flag bearers for Africa.
Ghana prevailed with a 5th minute goal from Kevin-Prince Boateng in their game against the Americans. USA managed to get an equaliser soon after and forced the match into extra-time where Asamoad Gyan scored his third goal of the tournament to put the Africans through to the quarter-final stage. It was only the third quarter-final appearance by an African team in the World Cup after Cameroon in Italy 1990 and the surprise-package Senegal in Korea-Japan 2002. Sulley Muntari gave the Black Stars the much needed lead with a superb long-range effort which was matched by an equally impressive free-kick by Diego Forlan. The match went into extra-time where drama ensued in the very last minute of the match. Luis Suarez handled a goal-bound header from Ghana only to be sent off. Gyan could only hit the cross bar from the resulting spot kick. Ghana was just three inches away from making history but the match was dragged to the penalty shootout where Ghana lost 4-2.
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