Can an African team win the 2010 World Cup?

[Zeppo]

Can an African team win the 2010 World Cup?

Close your eyes and try to imagine the scenes of jubilation across Africa if a team from the continent were to win the 2010 World Cup.

A celebration like no other, one billion people revelling in one of the greatest sporting and cultural achievements.

For the first time in its 80-year history, football's blue riband competition is coming to the world's poorest and most underdeveloped land.

How better to mark the occasion than with a first African champion?

(continue)

[Lazie]

I'm not sure about Ghana winning it. Africa's best chance is with Nigeria and the more I think about it, Ivory Coast. I'd like to see how the groups look though.

[Zeppo]

I think that Cameroon has an edge over the other teams since they have something that the other ones cannot boast: a top class goalkeeper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idriss_Carlos_Kameni

[Jangle]

I like the Ivory Coast chances with Drogba and the Toure brothers along with Kalou in their side. My next favourite would be Ghana - Essien.

[Lazie]

I like the Ivory Coast chances with Drogba and the Toure brothers along with Kalou in their side. My next favourite would be Ghana - Essien.

Yuh forget about the player that left Spurs and went to Seville, Zakora. Isn't he from the Ivory Coast as well? I'd like to see them in action to see how well they play.

[Hortical]

If Nigerians do not tear each other apart and fight over match fees prior to the WC, then they have the best chance of going deep in the tournament.

[Zeppo]

Roger Milla: 'Ghana and Ivory Coast are the teams to spring surprises'

"Why not, why can't an African team win it?" The prospect of an African triumph at next summer's World Cup may seem sheer fantasy to some but not to Roger Milla, who knows all about making dreams real on football's greatest stage.

Milla made the world smile two decades ago when, aged 38, he came out of his semi-retirement on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion to help propel exuberant Cameroon to the quarter-finals of Italia '90.

No African team had ever got so far and Milla, the supersub who scored four goals, became a global icon. The African-born Just Fontaine and Eusebio had won the Golden Boot with France and Portugal in previous World Cups but here was a genuine African superstar, whose hip-shuffling corner-flag celebrations were arguably even more memorable than his goals. "It just happened, it was a spontaneous thing," he explains, 19 years later – and why not break into dance when you've just brought joy to an entire continent?

(continue)

[Zeppo]

Tough World Cup draw for African challengers

A heavy dose of reality crashed down upon African hopes of a maiden Fifa World Cup title after Friday's draw pitched the continent's most-fancied teams in challenging groups.

In the build-up to the Cape Town draw, where locals flooded the city centre for the most colourful of street parties, most of the talk centred upon Ghana and Ivory Coast spearheading Africa's unlikely quest.

But now the tables have turned after the Black Stars landed in among Germany, Australia and Serbia (Group D) while the Ivorians face Brazil, Portugal and North Korea (Group G).

(continue)

[Dunny]

Nigeria and South Africa are the poorest of the African teams. Ivory Coast is the 1 most likely.

[Zeppo]

Why not an African WCup winner?

Abdullah makes his living as a tour guide on Lamu Island, a palm-tree paradise in the Indian Ocean, just off the coast from the heaving port city of Mombassa. Short and bearing a wild, rheumy eye, he's as mellow as a beach bum. But mention soccer, and Abdullah becomes as excited as a kid on a sugar high.

The sport came up while touring Lamutown, the island's administrative seat, a few days ago. I saw the Liverpool FC Barber Shop, complete with the club's shield on its dangling shingle, and I wanted a photo of it.

"You are a football fan?" he asked. "The Americans have a very good team. They beat the Spaniards."

Abdullah started listing American players, deciding that "the one at Everton" -- goalkeeper Tim Howard -- was the best one and that "Dempsey at Fulham" -- pronounced by Abdullah as "Fool-hamm" -- was good, too.

(continue)