Africa yet to fulfill Pele’s prophecy

Hattingen (Germany): Pele's 1990 prediction that an African team would soon win the World Cup has again been made to look wildly optimistic after what already looks to be another wholesale failure by the continent.

Four African teams were making their World Cup debuts this year but Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana and Togo all began with defeats.

Only Tunisia, in their fourth tournament, were left to buck the trend when they play Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Pele made his bold claim that an African nation would conquer the world by the end of the century after Cameroon reached the last eight in 1990 before losing to England after extra-time.

However, in the next three tournaments only Senegal in 2002 matched that level of success, forcing the great Brazilian to row back and say that drastic investment was needed in the continent's infrastructure if they were ever to compete on a level playing field.

Senegal, who stunned holders France on their debut, eventually lost to Turkey but their progress masked the fact that Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa and Cameroon all failed to get past the first round, mustering just two victories between them.

Four years on three of those traditional African powers failed to make it to Germany but, despite some encouraging performances in the first round, their replacements look set for a similarly miserable return.

Ivory Coast arrived as probably the strongest of the Africans having reached this year's Nations Cup final, losing on penalties to hosts Egypt.

They can count themselves unlucky to have lost 2-1 to Argentina but with the Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro also in the group, progress will be difficult.

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Angola performed miracles even to qualify and looked completely overawed in the opening stages against Portugal when they conceded what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

They eventually settled the nerves enough to walk away relatively pleased - all they could have realistically expected from the tournament as a whole.

Ghana, four times African champions, finally made it to the World Cup after years of frustrating and sometimes mystifying qualifying failures.

They looked comfortably at home against the aristocrats of Italy and only after a late error by Sami Kuffour gifted a second goal did they lose heart in a 2-0 defeat.

Togo's farcical preparation was all too familiar for African nations at the World Cup and it was not a huge surprise to see them blow a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to South Korea.

Why Africa struggles to make an impact remains something of a mystery.

There is no shortage of talented players, many of them now plying their trade in Europe, and high quality coaches well versed in how to prepare for and handle a big tournament have led many African teams.

Tactical naivety, weak goalkeeping poor home pitches, internal strife, individualism, lack of confidence and even an inferiority complex have all been put forward as explanations.

Perhaps when the tournament reaches South Africa in four years things will finally change.