Sadly, African Teams Still Short of Contending in World Cup

PRETORIA, South Africa -- A few nights before this historic World Cup kicked off, the master of ceremonies at a gala in the Johannesburg suburb of Midrand honoring the legends of African soccer reminded attendees of how ignominious was Africa's arrival in the World Cup in 1974. Mwepu Ilunga, a defender for Zaire, which that year became black Africa's first World Cup entry, ran out of a defensive wall at the sound of the referee's whistle and booted away the ball that had been placed for a Brazil free-kick.

A video of the incident played on a video screen in the banquet hall and the MC announced Ilunga was in the room and would come to the stage and for the first time explain what all the years since stayed unexplained.

"Ilunga?" the MC called several times. "Ilunga?"

Ilunga was a no show, or early departee, which was the one thing the room full of African soccer stars from yesteryear, and those who came to see them that night, hoped would not be true of African teams with the first arrival of the World Cup on their continent.

It will, unfortunately, be a struggle.

Nigeria, which thrilled U.S. fans with an inspired rousing performance at the 1994 World Cup in the states, lost its second game on Thursday and in embarrassing fashion (see its crushed fans in above photo). It fell to Greece, which never before won a World Cup game, after failing to convert a two-on-one break and having to finish with 10 men after midfielder Sani Kaita purposely kicked an opponent out of bounds.

And on Wednesday night, the host team nicknamed Bafana Bafana was all but eliminated as well on the very short end of a 3-0 count against Uruguay. It opened with a draw against Mexico but won't be favored to beat France in the last of three opening-round games to advance to the knockout rounds. South Africa would also need help from the result of the match between Mexico and Uruguay to advance.

Blackistone in S.A.

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National Columnist Kevin Blackistone is on the scene in the home of World Cup 2010.
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The tournament started with six African countries. Now, barring miracle and catastrophe, there are four: Ghana, Algeria, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivorie. Cote d'Ivorie (which sounds so much better than Ivory Coast) looked the best in its opener despite drawing in a scoreless match against Portugal, which for my money (which I didn't use as a media member) was the best contest of the tournament so far. Ghana was the only one of the group to notch three points for a win in its first game, which was a mild 1-0 upset of Serbia.

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon weren't so indomitable against Japan and suffered a mild upset of their own as its star, and one of the stars of world soccer, Samuel Eto'o, was contained.

Algeria is lucky to be here.

It probably isn't fair to expect a lot from African sides, given they only came on the scene 40 years after the World Cup started. Some of them, such as Cote d'Ivoire, have had to survive civil war and other strife to get so far. South Africa wanted to send an all-black team to Mexico for the 1970 World Cup, but it was denied for the same reason it was turned away trying to send an all-white team to England for the 1966 World Cup: apartheid.

It is difficult not to root for one of the African teams to break through, though, unless you have a homeland from some other continent in the hunt. And even then, you might find in an African team another team for which to cheer. You would be hard-pressed not to find a European or US fan at these games meandering through Cape Town or Johannesburg's streets not sporting some yellow for South Africa's side, or certainly clutching one of its ubiquitous noise-making vuvuzelas.

The Africans remain the underdogs, after all, and most everyone likes an underdog. It helps, too, that they have some of the most colorful nicknames, like the Black Stars of Ghana, named after the shipping line that early 20th century black nationalist Marcus Garvey tried to organize for a return of Africans in the U.S. to Africa. Cote d'Ivorie's players are Les Elephants. Nigeria is comprised of the Super Eagles.

Then comes their more free-wheeling style of play that when executed is spectacular, as was the case with the sensational Liberian goal scorer George Weah, who went on in Europe to become the first FIFA World Player of the Year from Africa. Weah, who was one of the honorees at the Legends of African Soccer gala, was so highly thought of that after he was banned for six games in 1996 for responding to racial taunts from Portuguese defender Jorge Costa by breaking Costa's nose, he still was given the FIFA Fair Play Award.

Weah became the only World Player of the Year who never qualified for the World Cup. His native Liberia, where he's graduated to become an elected politician, was never good enough. That has been a refrain for too many African teams.

The reasons are simple. By comparison to European and South American countries, African teams aren't just newer to the scene but they haven't become as well organized and funded.

Some African countries also have been infected by some of the corruption and fraud that has infected African governing. In one instance FIFA suspended Tanzania from international competitions back in 2000 after Tanzania's executive committee for sport was dismantled on accusations of theft of FIFA development funds. The same thing almost happened in Uganda, where one-time international player Dennis Obua fought to keep his chairmanship of the national football federation after allegations of misuse of FIFA funds for youth development.

Nonetheless, African countries continue to produce outstanding players like the ones honored that night from North and South, the Horn to the Atlantic, including Abedi Pele, Lucas Radebe, Jay Jay Okocha, Zambia's Kalusha Bwalya (shown on left of photo at right with Zimbabwe's Moses Chunga on right), Badou Zaki, Salif Keita, Osei Kofi, Jomo Sono and Joe Kadenge.

The MC closed the banquet by asking them all on stage what it may have been like had they all played together. Some of us looking on wondered what might have been had they just been able to play with developed national programs like their counterparts elsewhere.