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WORLD CUP 2006: All about Africa

/noticias.info/ There was a fairy-tale finish for four countries as African qualifying for Germany 2006 concluded in dramatic fashion last weekend. Angola, Côte D'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo all advanced to the FIFA World Cup™ finals for the first time after a campaign that opened in September 2003 and kept football lovers across the continent enthralled from start to finish. FIFAworldcup.com pieces together some of the highlights.
View the final standings in Africa

The Chelsea connection
English champions Chelsea contributed two of the star performers in Ivorian striker Didier Drogba and the Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien. Drogba's nine goals for Côte d'Ivoire proved the catalyst for their qualification while Essien was the driving force of the Black Stars team who won Group 2. He must share the glory with fellow engine room component Stephen Appiah, whose leadership of the side was another significant factor. Arguably the best player of the entire qualifying campaign, however, was the gangly striker Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor, who almost single-handedly took Togo to the final tournament. He scored an African-best ten goals although his most important contribution was arguably laying on two second-half goals for strike partner Abdel Coubadja as Togo won 3-2 in Congo to book their place in Germany.

Biggest miss
A win for Cameroon in their last Group 3 qualifier would have been enough to secure a fifth successive FIFA World Cup finals appearance. They seemingly had it in the bag against Egypt after an early goal from Rudolph Douala but conceded an equaliser in the last ten minutes. Then, in the very final minute of stoppage time, referee Komlan Coulibaly awarded Cameroon a penalty. Set-piece specialist Pierre Wome stepped up to take it but missed, as the ball thundered off the left-hand upright and bounced away for a goal-kick. The final whistle sounded and Cameroon were eliminated.

Hot seat
The bottom team in Group 3, Benin did the most hiring and firing with five changes of coach. The west African country started with Ghanaian legend Cecil Jones Attuquayefio in charge and ended with one of their own long-standing coaching stalwarts, Edme Codjo. In between, Wabi Gomez and two Frenchmen, Herve Revelli and Serge Devez, also tried their hand at the skipper's rudder. Malawi went through five coaches too, although technically John Kaputa and Kinnah Phiri shared the job before passing on the reins to Alan Gillet, Yasin Osman and lastly Michael Hennigan. Algeria, Ghana and Mali all had four coaches; in the Ghanaians' case they tried out Ralf Zumdick (in the preliminary round), then Mariano Barretto and Sam Arday before getting the recipe right under Ratomir Dujkovic, who had begun the campaign with Rwanda. In all, only eight of the 30 countries that played in the group phase kept the same coach for the entire campaign and just three - Alexandre Alhinho (Cape Verde Islands), Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia) and Vesselin Jelusic (Botswana) - were also in charge for the preliminary rounds.

Everyone's a winner
When Benin goalkeeper Rachad Chitou turned goalscorer at home against Libya on Sunday he ensured that all 30 of the countries involved in the group stage finished with at least one victory. Malawi also won for the first time in their final qualifier against Kenya in Blantyre, while the opposite happened with Group 1's bottom team Liberia, who followed up an opening day-win against Mali with a run of seven straight losses. Algeria, Rwanda and Sudan also managed one just win apiece.

Goals, goals, goals
For sheer breathtaking beauty Wissem El Abdi’s long-range bullet for Tunisia against Botswana in Gaborone was arguably the best strike of the qualifiers. Jimmy Gatete's mazy run through the Nigerian defence for Rwanda in Kigali had the most guile, meanwhile, and Janicio's sweet volley for the Cape Verde Islands against South Africa in Bloemfontein was certainly spectacular. The strike with the most sentimental value came from Zambia's 41-year-old player-coach Kalusha Bwalya when he drilled home a last-minute free-kick to secure a 1-0 win over Liberia in Lusaka. The most important goals, however, came arguably from Adebayor and Akwa. The former's equaliser for Togo away to Senegal set his side en route to the FIFA World Cup finals and there was no more important goal than Akwa's 85th-minute effort against Nigeria in Luanda which ultimately proved the difference between the two countries in Group 4.

Longevity
Ali Boumnijel will turn 40 just before next summer's finals yet Tunisia's first-choice goalkeeper is still going strong. Boumnijel kept out two young contenders for his No1 jersey with Tunisia and won the confidence of coach Roger Lemerre, despite the end of his club career in France and his return home to play for Club Africain. Boumnijel is something of a late bloomer for Tunisia but could be the 'oldest swinger in town' come next June.

Boys from Brazil
Tunisia qualified from Group 5 with the help of Brazilian-born striker Santos and defender Clayton, who has already represented the Carthage Eagles in two FIFA World Cups. Libya goalkeeper Luis Alejandro is another Brazilian to have made his mark in Africa.

Taking a beating
The biggest defeat was the 8-0 drubbing that Libya inflicted on Sao Tome e Principe in the second leg of their preliminary round tie two years ago.

Nothing new
Going to the FIFA World Cup finals is now old hat to Côte d'Ivoire coach Henri Michel. In 1986 he took France to the semi-finals in Mexico, in 1994 he was in charge of Cameroon, and four years later in France he was Morocco's coach. In 2002 he guided Tunisia to qualification but was fired before the finals in Korea/Japan after a disappointing performance at the 2002 CAF African Cup of Nations. notas_de_prensa_archivo