From: michael seium (michael.seium@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Nov 15 2009 - 10:31:53 EST
An African nation has never won a world cup and with some of the
international game's top players today coming from Africa the chances of an
African champion is likely to become a reality in South Africa this summer.
I hope Africa will come away with the FIFA world cup trophy and show the
world that it's time for an African team to shine. South Africa 2010 will
mark the best opportunity for an African team for the first time ever. Not
only is the event being held in the African continent but also there will be
more African teams taking part than ever. The West Africans seem to be
dominating this year's contingency as Nigeria in a last minute rally
defeated Kenya 3-2 and with the loss of Tunisia to Mozambique 1-0, the super
eagles found a way to fly higher than the Carthage eagles by securing a
flight to South Africa. The other teams from the neighborhood include,
Didier Drogba and the elephants of Ivory Coast, the black stars of Ghana
lead by Michael Essien, and the indomitable lions who will field Samuel Eto
as one of their stars. The Pharaohs of Egypt will play Algeria on Wednesday
November 18th, 2009 in Sudan as they both ended up with the same amount of
points for the fifth spot, while hosts South Africa have already locked in a
spot.
Hassan Shehata who probably will go down as one of my favorite players ever
is enjoying some success as the head coach of Egypt. He did it again as
thousands of fans joined in what was an exciting game in Cairo on Saturday.
The only negative thing to mention is that fans in Egypt who are too
emotional attacked the Algerian bus hurting a couple of the Algerian players
slightly. This should be un-accepted behavior and FIFA should warn the
Egyptian federation and govt. from allowing hooligans to act that way in the
future. Egypt with a 2-0 win secured a playoff game against the desert
warriors to be played in a neutral country. Let us not forget the Algerians
spirit of a winning attitude as they shocked the world in 1982 with a 2-1
victory over perennial powers the former West Germany that lost to Italy in
the championship game. It was their first world cup and they played a role
in exposing African soccer with their ability to perform at a high
level.Meanwhile the host team South Africa has a great opportunity to show
that Africa is capable of hosting a good event and I pray that the media
will cover the entire world cup in a fairly manner even if Africa keeps the
cup at home. We are now less than seven month away from the most prestigious
event in the world and it is Africa's turn to win. Hopefully the new
generation of young stars can win it for all those who sacrificed for the
game in the past, despite the terrible treatment the continent got over the
years. It's time for Africa to shine.
For more on the results and the entire world cup stay tuned to
Eri-international sports blog. Mean while our reliable sources have
indicated that Eritrean Swede star Henok Goitom will be back with his team
Almeria of La Liga starting next week. We will keep you informed. In other
soccer news, the Eritrean National senior team is slated to participate in
the CECAFA senior challenge cup to be held in Nairobi starting on November
28th, 2009. All eleven teams from the region and Zambia as a guest team will
take part; meanwhile Libya has expressed an interest in joining as guest.
The drawings of the tournament will take place on Wed. November 18th, 2009.
We will keep you updated along with the result of the Egypt vs. Algeria game
for the last spot of the world cup from the African continent.
Mike Seium
For Eri-International sports blog.
http://eri-internationalsports.blogspot.com/2009/11/africas-world-cup-must-bring-african.html
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