Friday 15 January 2010

Friday 15 January 2010 – 147 DAYS TO THE WORLD CUP

Today sees on paper the game of the group round stage of the competition as the two most fancied African nations go head-to-head in Group B. There is something of a sad air to the game as it is the only one being played due to Togo’s withdrawal and mathematically it is possible that it might be the Ivory Coast’s final game of the tournament.

Starting their campaign late today Ghana are the final team to play in the tournament and are currently quite a liked and fancied African proposition with Michael Essien leading the charge. Even more telling with this match however is the Ivory Coast performance in their opening match as they failed to beat (and even score against) Burkina Faso. All reports were that they appeared somewhat impotent and lacklustre, two traits they will not be able to afford to be in this match.

Yesterday Angola shrug off their peculiar collapse in their opening match to beat Malawi 2-0 with two goals early in the second half putting them in a very strong position now to progress. In the other match Algeria (as I keep repeating, England’s African World Cup opponents) pulled themselves together after their freak opening match lose to defeat Mali 1-0 who were unable to put together another late rally akin to their own opener.

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