{"id":62894,"date":"2018-07-09T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=62894"},"modified":"2018-07-09T19:09:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T18:09:00","slug":"on-africas-dismal-outing-at-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/on-africas-dismal-outing-at-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"On Africa\u2019s Dismal Outing At The World Cup."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nThe WorldCup, which is the greatest soccer showpiece on earth, is
\ngradually headed tothe conclusive stage as four countries; France,
\nBelgium, Croatia and Englandhave emerged semi-finalists in this year\u2019s
\nedition of that epic competition.From the pulsating group stages down
\nthrough the quarter final stage of thecompetition, the world has witnessed
\ntremendous football display; quite ahandful of surprises and of course a
\ngradual tail spinning into an epic finalearly next week. Great teams from
\nlegendary soccer playing nations likeGermany, Argentina, Spain, Brazil and
\nPortugal have been sent crashing out ofthis year\u2019s fiesta and some
\nhitherto football minnows showed great flair inthis competition. Countries
\nlike Mexico, South Korea, Japan and even Iranshowed tremendous football
\npromises that warns of their future threats tofootball powerhouses.<\/p>\n

But theperformance of African teams in the competition leaves much to be
\ndesired andposes very ominous questions about the future of African
\nfootball. Africa wasrepresented by five teams in the competition; Nigeria,
\nEgypt, Senegal, Moroccoand Tunisia and unfortunately, none of these five
\nteams made it beyond thegroup stage of the competition! Very damning, you
\nmight say, but this isunderstating the fact that African teams were dismal
\nin the ongoing World Cup.That none of them could lift itself above the
\ngroup stage is a worryingindictment of African football and this punctures
\nthe demand for more Africanslots in the World Cup, as the world football
\ngoverning body prepares toenlarge the size of the competition.<\/p>\n

In thisWorld Cup, Senegal turned out to be the most successful African
\nteam as itshowed initial promises to secure a win and a draw in its first
\ntwo matchesbefore a last minute loss of nerves made it to toss away
\nperhaps Africa\u2019sbrightest hopes of securing a second round berth in the
\ncompetition. Nigeriawaffled through its legendary preparatory hitches to
\nshow a resurgence after itwon its second match, after losing the first but
\nrecovered its bounce in thethird match only to lose it few minutes to a
\nsecond round qualification.Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco were huge flops that
\nnever raised their games to theexpected levels as they earned early exits
\nfrom their respective groups. Sofrom the five African contestants in the
\nmundial, none was able to walk out fromtheir groups, which is perhaps the
\nworst ever performance by Africa in theWorld Cup.<\/p>\n

Much hopeswere placed on the five African teams to excel from the African
\nworld record ofquarter final appearance which, thus far, is held by three
\ncountries; Cameroun,Senegal and Ghana. Many soccer pundits predicted that
\nan African team wouldmake the semifinal of this year\u2019s competition given
\nthe spurts of promisesAfrican players have been showing in all parts of
\nthe world. Many betted thatat least one of the five African teams would
\nbest the standing African record andpossibly make it to the semifinal
\nstage and many were ready to wager on thisbefore the competition kicked
\noff. Sure, African soccer stars were shinning anddoing well in
\ninternational team football which ignited the optimism thatAfrica will
\nshow very strong presence in the present World Cup.<\/p>\n

But thesehigh hopes were dashed by the mediocre showing African teams
\ndisplayed in thecompetition proper. To say the least, African teams were
\nflat-footed in theWorld Cup! Let\u2019s face the fact, there were spurts of
\nbrilliance in some outingsof African teams but these were eclipsed by the
\nlack of team mission and visionwhich afflicted the five African nations in
\nthis year\u2019s competition. There was ageneral purposelessness that showed in
\nthe matches of these African teams. Itwas obvious, watching African teams
\nin this competition, that there was ageneral lack of clue as to how best
\nto deliver as individual teams and take thegame higher than the notches
\ntheir rivals were operating on. The competitionexposed one general
\naffliction that is the bane of African football and this isthe discernable
\nidea on how to rise to whatever occasion they find themselvesand deliver
\nthe critical results against their opponents. The non-availabilityof a
\nsense of direction is why African teams scratched results from
\nincrediblesources that defy even their understanding. Most times, African
\nteams justbadger their ways into victory and this obliterates a reality in
\nfootball thatvictory is a result of deliberate, practiced and well-honed
\nefforts and notjust occasional happenstance, as African teams are wont to
\nbelieve.<\/p>\n

There is nodoubt that football is an art, which must be learned, imbibed
\nand improvedupon. This is not to say that victory in football is
\nguaranteed under this outlinebut that teams work their ways to victory;
\nnot through forcing their waysthrough but being able to read each match
\nand decide what best way to adopt toget victory. This is what separates
\nthe most successful football nations likeBrazil, Italy, Germany from the
\nother teams and it is not surprising that thesethree nations have won 13
\nout of the 20 World Cup competitions ever staged.This report is not
\npostulating that because African teams didn\u2019t win the WorldCup, they
\nshould be written off. What it rather seeks to advance is thatAfrican
\nfootball must develop to the stage where African teams can work
\noutvictories which are not through occasional spurts of brilliance or
\nthrough thephysical exertion of raw strength but through renewable
\nfootball arts thatwould be trusted to produce results as is the case in
\nEurope and South America.<\/p>\n

The dismalouting by African countries in the present World Cup
\nnecessitates the need forAfrican soccer managers to go back to the drawing
\nboard to review Africanfootball and make critical adjustments to bring it
\nat par with other nationsand also give African football the necessary
\ncompetitive edge to excel. Suchreview demands a comprehensive attention to
\nfootball competitions in Africa at bothclub and national levels. Managers
\nof soccer in Africa need to embark on animportant retreat to look for ways
\nto raise our football and prevent such hugeembarrassments as we had in the
\npresent World Cup. Given the rising importanceof football in world
\naffairs, there is urgent need for football in Africa tobecome really
\nprofessional and in doing this, there should be deliberateefforts to tap
\ninto the advances made in Europe and America to give ourfootball the
\ncutting edge to live up to global expectations. African soccermanagers
\ntherefore, have an onerous task to declare a soccer emergency whichwould
\nrevolve around how to harness the huge potential abounding all overAfrica
\nto build formidable club and national teams that would stand the test
\noftime among European and South American teams.<\/p>\n

The nextWorld Cup is\u00a0four years from now<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and this is enough time for
\nAfrican soccermanagers to sit down and draw the templates of soccer
\nmanagement that wouldimprove on the present poor level of African football
\nand bring all necessaryfeatures to make it to pursue parity with football
\nin advanced football nationsin Europe and South America. Whatever needs to
\nbe done must be done to preventa repeat of such abysmal outing as Africa
\nhad in the present World Cup and alsohelp Africans secure the confidence
\nof the soccer world to give the continentmore slots in the expansion plan
\nof the World Cup. The time to act is now!<\/p>\n

Peter ClaverOparah.<\/p>\n

Ikeja,Lagos.<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0peterclaver2000@yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The WorldCup, which is the greatest soccer showpiece on earth, is gradually headed tothe conclusive stage as four countries; France, Belgium, Croatia and Englandhave emerged semi-finalists in this year\u2019s edition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Africa\u2019s Dismal Outing At The World Cup. - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/on-africas-dismal-outing-at-the-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Africa\u2019s Dismal Outing At The World Cup. - 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