He was just as cool as Senegal's captain back in 2002. BTW Former players with large European exposure to tactics and some tactical training as a coach is the way to go. Hopefully Finidi, Okocha or Amokachi can take over after Rohr. Win or loss Africa needs to refocus their attention to their local coaching staff.
Thank god Senegal won! Now in pole position to take the group. I'm completely confident they will see the set round. Likely they will be the only African team unless Nigeria reverses course. Then again, can we count France Egypts cup is over and tbh it seems like Salah shouldn't even have been playing. His shoulder wasn't ready.
To counter some stupid rumours making rounds about the World Cup's youngest GK Uzoho being an age cheat: To all you muppets going on about Francis Uzoho’s age, this is what he looked like in 2013 when he was a 14-year-old in the under 17 camp. Feel free to slap some sense into your own heads since looks is now a determinant for age #Team9jaStrong #SoarSuper… https://t.co/f4yU0WSmeK pic.twitter.com/B10YA356ji— Colin NOT Collins 🇳🇬🇺🇸 (@ColinUdoh) June 19, 2018
A lot of people seem to be calling Senegal's win against Poland an upset, but Senegal actually have the more expensive team. It literally seems like Poland were only considered the favourites because they are European.
It's ridiculous to say Senegal/Poland was an upset LOL. Senegal probably entered the game as a legitimate betting favorite
As Morocco's WC draws to a close, I'd say today's match is slmewsom of a revelation. They were essentially dominant against a top European side, but had the same inability to finish we've seen previously. Not sure what other options Morocco has in attack (either at home or playing in other nations systems) but any half reasonable striker would make this team deadly.
I think also that to some extent simply they were a bit unlucky. They do know how to score and have goalscoring midfielders. It just didn't work out.
This is a very good read: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/06/when-cameroon-convinced-themselves-they-couldnt-win One thing I noticed - African teams need that first win to start playing with swagger. Until that happens they often lack faith in themselves.
The Intertops odds made these probabilities: Poland win: 38.5% Draw: 31.5% Senegal win: 30.0% So none of the outcomes were shocking.
Dear god thank you Ahmed Mussa... Tough match up to that point. What a first touch and what a finish!
Now Argentina - Nigeria will be massive. Argentina need to break their duck! BTW If Nigeria make it through its shaping up to be this bracket: France vs Nigeria Brazil vs Germany OMFG. I think Nigeria will take France. Revenge for 2014, when Nigeria were the better team.
North Africa and the World Cup... should have seen the writing on the wall: North Africa 5 games 0 wins 5 losses 3 goals West Africa 3 games 2 wins 1 loss 4 goals
True, but also a tad harsh. Tunisia shouldn't me at the WC (IMHO) and Egypt and Morocco had extenuating circumstances. I'd suggest that Nigeria in current form isn't that much better than Morocco, especially given Morocco's preformance vs Portugal.
I blame CAF having by far the worst system for qualification! This WC proves that CAF needs a new qualification process, something similar to AFC and their qualifiers. Final round with 12 teams, two groups of 6 each and 10 matches that decides who qualifies. No flukes, only the best teams over those 10 matches will represent Africa.
Don't understand why Aliou Cisse insists on starting Khadim Ndiaye in goal. He's 33, plays in Guinea, looks decent enough, but you have a starting GK in Serie A on the bench, as well as a Ligue 1 goalie... For one thing Ndiaye seems to command the area very poorly and two of the goals at least would have been prevented, if Ndiaye had proper communication with his defenders.
North Africa 7 games 0 wins 7 losses 6 goals West Africa 4 games 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss 6 goals CAF should either petition for North Africa and Middle East to make their own Arab Confederation or put all those North African teams in one group to battle it out for one World Cup slot. I dreaded In 2014 only Cameroon dishonored the continent, this time around all the Arab teams have 0 wins, 0 draws, 7 losses (and yes, I accept Morocco actually played good footie). Unacceptable. Save for Algeria 2014 and Morocco 1998 North Africa has been a massive dissapointment for the last 30 years taking the continent down with them. Even Togo and Angola in 2006 put up a better fight than Egypt or Tunisia 2018.
Tunisia had no business in this WC, Egypt seems to have trouble in their camp with NO cohesion whatsoever during their matches and Morocco has been unlucky. Too harsh on North Africa based on one WC. Besides that, CAF isn´t only the 5 teams during the WC. The domestic club competitions is dominated by the North African teams and national teams do well in CAN and CHAN. Tunisia would never qualify for the WC in any other qualification group and the same might have been the fate of Egypt based on their matches in the qualifiers in which they never impressed. I hope this gets CAF to change the qualifiers based on my previous post. Thats is the key solution IMO, and we might have only seen Morocco of the North African teams in this WC if it was used for this WC.
Zahzah the big gap in your logic is Algeria. In recent memory Algeria 2014 was one of the best African sides in the WC and remains perhaps the most talented. Morocco is certainly a competitive team as well and can play with anyone. Egypt and tunisia were pathetic TBH, feel sorry for Salah stuck with the other talent on Egypt. Probably can't wait to get back to Liverpool. Losing to Saudi is downright embarrassing.