A gnawing and suspicious paradox lies at the heart of African national team experiences in world competition: African teams tend to do much better at the youth level than they do at the senior level. Take the fact, for example, that African teams have won 5 of the 12 FIFA U17 World Cups (with the 2009 version scheduled to be hosted by Nigeria in October and November), but not a single African team has ever made it as far as the semi-finals of a full World Cup.

The African nations have been steadily improving over the last decade or so and the World Cup in 2010 represents a good chance for one of the stronger sides to emerge victorious. The Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria are the ‘heavyweights' of African football but Egypt, Tunisia and Senegal also possess some talent and should not be dismissed.

"Who do you support?" For your average American that question, particularly without any context, is almost impossible to make sense of. But as I learned on a tour of Uganda and Kenya with a group of American educators in the summer of 2008, for a surprising number of Africans (particularly the teenage students we met) it is among the first questions a Western visitor will be asked.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Nigeria coach Shaibu Amodu will try to persuade Nedum Onuoha to represent his team at international level.

The Manchester City defender played for the England Under-21 side at this year's European championship but has not yet won a full cap for the senior side.

Onouha has dual nationality and is eligible to represent Nigeria after a Fifa vote in June removed the age limit on changing national teams.

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard is anticipating that January's African Cup of Nations could have a decisive influence in this season's Premier League title race, with the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea losing vital players to the three-week tournament, at a time of year when key points can be collected for the top sides.

Things are heating up in Nigeria as the U-17 World Cup enters the quarter finals stage with games being played on the 8th and 9th of November. Champions Nigeria who are the sole remaining African representatives in the tournament will be looking to retain the title they won in 2007 and add on to the one that their fellow compatriots Ghana won in the u-20 world cup earlier last month.

Its worth remembering that any advantage (or disadvantage) the fixture list gives is minimal. Ultimately, every team has to play every other team twice - I know that's no great insight but it's easily brushed over by Ol' Rednose so he can make a complaint.
Anyhow:
1) Every team is going to experience greater fixture congestion than usual.

South Africa 2010 world cup schedule, as I promised yesterday is here. art of the Five African nations who placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup, was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations (which was later abandoned in October 2007).

This is a bit late, but necessary. Brazil lost the final of the U20, but the result was just a detail (besides the fact that young Brazilian squads always lose to African nations). The real question is: what can we expect of those players in the future?

Possibly, 1 or 2 will be adult World Cup material (in my opinion, one of them will be Giuliano).

After two rounds of Africa's World Cup qualifying matches not many experts would have guessed that the continent's two most successful sides would be propping up their groups. Egypt have won a record six African Nations Cups while Cameroon have been the continent's top side four times and are chasing a sixth World Cup finals appearance.

The Confederation of African Football (or Confédération Africaine de Football as it's known to it's mom) covers the giant continent of Africa and is the federation that follows it's geographical continent the closest. It has the most member nations (55), even more so than UEFA (53), and the only place in Africa omitted is the territory of Western Sahara, on the northern section of the West Coast.

Man Utd's policy of uprooting underage Brazilian talent like Fabio and Rafael Da Silva and going after highly rated Dodo has come for scathing criticism by some, including legend Carlos Alberto who famously accused the Red Devils of "raping" Brazilian football.

The knock on all this poaching is that these players rarely get to play in their own clubs having been brought up the ranks before they are scouted by the big European clubs and enticed by the large sums of money.

The African regions (CAF) is split into five Groups with the winner of each advancing to the FIFA 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. The host country (South Africa) is already qualified and several other African nations are on the verge of earning qualification. On Wednesday, Sepember 9, 2009 there was only match, Cameroon v Gabon in Group Three.

Steven Gerrard believes that Liverpool's title rivals will all endure difficult moments this season.
Rafa Benitez's Reds got off to a slow start this term, losing two of their opening three fixtures.
They have, however, bounced back in style and have won their last three in all competitions.

I may be making a wild statement here, but hear me out. I really in my heart believe that this time next year Argentina will still be basking in the glory of a third world cup triumph!

Sometimes I make myself laugh, but I think they will do better than anyone expects them to. Their dramatic qualification could be just the thing that spurs them on to big things next summer.

The mere fact that the 2010 World Cup is to be staged in Africa for the very first time has added special significance to qualifying for all the African nations. 53 countries were reduced to 20 through two preliminary rounds. From five groups of four, there are five group winners progressing ...

In a week's time we will know a near complete list of the nations who will be competing to lift the World Cup in South Africa. The first legs take place on November 14, with the second legs on the 18th. The African nations qualification process takes a little longer, so I'll be focusing on the Republic of Ireland Vs France, Bosnia-Herz Vs Portugal, Russia Vs Slovenia and Greece Vs Ukraine.

The Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates face-off in the Soweto Derby. It ended 0-0..

Photo credit: ndofaya on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: Green Point Stadium, South Africa Green Point Stadium, one of the 2010 World Cup venues in South Africa, is almost complete.

A stunning strike from Antar Yahia earned Algeria a place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after a bad tempered encounter between the two north African nations.

Figthing erupts early on

Said goes close for Egypt

Yahia almost puts Algeria one up

Algeria go close again

Algerian keeper makes a great save

0-1 Yahia

Ghezzal goes close to making it two nil

Egypt almost equalize

Egypt thwarted again

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

Could it be the headline we all will see in the coming days. There are reports and rumours that Aguero's representatives are in London to meet Chelsea officials in order to seal a deal for the player in a rumoured bid of 37.5m Euros.
Atletico Madrid lost again this weekend in their worse start to a season and this could signal the end of his time with the giants from Madrid.

So the World Cup Draw has been made, and England are in Group C with USA, Algeria and Slovenia. I'm pretty happy with that. I think they will be trickier than some people appear to think, (USA beat Spain afterall, and England only managed to beat Slovenia recently due to a penalty), but I think we will get through the group, most likely as winners.

Algeria:

Rangers defender, Madjid Bougherra claims that Algeria can beat England because the North African nation plays with "heart." (ESPN Soccernet/Dec 14th)

Bougherra has also been named the player of the year in Algeria.

According to the Daily Mail, Zinedene Zidane is set to lend his expertise to Algeria's World Cup cause.

Roger Milla burst onto the big stage at the grand old age of 38 when he scored four never-to-be-forgotten goals for Cameroon at the 1990 FIFA World Cup Finals in Italy. Capturing headlines all over the globe for his impressive displays en route to a memorable quarter-final defeat to Sir Bobby Robson's England, Milla captured the hearts of the public with his spontaneous corner flag dancing routine in celebration of each of his goals.

The securities have been tightened, people has been pouring in from all circles and the atmosphere has started to be nerve wrecking as Egypt will face Algeria at Khartoum, Omdurman. This is going to be highly tense encounter between these two African nations and both are ready to fight it out again after a tense [.

A stunning strike from Antar Yahia earned Algeria a place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after a bad tempered encounter between the two north African nations.

Figthing erupts early on

Said goes close for Egypt

Yahia almost puts Algeria one up

Algeria go close again

Algerian keeper makes a great save

0-1 Yahia

Ghezzal goes close to making it two nil

Egypt almost equalize

Egypt thwarted again

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

It's a rivalry that goes back decades. Some say that it's political, whilst others point at matches from the past that have inflamed sensibilities in a world that seems to consider the art of taking offence to be the next step in the evolutionary chain. Both sides of the divide sees the other as being the absolute opposite without ever seeming to take the similarities between their two nations into account.

The press in the UK have picked up on an interview that was given by Bayern Munich General Manager Uli Hoeness as he stated that Chelsea had made an offer of 65m Euros plus Jose Bosingwa for Franck Ribery. He said:
"We never received an offer over €100 million. The best bid game from Chelsea: €65 million plus the player Bosingwa, We also received other offers of €76 and €80 million.

by TRAVIS CLARK

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- While the draw was going on on the other side of town, the true celebration of the 2010 World Cup could be seen at a wild party on Long Street. Set up as part of FIFA's Fan Fest, nothing could match the excitement of more than 100,000 South Africans packed into the Mother City's bar district.

by TRAVIS CLARK

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- While the draw was going on on the other side of town, the true celebration of the 2010 World Cup could be seen at a wild party on Long Street. Set up as part of FIFA's Fan Fest, nothing could match the excitement of more than 100,000 South Africans packed into the Mother City's bar district.

Much has been written about January's African Cup of Nations' effect on the title race in the Premier League. Quite a few of the teams vying for the title will lose key players during the month long tournament. Chelsea stand to suffer the most, losing Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Solomon Kalou.

From January 10th to the 31st Africa's football loving fans will shift their focus form the European leagues that they ardently follow to catch up with their own stars live in action in the African Cup of Nations. The tournament which will take place in Angola just 6 months shy of the world cup finals in South Africa will be a huge indicator of how the African nations will perform when the kick-off whistle is blown on June the 11th.

Well that was another two points dropped against Birmingham on Saturday. I thought that on our overall play we deserved to win the game if it wasn't for the outstanding display of goalkeeping by Joe Hart. Joe had the game of his life and made some great saves, but we should of taken our chances once again.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.
So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City.