African WC Qualifying Standings & Matches

With the World Cup being held in Africa, it will be the per­fect time for Africa’s national teams to show­case their extra­or­di­nary tal­ents. These upcom­ing matches will be the open­ing round of the final stage of African qual­i­fiers and the big ques­tion is: Will there be a repeat of 2006 when 4 African coun­tries made their 1st appear­ance in The Great Tournament?

20 nations will begin their quest on March 28th to join South Africa in The Great Tour­na­ment also at stake is a place in the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola. The Top 3 fin­ish­ers in each group will qual­ify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

The mar­quee matchup is in Group A as Togo host Cameroon.  Togo will be the home side although the match will be played in the Ghan­ian cap­i­tal of Accra.  Togo is serv­ing a home ban so it really is a neu­tral site game.  This game fea­tures an entic­ing matchup of two African Play­ers of the Year. Togo’s Emmanuel Ade­bayor vs. Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o.  Ade­bayor, the 2008 African Player of the Year for Arse­nal will play after recov­er­ing from a thigh injury while 3-time African POY Samuel Eto’o is in dev­as­tat­ing form for Barcelona. Don’t be sur­prised if there are a lot of goals scored in the game, it should be fun to watch.

Two teams to watch are Egypt & Mali.  Egypt are the back to back African cham­pi­ons and have the best club side in Africa in Al-Ahly and yet The Pharoahs have only qual­i­fied twice for the World Cup, last time was Italy 1990.  Egypt has the tal­ent and orga­ni­za­tion to win a shorter tour­ney like the African Cup of Nations but can they sus­tain the excel­lence needed to qual­ify for the World Cup.

Mali have never qual­i­fied for a World Cup, this could be the year they do. There is Malian tal­ent spread all over Europe with names like Real Madrid’s Mahamadou Diarra, Barcelona’s Sey­dou Keita, Sevilla’s Fred­eric Kanoute, and Juven­tus’ Mohammed Sis­soko.  The Eagles are coached by for­mer Niger­ian inter­na­tional Stephen Keshi who led Togo to its 1st WC appear­ance in 2006.  The Malians are hop­ing that their tal­ent & Keshi’s magic can take them to South Africa, how­ever Mali are in a fight being in the same group as heav­ily favored Ghana. 

Here are the groups and their matches — home teams are listed first — team nick­names are in parenthesis:

GROUP A — CAMEROON, GABON, MOROCCO, TOGO
Sat­ur­day, March 28
In Accra, Ghana — Togo (The Spar­row Hawks) vs. Cameroon (Indomitable Lions)
Morocco (Lions of the Atlas) vs. Gabon (Azingo Nationale)

GROUP B — KENYA, MOZAMBIQUE, NIGERIA, TUNISIA
Sat­ur­day, March 28
Kenya (Haram­bee Stars) vs. Tunisia (The Eagles of Carthage)

Sun­day, March 29
Mozam­bique (The Mam­bas) vs. Nige­ria (Super Eagles)

GROUP C — ALGERIA, EGYPT, RWANDA, ZAMBIA
Sat­ur­day, March 28
Rwanda (Amavu­bis) vs. Alge­ria (The Desert Foxes)

Sun­day, March 29
Egypt (The Pharaohs) vs. Zam­bia (Chipolopolo)

GROUP D — BENIN, GHANA, MALI, SUDAN
Sat­ur­day, March 28
Sudan (The Desert Hawks) vs. Mali (The Eagles)

Sun­day, March 29
Ghana (The Black Stars) vs. Benin (The Squir­rels)

GROUP E — BURKINA FASO, COTE D’IVOIRE, GUINEA, MALAWI
Sat­ur­day, March 28
Burk­ina Faso (The Stal­lions) vs. Guinea (Syli Nationale)

Sun­day, March 29
Côte d’Ivoire (Les Éléphants) vs. Malawi (The Flames)

Tagged as: Africa, Qualifiers, World Cup