African teams bie to complete W.Cup line-up

Cameroon, Tunisia, Algeria and Ivory Coast are looking good to join Ghana and hosts South Africa and complete the African line-up at the 2010 World Cup.

Ghana become the first African team to secure a place at the first World Cup to be staged on the ‘Dark Continent’ with a 2-0 triumph win over Sudan in Accra at the weekend courtesy of goals from Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien.

Cameroon, Algeria and Ivory Coast also took maximum points during the fourth series of games in the final qualifying round while Tunisia hit back twice to force a 2-2 draw with Nigeria.

The impact of recently hired French coach Paul le Guen on Cameroon has been immediate and if the ‘Indomitable Lions’ defeat Gabon for the second time in five days Wednesday they will become Group A leaders.

Not bad for a team that fell in Togo, lost German coach Otto Pfister and managed only a goalless home draw with Morocco under caretaker Thomas N’knono before Le Guen answered a distress signal.

This mini-league is the tighest of the five with three points separating pacesetters Gabon from bottom team Morocco and if Cameroon can win their two remaining home fixtures it could be sufficient.

After tackling Gabon, the ‘Lions’ host Togo on October 10 before visting Morocco the following month as they seek a record sixth World Cup appearance by an African country.

Le Guen, winner of three consecutive French titles with Lyon this decade, gambled by dropping long-serving defender Rigobert Song and passing the captaincy to star striker Samuel Eto’o.

The results speak for themselves with a 2-0 friendly win in Austria followed by another two-goal triumph last Saturday in Libreville via goals from Achille Emana and three-time African Footballer of the Year Eto’o.

Tunisia can clinch Group B honours if they beat Kenya at home and Mozambique away, an achievement that will be hard for Nigerians to accept after their shock failure to reach the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Nigeria have the same opponents with a visit from Mozambique followed by a journey to Kenya and if there is a glimmer of hope it would be that a fixture in Nairobi is probably easier than one in Maputo.

Banker may be a dangerous word to use in the unpredictable world of football, but it surely applies to Ivory Coast, who need one point from encounters with Malawi (away) and Guinea (home) to top Group E.

The Ivorian ‘Elephants’ share with Ghana a 100 percent record after four rounds and having routed Malawi 5-0 in Abidjan last March, there is no reason to doubt that they can take at least one point from Blantyre next month.

It looks like African champions Egypt will have to defeat Zambia (away) and Group C leaders Algeria (home) to have any hope of reaching South Africa as they trail their fierce North African rivals by three points.

This race may not even go to Cairo in mid-November because it seems far more likely that Algeria will defeat visiting Rwanda next month than Egypt will achieve a similar result in Zambia.

The five group winners qualify for the World Cup between June 11 and July 11 while the top three finishers in each mini-league go the African Nations Cup in Angola five months earlier.