Aliou Goloko
13 June 2008
Many of the continent’s national soccer teams have no room for error as they enter this weekend’s round of combined qualifiers for the 2010 Cup of Nations and World Cup tournaments.
After the matches of the two last weekends, a win is a must for some countries if they are not to miss the second phase of the qualifiers. With the prize a place in the first World Cup finals to be held in Africa, all the competing teams will give this weekend’s matches their best shot.
Rwanda will compete against Morocco to lead their group, since both countries won their first two matches. South Africa faces Sierra Leone, who will fortunately get back their best player, Mohamed Kallon, who was suspended.
Senegal heads to Samuel Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia, a stadium that had its seating capacity reduced by Fifa after a stampede claimed the lives of supporters during a recent match against Gambia.
And in Nouakchott, the question is whether Mauritania – playing a home match against Ethiopia – will recover after the sacking of coach Alain Moizan?
Nigeria, without John Obi Mikel, will try to reach a total of nine points overall when they play in Malabo, where Equatorial Guinea, playing at home, is determined to stand up to the Super Eagles.
Guinea’s Frederic Kanouté and teammates will clash against Sudan in Omdurman, while their Ivorian neighbors will fight hard in the absence of their best players to bring a positive result from Gaborone, where they play Botswana.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
