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In spite of the poor performance of African teams at the 2010 World Cup, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke confirmed that there are no plans to reduce the allocated spots to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). In the first finals on African soil, there were an unprecedented six African sides in the tournament. South Africa (hosts), Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast were the CAF representatives. Only Ghana managed to make it past the group stage. This was the case at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. While the performances of the African teams were poor, the African confederation should retain its five places in the 32-nation finals.

Confederation size

CAF has 54 confederations, which is more than CONCACAF and Asia each have. That only five teams out of this confederation qualify shows how difficult it is to reach the World Cup Finals from this confederation. Size is one consideration that FIFA makes when allocating qualification spots, suggesting that reducing the allocation below 5 would be unfair.

Qualification process

Every confederation has a format for qualifying. If FIFA were to reduce CAF’s allocation, the CAF would have to restructure the format, especially if a playoff place is involved. The CAF should be focusing on how to develop African football, not tweaking the qualification format.

Players

Africa is the homeland to players like Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Obafemi Martins. The stars of Africa play at the top clubs in Europe. The World Cup is also about seeing the best players in the world and fewer places for Africa could mean missing some of the world’s best players.

In addition, one must consider that while only Ghana advanced, other African teams performed well in the 2010 tournament. Cameroon lost all their matches, but their games were very entertaining – particularly the game against Denmark. They lost by one-goal margins and were never outplayed. Ivory Coast got four points, but failed because they lost to Brazil and did not put seven goals past North Korea like Portugal did. Nigeria came within two points of advancing and was never outplayed in their group. Algeria – the weakest African team at the 2010 tournament – held England to a draw.

What the 2010 World Cup demonstrated was not that Africa should have fewer teams in the tournament, but that they should not have more than five teams. If the World Cup were not in South Africa, South Africa and Algeria might not even have appeared in the tournament. I hope that we would not see six African teams in the World Cup again, but just the five that they already have. Even European teams floundered in South Africa, while CONCACAF and Asia made good strides. In fact, the performance of the teams from CONCACAF and Asia directly affected the African qualifiers, since Mexico, USA, Japan and South Korea advanced at the expense of African teams.

FIFA is correct in not reducing the number of CAF qualifiers. However, I trust that they would not dream about increasing it anytime soon.

The Ghana national team Saturday evening wrestled their way into the quarter finals stage of the 2010 FIFA world cup by beating USA 2-1 in a keenly contested match. It was a repeat of their victory over the Yankees in Germany 2006.

USA’s Dempsey was the first to threaten the Ghanaian goal keeper in the 5th minute, but his shot was caught by the keeper. There was a counter offensive immediately by the Black stars, which led to Prince Boateng doing a solo from his own half of the field, and he finally unleashed a grounder with his left foot to produce the first goal of the match.

Ricardo Clark got the first yellow card of the game in the 7th minute for his rough tackles. In the 12th minute, Prince Boateng ballooned the ball over the bar. The second yellow card for USA was given to Cherundolo Steve for bringing down Andre Ayew in the 17th minute.

Ghana had a corner kick in the 26th minute but it went straight to the goal keeper. Asamoah K. was brought down in the USA’s 18 yard box for what looked like a penalty, but the centre referee waved ‘play on’. USA got a corner kick in the 43rd minute but nothing came out of it. At the end of the first half, the Black Stars were leading by a 1-0.

In the 58th minute, Asamoah Gyan failed to score with Andre Ayew’s corner, which got wasted. The Yankees mounted pressure on the Ghanaian defense. In the 61st minute, Jonathan Mensah brought down Dempsey and was issued a yellow card by the centre referee; a penalty was awarded in favour of USA. The penalty which was neatly taken by Donovan, sent the Black Stars’ goal keeper the wrong way for an equalizer.

In the 72nd minute, Hans Sarpei was replaced by Addy; and in the 74th minute, Asamoah Gyan’s header narrowly missed the post and sailed freely across the goal line for a goal kick to the Americans. In the 76th minute, Donovan kicked Prince Boateng on the right thigh, which eventually led to his substitution. Andre Ayew got a yellow card at the dot of 90 minutes. With scores at 1-1 at full time, the match had to go into extra time.

The Africans came back more purposeful in the extra time and played like people who were really hungry for victory. Asamoah Gyan eventually stole the show in the 3rd minute of extra time; as he struggled in between two defenders, he managed to maintain his balance and was able to strike hard at the ball with his left foot for his team’s winning goal.

In the 6th minute of the extra time, Dempsey’s shot was deflected for a corner kick. Ghana also got more corner kicks in the 9th and 22nd minutes respectively, while USA got one in the 24th minute of the extra time.

Donovan’s free kick was punched out by Ghanaian goalie in the 19th minute of the extra time, while Gomez’s shot went wide in the 29th minute. Ball possession was 50% – 50%. The Black stars had about 6 corner kicks while the Yankees had about 4. Ghana is the only African team to reach the quarter finals stage this year. Uruguay became the first team to reach the quarter finals stage after beating South Korea 2-1.

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The Germany versus England fixture at the 2010 FIFA World Cup had everything you could ask for in a match between perennial rivals. There were goals, attacking plays and even controversy to add fire to the result. Germany outplayed England for the majority of the match, but England were ruing what might have been.

The Three Lions should have entered halftime with the game tied at 2-2. Instead, they were denied a clear goal after the match officials failed to spot that the ball bounced behind the goal line before the German goalkeeper put it back in play. Germany was the superior team on the day, but the score line should not have been 4-1, if only because England had scored a second goal.

Germany had the first chance of the match at Free State Stadium when Mesut Ozil forced David James into a desperate save. The Germans had the kind of start that had Franz Beckenbauer smiling in the stands. Their dominance translated into a goal in the 20th minute. The German goalkeeper hit a long ball over the midfield and into the path of Klose. Germany’s top-scorer at World Cup finals shrugged off the challenge of Matthew Upson and poked his shot past the advancing David James.

In the 30th minute, David James saved another shot from Miroslav Klose. However, Lucas Podolski increased the lead just two minutes later, shooting past David James from an angle. The Germans were all over England in that period. Things changed when England clawed a goal back against the run of play. Matthew Upson’s head connected beautifully with Steven Gerrard’s cross to give England hope.

In the 38th minute, the pivotal moment occurred. Frank Lampard drove a shot past Manuel Neuer. The shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced several inches behind the goal line before Neuer put it back in play. The officials did not detect the goal and England was denied an equalizer that would have taken them into halftime all-squared at 2-2. Instead, England went into halftime 2-1 down, with a chorus of boos, presumably for the South American match officials.

Germany aimed to continue their dominance in the second half of the game. Frank Lampard tried his best to thwart that, but his 52nd minute blast hit the crossbar. Both defences looked shaky, but England’s conceded first in the second half. On an excellent counter-attack in the 67th minute, Schweinsteiger threaded the ball through to Thomas Muller, who beat James on his near post. Muller notched his second of the night, and Germany’s fourth, when another counter-attack gave Mesut Ozil the time and space to centre the ball for him to place past James.

Not since the 1954 World Cup did England concede four goals in a World Cup match. England lost 4-1 and their coach, Fabio Capello, bemoaned the denied equalizer in the 38th minute. Whether that would have helped England to the quarterfinals is the subject of gratuitous speculation. The way England played, they probably did not deserve to advance.