African teams have always been in the center stage when it comes to the world cup.Whether it was their fancy footwork,out of this world goal celebrations or creating shocks by beating the best in the world,they have always created a stir.
In 1982 Algeria one of the powerhouses in African football at that time beat the mighty West Germany in a first round match 2-1,and in the same year the debutants Cameroon drew with the other finalists Italy 1-1.
In 1990 Cameroon was the pride of Africa, when in the first match of the world cup they defeated Argentina the then defending champions with a Francois Omam-Biyik.They then went on to the second round where they defeated South Americans Colombia,with an inspired performance from the great Roger Milla.Cameroon became the first and still is the only african nation to qualify for the world cup quaterfinal.In the quaterfinal Cameroon met a mighty England in one of the best matches of that world cup.Cameroon lost 3-2.
Then in USA '94 Nigeria took over as the African powerhouse in the world cup with their fancy footwork and wonderful goals.They qualified for the second round where they met eventual finalists Italy.In this game Nigeria took the lead through Emmanuel Amunike and were a minute away from a quaterfinal place when Roberto Baggio scored the equaliser in the last minute of the game and then to go on and score the winner in extra-time.Once again the African dreams were shattered. This world cup welcomed the emergence of Nigeria to the world stage,introducing star players such as Daniel Amokachi,Emmanuel Amunike,Rashidi Yekini.It was also an ending for the great Roger Milla,who at 41 created history when he came on against Russia as becoming the oldest player to play and score in a world cup match.By this time African teams had become a noticeable force in world football.Nigeria continued to show their force when they won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.They achieved it by beating Brazil and Argentina in the proccess.
In 1998 the world cup was held in France and the 5 finalists from Africa this year were Nigeria ,Cameroon,Morrocco,Tunisia and South Africa.Once again Nigeria provided the sparks as they surprisingly defeated Spain in the first round and qualified on top of their group.As for the other teams,Morrocco were on the verge of qualifying for the last 16 when they defeated Scotland by 3 goals, but unfortunately a last-minute penalty scored by Norway to beat Brazil in the other game denied them the qualifying place.Cameroon when into the last game of the group stage needing a win against Chile to qualify.The scores were at 1-1 in the second half when Patrick Mboma scored from a header,but the goal was disallowed by the referee for a foul that did'nt seem to happen.As for Tunisia they were denied a chance in the second round by England and Romania who dominated their group.South Africa 's best game was against Saudi Arabia where they drew 2-2.African teams always seem to be the center of everyone's attention.
This year will be no different as in the first game of Korea/Japan 2002 Senegal will take on defending champions France.So what are the chances of this year's African finalists Cameroon,Senegal,Nigeria,Tunisia and South Africa.