ACTUALITE |
30.07.2001
Preparation is the key
National rivalries are over as the World Cup qualifying campaign has ended.
Africa will surely now unite behind the five representatives off to the finals in Japan and South Korea next year.
The next 10 months are vital as Africa`s five representatives begin to ready themselves to take on the world from May 31 next year.
Preparation is key and already the warning lights are flashing.
In my opinion, only Cameroon and Nigeria really have the capacity to achieve new heights for African football at the World Cup finals and better the Indomitable Lions` record of a quarter-final place at the 1990 finals in Italy.
But, ironically, these are the two countries who look the most disorganised.
Cameroon, the reigning African champions, are without a coach and leadership needs to be installed quickly in order to put together a decent warm-up campaign.
Grave warning
Cameroon will have already tasted the difficult climes of Japan at the Confederations Cup.
Their poor results at the tournament in May speak for themselves.
It`s an indication of how difficult the Africans are likely to find adapting to an alien culture so far from home.
Cameroon were in a similar situation before France `98 and only appointed Claude Le Roy a couple of months before the finals.
That didn`t give him adequate time to really do their talent justice.
Cameroon, albeit somewhat controversially, did not make it past the first round, which was a serious blow to African esteem.
Nigeria, in fact, were the only one of the five African representatives at the last World Cup finals to progress past the opening round, but then were embarrassed by Denmark in the second round at the Stade de France.
They had appointed Bora Milutinovic as coach just five months before the finals started and the new coach spent the pre-World Cup period trying to assess his players rather than building a team.
Best teams - worst planning
Nigeria had some awful warm-up too - including practice games where they were thrashed 5-1 by the Netherlands and 3-0 by Yugoslavia.
They now find themselves in a similar situation to Cameroon.
Amodu Shaibu has been the coach who has seen them through the finals stages of the qualifying campaign, which ended with the 3-0 win over Ghana.
But whether he stays on is uncertain.
Nigerian football bosses have a tendency to look for a big-name, glamour coach for events like the World Cup finals.
But if they are to make the change it needs to be done now, to give the new incumbent time to prepare his side.
The longer they leave a possible coaching change, the more disorganised Nigeria`s preparations will be.
And, preparation for the World Cup is going to be vital, not only because it is the first World Cup finals in Asia but also because all the leading contenders are going to be perfectly honed.
Africa needs to be as slickly professional and as organised as the top nations of Europe and South America in order to compete on an equal footing and gives themselves a respectable chance of competing for the cup.
Whether that will happen, though, will be made evident in the coming months.
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