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WCQ - Africa [R]


canadiankick97

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Unfortunately, we're gonna pay for all these upsets next summer. Instead of seeing mouth-watering matchups involving Brasil, Argentina and top-seeded European nations against the likes of Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon, we'll see Togo/Angola get beat like a drum. [B)]

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Geez, sounds almost as dangerous as being a kicker in Regina!:)

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Cameroon's Wome feared for his life after miss

MILAN, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Pierre Wome, whose missed penalty cost Cameroon a place in the World Cup finals, says he could have been killed by fans after Saturday's match and that his family is now living under police protection.

Wome, who plays for Inter Milan, struck an injury-time penalty against the post in the qualifier against Egypt, leaving the game to finish 1-1 which allowed Ivory Coast to qualify for the finals ahead of Cameroon.

"It could have ended very badly indeed," Wome told the Italian news agency ANSA after returning to Inter's training camp on Tuesday. "They wanted to and could have killed me.

"Even though I am a tough lad and I have never been afraid of death, my concern was about the safety of my relatives," added Wome, who joined Inter from Bologna this season after playing in England for Fulham and in Spain for Espanyol earlier in his career.

Wome said that some fans had mistakenly attacked vehicles they thought belonged to him and that his family in Cameroon were now being protected by police.

The defender disputed Cameroon captain Samuel Eto'o's version of Saturday's events in which the Barcelona forward said he had not taken the penalty because Wome wanted to convert it.

"I'm very angry with Eto'o because what he said isn't true," he said. "We did not talk on the pitch but I took into account that he and the captain didn't feel up to it so I went to take it myself given that I was on the list of penalty takers.

"No one wanted to take that penalty. No-one. Neither Eto'o nor our captain, because they knew what could have happened if they missed. I have always had the courage and I went to the spot."

PROPERTY DAMAGED

Wome said that Cameroon had a list of three players who were designated penalty takers -- himself, Eto'o and Chelsea midfielder Geremi who was suspended for Saturday's match.

"I knew it would be tough if I had missed. Apart from my own personal regret, I think about what happened in the whole of Cameroon. I also think of my relatives who live there.

"I thought about them a lot and before going back to the dressing room at the end of the match I asked the police how they were. They told me they would take care of my family's security.

"The fans have caused some damage to property but the most important thing is that my family is okay."

The left back said that he would consider continuing his career with the national team.

"I'll think about it. For now I'm just going to concentrate on where I am now. All the rest isn't important because I have seen many other

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Guest Jeffery S.

Reports I heard here were that Wome's brother was recognized, dragged out of his car and beaten up. But as that report was from a day ago and this makes no note of it, I am not sure now it was true.

I heard Songo'o the former Cameroon keeper (and father of the youngster already starting for Portsmouth in EPL) on the radio and he seemed to indicate that the nation would get over it quickly, they were glad to have gone so many times and they would get back again to another -though the next one it seems there will be even less spots for Africa the next time round, with SA already qualified as host.

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from BBC site:

Football evolution

By Piers Edwards

Football fans around the globe are going to have to get used to a new breed of zoological nicknames at next year's World Cup finals in Germany.

The power shift in African football, which has seen Togo, Angola, Ivory Coast and Angola reach their first finals, means some familiar monikers are going to be absent.

And given the way most African football teams are lovingly known, a different variety of animals will be forcing their way into supporters' brains.

The continent has been represented at previous World Cups by a variety of eagles, foxes and lions, but the latter will be absent for the first time since 1978 in Germany.

Lions no longer Indomitable

Cameroon's Indomitable Lions first qualified in 1982, Morocco's Atlas Lions were one of two nations representing the pride of Africa four years later and until Saturday, the Cameroonians had been at every World Cup since 1990.

Yet all Lions are now caged and absent, whether they hail from Cameroon, Morocco, 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists Senegal (the Teranga Lions) or even DR Congo's Simbas (with simba meaning lion in Swahili), who qualified for the 1974 finals as Zaire.

Instead, the roaring cats have been replaced by elephants, hawks and black-faced impalas.

Ivory Coast's Elephants trampled over Cameroon in Group Three and are now, with the pun too good to miss, packing their trunks for Germany.

Togo are called the Hawks

Togo's nickname is 'Les Eperviers', which translates as sparrowhawks.

Sparrowhawks are actually small hawks, but coach Stephen Keshi's high-flying side are more commonly known as the Hawks.

Group Four winners Angola are nicknamed the 'Palancas Negras', which translates as black-faced impalas, and while these can only leap a few feet off the ground, the team has reached the dizzying heights of World Cup qualification.

Although lions may be absent from Germany, eagles will be appearing at the World Cup for the fourth time in succession despite Nigeria's absense.

The Super Eagles were shot down by their casual attitude to Group Four, but in Group Five Tunisia diligently fulfilled their role as African champions and the Carthage Eagles booked their third consecutive finals appearance.

Where Africa has previously provided Pharaohs (Egypt), Desert Foxes (Algeria) and South Africa's Bafana Bafana (which is Zulu for the boys), this time around Ghana are introducing the Black Stars.

Yet this nickname has less to do with inspirational captain Stephen Appiah and Africa's most expensive footballer ever, Michael Essien, than the fact that the Ghanaian flag has a black star in its centre.

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more from BBC site:

Words of warning

By Farayi Mungazi

(Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo poses with the Elephants)

They say that failure is an orphan but success has many parents.

In the coming months, Ghana, Togo, Angola and the Ivory Coast will all discover just why the World Cup is a magnet for glory hunters.

Indeed, the scourge of the Johnny-come-latelies is one of the greatest challenges facing Africa's four World Cup debutants.

People with a hitherto unknown passion for football, especially politicians, will come out of the woodworks pledging to help their respective teams do well in Germany next year.

Four nations into first World Cup

The four newcomers will also have to deal with many former players and coaches who, prior to World Cup qualification, had all but turned their backs on anything that reminded them of football.

Companies and business tycoons who once vowed never to touch football with a bargepole are going to experience Damascus-style conversions and declare their 'commitment to the national sport'.

This is by no means a uniquely African phenomenon but it is more pronounced in a continent where football continues to play a major role in helping to boost the popularity of politicians and their cronies.

There are few things in Africa that can provide the same kind of visibility as football, particularly when the national team is competing on a stage as big as the World Cup finals.

In the Ivory Coast, President Laurent Gbagbo presented each of the victorious Elephants squad with a house worth some US$52,000 and the Knight of the National Order, one of the country's most prestigious awards.

Togo get World Cup holiday

Meanwhile, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe declared a national holiday for Monday 10 October in honour of the Hawks' World Cup success twenty-four hours after their qualification.

In giving his people a day off, President Gnassingbe was continuing a long and not always honourable tradition, but I'm sure it was an act that won him many new supporters.

But it is precisely this sort of thing that could open the door for politicians with dubious football credentials and their hangers-on to hijack the achievements of the Hawks for their own ends.

Cameroon and Nigeria have found - to their considerable cost both on and off the pitch - that qualifying for the World Cup can easily turn from a blessing into a curse of biblical proportions.

When 'long-standing' football fans nobody knew about suddenly fall from the sky, they invariably offer something that would appear to be of benefit to the team as it prepares to take on the world.

It could be a cash injection, a sponsorship deal or they may call into question the team's training facilities and bonuses.

There are some who will go one step further and offer to pay for a better coach than the one who qualified the team!

True to form, they pledge to do something about all these things in return for, yes, you guessed it - a seat or two on the World Cup plane!

The bottom line is that these people see football as a way of gaining the respect they find hard to come by in other spheres of life.

Let us hope that someone will have the guts to show them a straight red card when they try and jump on to the World Cup bandwagon.

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