Saturday, June 14, 2008

Not So Easy....

If you needed more evidence concerning the difficulty of World Cup qualifying, regardless of the opposition, look no further than Africa. Not just a really awesome Toto song (heard earlier this week on the radio in our hotel), Africa has long been one of the most difficult regions for World Cup qualifying. Consider that two-time defending continental champions, Egypt, haven't been to a World Cup Finals since 1990.

There were some surprises in the most recent round of qualifying too. Check out this string of results from yesterday's games over in Africa:

Aforementioned Egypt lost, 1-0, to Malawi, while traditional continent power Morocco lost, 3-1, to Rwanda. Uganda beat previous World Cup participants, Angola, 3-1, while Ivory Coast and Cameroon were held to draws against Botswana and Tanzania respectively.

The full list of results (from FIFA.com):
Malawi 1-0 Egypt
Seychelles 2-3 Burkina Faso
Rwanda 3-1 Morocco
Tanzania 0-0 Cameroon
Kenya 2-0 Zimbabwe
Uganda 3-1 Angola
Namibia 1-2 Guinea
Botswana 1-1 Côte d'Ivoire
Niger 0-2 Benin
Gabon 2-0 Ghana
Chad 2-1 Congo
Sierra Leone 1-0 South Africa
Gambia 1-0 Algeria
Sudan 3-2 Mali

Read more about African qualifying at soccernet.

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