Pure ignorance doesn't require nuance.
Check this thread. I've posted detailed replies to different questions. If you ignore all of that and come in here with some stereotype nonsense, well.
African teams at World cup | Gone
- Thread starter FootballHQ
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Check this thread. I've posted detailed replies to different questions. If you ignore all of that and come in here with some stereotype nonsense, well.
I disagree on SK getting there thanks to Blatter, but anyways. So basically, you think it's just a case of coincidence and nothing else? I'm not dismissing it, it's entirely possible. But when something keeps repeating, people will look for correlations or reasons other than luck. It's not out of place.
If you’re going to include Son, you have to include Kagawa
I don't know if you only want to talk about African players playing at the World Cup, but I think there are some great/good players you didn't mention
Salif Sane - third best CB in Bundesliga last season behind Naldo and Pavard, just signed for Schalke, BVB wanted him
Victor Moses - regular at Chelsea title winning side, probably not a very good player but it's not like there are a dozens of world class RBs out there
Riyad Mahrez - POTY in PL, wanted by City
Wilfried Zaha - maybe not fit for Barcelona, but good enough for Arsenal, Spurs etc.
Aubameyang - great goalscorer in Bundesliga and PL
Naby Keita - good enough for every midfield in the world besides Real Madrid and City
Eric Bailly - big talent, injury problems, a bit rash
Jean Michael Seri - wanted by many top sides last summer
Plus some talents like Armine Harit (Rookie of the year in Bundesliga) and Amadou Haidara (very good with Salzburg in EL) who have it in them to step up to a bigger club rather sooner than later.
I think the problem is that talent is spread out over many different sides and not like South America where there are just 10 nations or something. Imagine a best of Africa XI
GK
Moses Koulibaly Benatia Bailly
Sane Keita
Salah Mahrez Mane
Aubameyang
Better than any side in the PL bar City despite me not thinking hard enough to find a GK or LB
Go watch how SK beat Italy and especially Spain...
No, it's not coincidence, it was rampant corruption. As for African teams, there is this tendency to group them all together, as if all african teams are the same. The fact of the matter is 3 different african teams have made it to a WC QF and where very competitive. Africa put at least one team in the R16 from 1986 to 2014. Most of the time, they went out against better teams
Yes i'm only talking about the ones playing at this WC. I forgot Moses. Sane i know is coming off a good season, same as Harit. But would they be playing meaningful minutes for Bayern Munich right now?
Sane certainly would based on performances. More reliable than Hummels and Boateng and higher peak (not higher potential) than Sule. Sule played the most games out of Bayern's CBs last season btw.
Harit would not play because there is James in his position who is Bayern's best player. And also Muller is blocking the path, still a favorite of the big bosses. You could look at Gnabry or Coman, those two will play many games next season as the successors to Ribery and Robben and I don't think they are much more talented than Harit (Coman maybe a tad). Yeah he is not good enough to start for Bayern Munich, but I think he could be in a few years.
Morocco were never getting out of a group with Spain and Portugal. Nigeria also had a massive task of getting past Argentina and an extremely underrated Croatia team. Tunisia were in a group with England and Belgium, so again who would expect them to get out of that group realistically? Egypt might have had a chance, but their star player wasn't able to perform to anything like his best due to injury. If they had managed to get something from the first game, against the toughest team in the group, who knows what they could have achieved. Senegal also could have got out of their group with a bit more "luck" or if things had fallen their way.
Africa is like Europe in that their qualification setup means that a good few decent teams always miss out, so one benefit of the larger tournament will be more of the good African sides will come to the World cup which means potentially some will get easier draws and we'll see some of them progress a bit into the tournament.
Africa is like Europe in that their qualification setup means that a good few decent teams always miss out, so one benefit of the larger tournament will be more of the good African sides will come to the World cup which means potentially some will get easier draws and we'll see some of them progress a bit into the tournament.
The African teams would need to actually be good and competitive to go far and currently they are not.
It didn't need to be said
Has anyone seen this 
? FFS talk about being casual
? FFS talk about being casualI am a bit biased. I want more Concacaf places so Jamaican and USA can qualify, but that's it!
USA doesn't need that, that Trinidad game killed them
Increasing exposure to the WC stage will only help African teams.
Don't agree with my post, fine I can take that and I am happy to hear what you have to say but the aggresive response is completley unjust.
Tell me where I am wrong. Senegal and Nigeria couldn't see games out that they should have (Senegal vs Japan & Nigeria vs Argentina) because of poor decision making and lack of concentration. Can't say it was down to the quality of the opposition - it seems a popular opinion here Senegal are stronger than the Japnese team they missed out too and Nigeria should have gotten past this Argentina side, especially in that game.
The overall decision making is terrible and so often you see a player shooting for the stars and not moving the ball to a player in a better position or trying to skip past players and just giving the ball up. The difference between African teams and European teams is the whole team do this throughout the African nations whereas the Europeans usually have 1 maybe 2 who try to hard to do things alone, but have other players around who can make things happen when it doesn't pull off.
Previously, African nations boasted some quality midfielders who were playing at the top clubs and could make things happen (Y. Toure, KP Boateng, Muntari and Essien all stand out) but who from the African nations in the world cup or otherwise provide what they did? (Toure is now well past it)
There are a few top players, who play with their heads up and can make things happen Mané and Salah showed that for Liverpool this season. Mane didn't have a bad tournament and Salah was effected by his injury but the lack of quality outside of them showed in their teams. When Salah wasn't there for Egypt who provided any sort of playmaking ability?
Musa was probably the best showing of the African nations and was entertaining to watch but was left alone to try and drag Nigeria through.
Why do you think that? The three times African countries made it to the qtr finals it was countries from south of the Sahara
When I say this is not related with past achievements, I just think North African teams are less prone to basic mistakes and are more concentrated, they have a better competitive mentality, if that expression exists.
Egypt despite their 7 Africa cup wins have always been a disappointment at the world cup. They are the strongest and most successful Northern African country but this is only their first WC appearance since 1990. You have to be talking about a specific North African country or specific countries based on their current squad and where you think they're heading in the future to generally say you trust them to be 'more reliable' than other African countries that have outdone them at the world cup several times over including very recently. I don't think you can easily dismiss past achievements, they are a large indicator. What will make North African countries more reliable all of a sudden? I don't get the whole better competitive mentality bit maybe you can elaborate on that as well.
Well, I am not dismissing potential or individual quality from players outside North Africa, I was maybe unfair because if we take into account Egypt or Tunisia I don't see in the future ability to do much more than they have done.
I was thinking more on Algeria or Morocco regarding the future, but its a big question if they have the ability to hire good technical staff and keep them, like the situation Morocco has with Hervé Renard.
Maybe you don't agree with me but its just a personal opinion.
Herve Renard is an excellent manager at this level but I don't see him remaining at one place for long. The man loves to travel. Algeria are one of Africa's most notorious yoyo countries, they had their golden era in the 1980s and have failed to even qualify to several Africa cups. Many thought they'd go to better things after 2014 but it was another false dawn. They finished rock bottom of their WC qualifying group with an aging team and the Algerian public's confidence in them is at an all time low. There are patterns here. Tunisia are struggling to produce players at the same rate they used to as well.
Their golden age was in the late 60s to late 70s culminating in their maiden appearance at the WC in 78. They are another yoyo team who do something of significance every 20 or so years. Morocco are probably the second best North African country and they'll do well to hold on to Renard if they can. they also had their golden age in the late 70s and have been woeful at the Africa cup for ages. Their qualification to the world cup at the expense of Ivory coast came as a surprise but they had Renard. The other North African countries, Western Sahara, Libya, Sudan are nothing to talk about. There's a clear precedent with North African teams at big tournaments and there's a clear one as well with Sub Saharan countries. Both sets of countries are capable of better things IMO but Sub Saharan Africa, West African countries to be specific have set a bar for WC performances that the rest haven't met.
Not sure why Africa is always a discussion for the world cup. Seems like the world wants Africa to do well and.... they never do. I listened to the commentators after Nigeria flamed out and all they could talk about is what a bright future they had going for them. Ehh..