CAF World Cup 2010 Qualifying: Get Ready for the Hurt

March 27th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

Obviously every team wants to go to the World Cup. Every time. But if you’re an African team then you definitely want to get to the first World Cup held on Africa soil, more than any other World Cup that’s gone before. Imagine missing out on South Africa 2010? That’s going to hurt.

The bad news is that for fifteen of the twenty teams left in CAF qualifying, hurt is on the way. The final phase of qualifying begins this weekend. Five groups of four and only the winners of each group go to the big show.

Here are the groups, and the opening round of games:

Group A
Togo
Cameroon
Morocco
Gabon

Togo vs Cameroon (Accra, March 28th, 16:00)
Morocco vs Gabon (Casablanca, March 29th, 20:00)

Group B
Mozambique
Nigeria
Kenya
Tunisia

Kenya vs Tunisia (Nairobi, March 28th, 16:00)
Mozambique vs Nigeria (Maputo, March 28th, 15:00)

Group C
Rwanda
Algeria
Egypt
Zambia

Rwanda vs Algeria (Kigali, March 28th, 15:30)
Egypt vs Zambia (Cairo, March 29th, 19:30)

Group D
Ghana
Benin
Sudan
Mali

Sudan vs Mali (Omdurman, March 28th, 20:00)
Ghana vs Benin (Kumasi, March 29th, 17:00)

Group E
Côte d’Ivoire
Malawi
Burkina Faso
Guinea

Burkina Faso vs Guinea (Ouagadougou, March 28th, 18:00)
Côte d’Ivoire vs Malawi (Abidjan, March 29th, 17:00)

Source: FIFA.com

Want to know how serious these games are? Emmanuel Adebayor is in the Togo squad to play Cameroon, despite not actually being fit enough to play.

With so much at stake, and many of these groups a lot tighter than they appear (eg you might look at Group D and think “Ghana, easy”, but Mali’s Kanoute, Diarra and Keita would beg to differ) we should see some absolutely classic games in this round of CAF World Cup qualification.

The top three from each group also qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, so everyone will have something to play for, right until the final ball is kicked. Whoever eventually makes it to South Africa, these games will be worth watching.

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sscouser

Malawi to teach Ivory Coast the “Egypt Lesson”
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/malawi-to-teach-ivory-coast-the-%e2%80%9cegypt-lesson%e2%80%9d.html
Helge

I think Africa deserves more spots in the World Cup. It’s hard to know that either Togo, Cameroon or Morocco; Mali or Ghana; Nigeria or Tunisia, will definitely fail. 2nd placed should get another chance…
Jose

African qualification is the roughest, toughest in the world, and don’t let anyone tell you different!
Weston

I agree, they should get more spots, especially that they are hosting it. I’d like to see Mali through mostly b/c I like sissoko.
http://worldcupqualifyig2010 nyongo federick

cameroon national team, cameroon my home country team try try try your best lion the time has come for us to prove to the world that the mistake we made in 2006 will not repeat it self again. i wish you good luck.
cameroon vs togo score will be 3 for cameroon 1 for togo.
Tayong Tita

I want to say that the coach of Cameroon national teams does not know how the players are position in the field and he does not know when to put some kind of players in the field to play. How can Togo a small team win my country that is not correct. If Cameroon do not go for world cup you guys should know it is because of the coach. Thanks its being Tayong Tita