Okocha tips Africa to shine

Besides the natural tipping of his home team, Okocha, who is now one of the technical advisors for the Nigerian national team, said that the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana would do well in the tournament, to be played in South Africa in June and July.

“All African representatives have what it takes to shine at this tournament. Even the hosts cannot be ruled out because they will be playing at home and this will give them all the encouragement to progress in the cup,” said the former midfield supremo and dead ball specialist with the Super Eagles. “African teams have not played badly in past competitions, but this year will see even better performances because most of the people who will be making noise on the terraces will be Africans cheering their African boys.”

Okocha, who played in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cup tournaments, said the best recipe for success by African teams would be for the players to focus more on what they want to achieve in the tournament than who they will come up against.

“Every team that is here beat strong opposition to win their place and that means every opponent is very strong, regardless of who they are and who they have in their squad, so players should just focus on their own performances to progress.”

The best that Africa has done in the World Cup was when Cameroon and Senegal reached the quarter finals in 1990 and 2002, respectively, but the continent’s six representatives in this years tournament will be hoping to surpass that and possibly win the competition.

The tournament, which kicks off at Soccer City Stadium on June 11 with a Group A match between hosts South Africa and Mexico, while the final will be played a month later, on July 11 at the same venue. This year, Africa will be represented by hosts South Africa , regular campaigners Nigeria and Cameroon , the Ivory Coast , Ghana and Algeria and the tournament has already been dubbed an “African World Cup”.