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African Cup of Nations 2010: Ivory Coast Team Guide

One of the strongest candidates for overall honours at the 2010 African Cup of Nations, the Ivory Coast will be keen to add to their one sole victory back in 1992 at this tournament. Able to call up some of the most evocative names of African football such as Drogba, Kalou and Toure they may be the side to beat in Angola.

As strong as the Ivory Coast have been in recent seasons, their relatively poor record at the African Cup of Nations remains something of a puzzle. In 17 appearances at the tournament since 1965, the Ivory Coast can boast just one win dating to 1992 when a side made up largely of locally based players took the spoils.

Thanks to the efforts of various academies since, development in the game increased massively and yielded a rich seam of talent, many of whom leave their homeland without even making their debut for the like of ASEC Mimosas or Africa Sports.

These days the current senior squad is made up of players plying their trade at the like of Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City and current coach Vahid Halilhodzic has more of a headache deciding who to leave out rather than who to select for the starting XI.

Nevertheless the Elephants recent record at the African Championships leaves much to be desired and even includes a failure to qualify back in 2004 and two premature eliminations at the group stage in the last five attempts. Nevertheless the 2006 tournament gave a glimpse of their potential when they made it to the final, only to lose to hosts Egypt after a tense penalty shoot-out.

Two years in 2008 ago it was Egypt again who ended the Ivory Coast’s hopes of adding to their 1992 triumph. After blasting their way out of the group stage scoring eight goals and then putting five past Guinea in the quarter finals, they ran out of steam in the semi-finals crashing out to the eventual winners after a 4-1 reverse.

Highest ebb

The good goal scoring form that the Ivory Coast enjoyed in the early stages of the 2008 tournament indicated that the Elephants are finally fully harnessing the obvious goal scoring potential contained within the squad. Qualification for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa proceeded in the same vein with Didier Drogba bagging six goals in the second half of qualifying, becoming the top scorer for that section.

However, the first stage of World Cup qualification seemed to suggest the Ivory Coast might be playing slightly within themselves. They cruised through with three home wins and three away draws, but didn’t really come alive until the second half of the qualifying process. Whilst the four other teams (Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon and Ghana) who will be representing Africa at the World Cup next summer, all managed nine goals, the Ivory Coast nearly doubled that with 19 from their six matches, including two 5-0 home wins against Burkina Faso and Malawi.

Concentration and competition

Arguably, therefore, the biggest challenge will be persuading the players that this tournament is worth the trouble of winning. If the team adopt the same approach that they did in the first section of World Cup qualifying, which saw them draw 1-1 at bottom placed Botswana with a starting XI that included the like of Arthur Boka, Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora and Sekou Cisse, then they may be in for a rude awakening in Angola. With plenty to distract the players such as the fortunes of their club sides back in Europe over the course of the competition, keeping the players attention centred on the African Cup of Nations may prove difficult.

The tournament is also an opportunity for some of the fringe players to impress the management, as they look to claim a place in the 23-man squad for the World Cup six months down the line. With potentially the largest pool of top-class players to choose from in Africa, Valid Halilhodzic has taken this tournament as a chance to whittle down some of the candidates for South Africa. Therefore whilst many will rate The Elephants as their favourites for the tournament the mix-and-match nature of the squad may results in some potentially erratic results.

Squad

Goalkeepers � Boubacar Barry (Lokeren), Aristide Zogbo (Maccabi Netanya), Vincent Angban (ASEC Mimosas)

Defenders � Kolo Toure (Manchester City), Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal), Guy Demel (Hamburg), Souleymane Bamba (Hibernian), Bejamin Angoua (Honved) Arthur Boka (VfB Stuttgart), Aboudalye Meite (West Bromwich Albion), Siaka Tiene (Valenciennes)

Midfielders � Yaya Toure (Barcelona), Didier Zokora (Sevilla), Emmanuel Kone (International Curtea de Arges), Cheik Tiote (FC Twente), Emerse Fae (Nice), Jean-Jacques Gosso (Monaco), Abdul Kader Keita (Galatasary)

Attackers � Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Bakari Kone (Marseille), Aruna Dindane (Portsmouth), Gervinho (Lille)

Players to Watch

The star turn of the team remains Chelsea’s Didier Drogba. The former Marseille striker seems to divide opinion but love him or loath him, his goal scoring record, whether in the blue of Chelsea or the orange of The Elephants is undeniable. Drogba’s main asset is hard to pin down, as he is equally good in the air as with the ball at his feet, but his skills saw him finish as top scorer in the second round of qualifying with six goals in as many games. The Ivory Coast will be looking for a big performance from him as they look to claim what would only be their second ever win at the African Cup of Nations.

The squad also contains one or two lesser known individuals who will be hopeful of staking a claim in the World Cup squad to be named later in the year. One player who will be hoping to get the chance to shine is Lille’s young striker Gervinho. He may sound like a Brazilian, but the 22-year-old is a former ASEC Mimosas trainee and has been catching the eye for several seasons both at U-20 level and more recently with the Olympic squad. He’s been around the senior team for a couple of years, but the 2010 African Cup of Nations could be his chance to shine. An �8.5 million move to the Stade Metropole in the summer has netted 14 goals in 23 appearances in all competitions, as defences in France and beyond have struggled to contain the live-wire forward.

Fixtures

11th Jan � Burkina Faso

15th Jan � Ghana

19th Jan � Togo

Prediction

The group looks eminently winnable from the Ivory Coast’s perspective, and it would appear that the middle match of the group against Ghana will be the one that decides the eventual section winner. Both will be keen to avoid the hosts of the tournament Angola from Group A in the quarter finals, so will be looking for the win that would probably see them dodge that clash. Keeping the players focused on the tournament in hand and preventing their thoughts drifting either back to their club sides in Europe or to the future challenge in South Africa will be a difficult task for the management. Nevertheless if the Ivory Coast show the sort of form they did in the second-round of qualification it’s very hard to see past them as winners of the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Posted by Walter Townsend on Thursday, 24th December 2009

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