Cybereagles

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:37 pm**

If care is not taken the North Africans will completely control African soccer.

I have witnessed some disturbing trends when it comes to Nigeria and frankly all of the traditional West African powerhouses, over these world cup qualifiers.

While the North African teams are ruthlessly dismantling their weaker oppositions I find that the West Africans are PLAYING DOWN TO THEIR OPPONENTS.

Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and even Senegal do not seem to be in these matches fully. It seems to me that they just expect to walk on the pitch, and that the fact they play at a much higher club level should be enough for them to win matches.

I see these teams sleepwalking for large stretches of these matches, allowing their weaker opponents to bully them off the ball, win 50/50 balls, make runs to create space, and actually run at their opponents. I have seen teams like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Central Africa fight to the death, while their illustrious opponents operate on cruise control.

I have seen top european based defenders like Koulibaly and Bailly, Boly, Djiku, Balogun be rubbished by these teams.

The scoreline doesn't always tell the story. Despite decent scorelines for Senegal and Ivory Coast, the games in reality were much closer.

The movement, passing, and teamplay of teams like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, etc makes me think that these teams may dominate the afcon, and if we are not careful they will be the ones repping Africa in Qatar. They will be highly motivated given the World Cup to be held in the middle east.

While a vocal minority on CE are clamouring for homebased "talents" and criticize the approach of recruiting dual nationals, please understand that this is the current trend, and that those who do not keep up WILL BE LEFT BEHIND IN THE DUST.

Despite having far superior domestic leagues and a much wider pool of quality homebased players to choose from the North Africans are heavily recruiting French, Dutch, and Belgian born players and this IS IMPROVING THEIR TEAMS.

Morocco who won the last CHAN still parades a team of entirely foreign based and foreign born players, so please I dont want to hear any more of this "homebased" nonsense. It is a dead in the water argument.

I really hope I am wrong but I see these North African teams dominating African soccer for some time.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:05 pm**

Nigeria alone has more wins at the World Cup than Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt combined

Abeg comot for road.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:11 pm**

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:05 pm Nigeria alone has more wins at the World Cup than Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt combined

Abeg comot for road.

that is an irrelevant statistic to the current situation of what I am talking about.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:20 pm**

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:05 pm Nigeria alone has more wins at the World Cup than Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt combined

Abeg comot for road.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:27 pm**

vancity eagle wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:37 pm If care is not taken the North Africans will completely control African soccer.

I have witnessed some disturbing trends when it comes to Nigeria and frankly all of the traditional West African powerhouses, over these world cup qualifiers.

While the North African teams are ruthlessly dismantling their weaker oppositions I find that the West Africans are PLAYING DOWN TO THEIR OPPONENTS.

Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and even Senegal do not seem to be in these matches fully. It seems to me that they just expect to walk on the pitch, and that the fact they play at a much higher club level should be enough for them to win matches.

I see these teams sleepwalking for large stretches of these matches, allowing their weaker opponents to bully them off the ball, win 50/50 balls, make runs to create space, and actually run at their opponents. I have seen teams like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Central Africa fight to the death, while their illustrious opponents operate on cruise control.

I have seen top european based defenders like Koulibaly and Bailly, Boly, Djiku, Balogun be rubbished by these teams.

The scoreline doesn't always tell the story. Despite decent scorelines for Senegal and Ivory Coast, the games in reality were much closer.

The movement, passing, and teamplay of teams like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, etc makes me think that these teams may dominate the afcon, and if we are not careful they will be the ones repping Africa in Qatar. They will be highly motivated given the World Cup to be held in the middle east.

While a vocal minority on CE are clamouring for homebased "talents" and criticize the approach of recruiting dual nationals, please understand that this is the current trend, and that those who do not keep up WILL BE LEFT BEHIND IN THE DUST.

Despite having far superior domestic leagues and a much wider pool of quality homebased players to choose from the North Africans are heavily recruiting French, Dutch, and Belgian born players and this IS IMPROVING THEIR TEAMS.

Morocco who won the last CHAN still parades a team of entirely foreign based and foreign born players, so please I dont want to hear any more of this "homebased" nonsense. It is a dead in the water argument.

I really hope I am wrong but I see these North African teams dominating African soccer for some time.

IMO I have no problem with a team full of foreign born players as long as they are the best we have available, however like you mentioned these countries still have credible local leagues and are still developing talent at home. For me we need to be doing both, but it seems like we are dropping the ball on the home front and our league is subpar and keeps underperforming at continental level, our youth development seems to also be suffering which in the long run will negatively affect us. It shouldn’t be one or the other but a combined focus on home and abroad and from that we can pick the best talent for the NT.

Anyways regardless what you think about CIV and Senegal I’ve watched their matches and they are definitely playing much better than SE esp in attack, so don’t lump us in with them…

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:47 pm**

Seriously? Senegal have been the best team in qualifying. Save for maybe Morocco.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:53 pm**

vancity eagle wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:37 pm If care is not taken the North Africans will completely control African soccer.

I have witnessed some disturbing trends when it comes to Nigeria and frankly all of the traditional West African powerhouses, over these world cup qualifiers.

While the North African teams are ruthlessly dismantling their weaker oppositions I find that the West Africans are PLAYING DOWN TO THEIR OPPONENTS.

Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and even Senegal do not seem to be in these matches fully. It seems to me that they just expect to walk on the pitch, and that the fact they play at a much higher club level should be enough for them to win matches.

I see these teams sleepwalking for large stretches of these matches, allowing their weaker opponents to bully them off the ball, win 50/50 balls, make runs to create space, and actually run at their opponents. I have seen teams like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Central Africa fight to the death, while their illustrious opponents operate on cruise control.

I have seen top european based defenders like Koulibaly and Bailly, Boly, Djiku, Balogun be rubbished by these teams.

The scoreline doesn't always tell the story. Despite decent scorelines for Senegal and Ivory Coast, the games in reality were much closer.

The movement, passing, and teamplay of teams like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, etc makes me think that these teams may dominate the afcon, and if we are not careful they will be the ones repping Africa in Qatar. They will be highly motivated given the World Cup to be held in the middle east.

While a vocal minority on CE are clamouring for homebased "talents" and criticize the approach of recruiting dual nationals, please understand that this is the current trend, and that those who do not keep up WILL BE LEFT BEHIND IN THE DUST.

Despite having far superior domestic leagues and a much wider pool of quality homebased players to choose from the North Africans are heavily recruiting French, Dutch, and Belgian born players and this IS IMPROVING THEIR TEAMS.

Morocco who won the last CHAN still parades a team of entirely foreign based and foreign born players, so please I dont want to hear any more of this "homebased" nonsense. It is a dead in the water argument.

I really hope I am wrong but I see these North African teams dominating African soccer for some time.

I have nothing but good news for you; you are completely wrong. There’s only one way to judge the relative strength of any two teams with one another. That’s by head to head competition and not by how well they are doing against random opponents. Any given team may match up very differently against two teams of similar strength. Therefore, you cannot conclude that because Egypt, for example, is beating its group opponents by wide margins, they are better than Ivory Coast who is only scraping by its own group opponents. You can only validly arrive at that conclusion if Egypt is beating Ivory Coast consistently

Cheers.

Posted: **Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:57 pm**

Change **** and put a good coach in place of him and we will slap these north african teams around. The cannot live with our speed skill and physicality.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:15 am**

marutimon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:47 pm Seriously? Senegal have been the best team in qualifying. Save for maybe Morocco.

a centre defence of Koulibaly and Diallo should not be allowing a non entity like Namibia to score against them in back to back games.

That is a disgrace IMO.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:45 am**

vancity eagle wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:15 am
marutimon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:47 pm Seriously? Senegal have been the best team in qualifying. Save for maybe Morocco.
a centre defence of Koulibaly and Diallo should not be allowing a non entity like Namibia to score against them in back to back games.

That is a disgrace IMO.

Nonentity, imagine the utter disrespect and lack of class... Wow.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:18 am**

The North Africans have always been DOSTS (destroyers of small teams). They take advantage of games against small teams and go berserk, but as soon as they meet a big team, they resort to negative football.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:02 pm**

When Super Eagles go into beast mode no North African team can match them. Problem is SE standards have dropped over the years.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:22 pm**

It’s a useful debate.

The North Africans have always had better organisation which allows them to show up well in qualifiers. When the west Africans have the focus of an actual tournament, we’ve generally done better.

But let’s not kid ourselves, the North Africans have always been strong on the continent. Just look at Egypt’s dominance of the Nations Cup. Or Algeria and Tunisia’s strength through the 80s.

And there is no doubt that when the west Africans have been in ascendancy, it’s always been on the back of a global super star or an unprecedented generation of talent: Miller, the Nigerians of the mid-90s, Eto, Drogba and the CIV team of 10 or so years ago.

For the North Africans on the other hand, even when they’ve had a bona fide super star (Mahrez, Salah), it’s been the team that does it.

So I don’t think there’s any changing dynamic per se. With the exception of Mane in Senegal, the west African teams have no stand out super star and so it’s understandable that they are struggling a bit. This too will change.

And once we get into tournament football, expect the west Africans to raise their game a few notches.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:06 pm**

waka-man wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:22 pm It’s a useful debate.

The North Africans have always had better organisation which allows them to show up well in qualifiers. When the west Africans have the focus of an actual tournament, we’ve generally done better.

But let’s not kid ourselves, the North Africans have always been strong on the continent. Just look at Egypt’s dominance of the Nations Cup. Or Algeria and Tunisia’s strength through the 80s.

And there is no doubt that when the west Africans have been in ascendancy, it’s always been on the back of a global super star or an unprecedented generation of talent: Miller, the Nigerians of the mid-90s, Eto, Drogba and the CIV team of 10 or so years ago.

For the North Africans on the other hand, even when they’ve had a bona fide super star (Mahrez, Salah), it’s been the team that does it.

So I don’t think there’s any changing dynamic per se. With the exception of Mane in Senegal, the west African teams have no stand out super star and so it’s understandable that they are struggling a bit. This too will change.

And once we get into tournament football, expect the west Africans to raise their game a few notches.

Very well said bro

. No changing dynamic per se...North African countries have dominated the rest of the continent for decades with just some few flashes (Mid 90s to Early 2000s) from West African countries.

Posted: **Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:24 pm**

I like North African football, but their best national teams usually look like a low-rent version of mid-level European national teams. That's why they struggle against European teams who have beaten teams similar to the North Africans in their path to WC qualification.

Yes they are very well organized but they often lack that destabilizing x factor. Algeria of recent is a notable exception. I expect them to do well at the WC if they qualify.

Posted: **Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:07 pm**

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:24 pm I like North African football, but their best national teams usually look like a low-rent version of mid-level European national teams. That's why they struggle against European teams who have beaten teams similar to the North Africans in their path to WC qualification.

Yes they are very well organized but they often lack that destabilizing x factor. Algeria of recent is a notable exception. I expect them to do well at the WC if they qualify.

That right there shows the mystery of African football.
None of us can confidently predict that Algeria, arguably the best team on the continent, will qualify for the WC.
Similarly, Ivory Coast, the most 'expensive' and star-studded team.
There is just something different about the African game on the continent that defies most predictions.

This is why i think it would be great to ask many of the Africa's top footballers playing in Europe what they think makes the African game different from what they are used to...especially what their very first experience was like.

Posted: **Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:18 pm**

As someone pointed out here, I don’t think this is anything different. The N African teams feast on the weaker teams. But when they face stronger teams from the West it’s a different deal. Let me remind you that even Algeria were matched by B Faso in their last encounter. And while we think Algeria’s path is sewn up, it will likely come down to the game between the two sides in Algeria

Let’s wait for the final round in March. I suspect teams such as Ghana, Mali, CIV or Cameroon may have something say about all of this.

Posted: **Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:45 pm**

vancity eagle wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:11 pm
Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:05 pm Nigeria alone has more wins at the World Cup than Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt combined

Abeg comot for road.
that is an irrelevant statistic to the current situation of what I am talking about.

Very irrelevant

Posted: **Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:03 pm**

vancity eagle wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:37 pm If care is not taken the North Africans will completely control African soccer.

I have witnessed some disturbing trends when it comes to Nigeria and frankly all of the traditional West African powerhouses, over these world cup qualifiers.

While the North African teams are ruthlessly dismantling their weaker oppositions I find that the West Africans are PLAYING DOWN TO THEIR OPPONENTS.

Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and even Senegal do not seem to be in these matches fully. It seems to me that they just expect to walk on the pitch, and that the fact they play at a much higher club level should be enough for them to win matches.

I see these teams sleepwalking for large stretches of these matches, allowing their weaker opponents to bully them off the ball, win 50/50 balls, make runs to create space, and actually run at their opponents. I have seen teams like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Central Africa fight to the death, while their illustrious opponents operate on cruise control.

I have seen top european based defenders like Koulibaly and Bailly, Boly, Djiku, Balogun be rubbished by these teams.

The scoreline doesn't always tell the story. Despite decent scorelines for Senegal and Ivory Coast, the games in reality were much closer.

The movement, passing, and teamplay of teams like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, etc makes me think that these teams may dominate the afcon, and if we are not careful they will be the ones repping Africa in Qatar. They will be highly motivated given the World Cup to be held in the middle east.

While a vocal minority on CE are clamouring for homebased "talents" and criticize the approach of recruiting dual nationals, please understand that this is the current trend, and that those who do not keep up WILL BE LEFT BEHIND IN THE DUST.

Despite having far superior domestic leagues and a much wider pool of quality homebased players to choose from the North Africans are heavily recruiting French, Dutch, and Belgian born players and this IS IMPROVING THEIR TEAMS.

Morocco who won the last CHAN still parades a team of entirely foreign based and foreign born players, so please I dont want to hear any more of this "homebased" nonsense. It is a dead in the water argument.

I really hope I am wrong but I see these North African teams dominating African soccer for some time.

VE,

But that is half the picture that you have painted.

The reality is that while it is true that the likes of Nigeria and some others have relied on Euro-based talents, some other countries have competed favorably against them by using locally-based players or third and fourth-rated players based overseas in places like Asia and otherwise. So what does this tell us?

In my view, several things: (1) That the migration of talent to places outside Africa means that the migrants cannot be ignored but that we must pay attention to migration destinations and their trajectories and not be on autopilot assuming that only the Big 5 leagues have the best talents, (2) that the talents still can be found at home but most certainty the best are migrating outside the homeland. The former possibility is the fact that the birth cycle has not closed yet and the fact that such cycle exists means that some can still be found at home prior to departure, no matter how few. Moreover, we see some of those homebased talents still playing significant roles in African teams that give us grief, and (3) Given the above, the gulf we assume that exist between the Europe-based and locally-based African players may be more myth than reality. In my view, Europe-based talent may be generally better but the difference may be much slimmer than we think.

Posted: **Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:55 am**

North Africans teams always stink the joint out, much much worse than other African teams, when they play in the World Cup. This is apart from the Algerian and Moroccan teams in the 80's.

They will run over teams in qualifying a la Germany and then simply play poorly when they get to the dance.

Some suspect the favourable refereeing decisions they get at home coupled with antics like lasers and all night singing in front of the opponents hotel gives them an advantage they don't have at tournaments.

How can one explain Shehata's all conquering Egyptian teams not getting anywhere near the quarter finals of a World Cup, a conundrum indeed.

Posted: **Thu Oct 21, 2021 12:53 am**

Aswani wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:55 am North Africans teams always stink the joint out, much much worse than other African teams, when they play in the World Cup. This is apart from the Algerian and Moroccan teams in the 80's.

They will run over teams in qualifying a la Germany and then simply play poorly when they get to the dance.

Some suspect the favourable refereeing decisions they get at home coupled with antics like lasers and all night singing in front of the opponents hotel gives them an advantage they don't have at tournaments.

How can one explain Shehata's all conquering Egyptian teams not getting anywhere near the quarter finals of a World Cup, a conundrum indeed.

Your claim get as im be oooo! Historically, they have done just as well. Note that the first ever win by an African team at the World Cup was by Tunisia. I believe Egypt may have been the first African team to proceed beyond the opening round (Check on this claim as I write based on memory alone).

Posted: **Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:33 am**

This post is misplaced on so many levels. First of all, what drives the concern about North African teams running things? What’s so wrong about that?

Two, even if I buy your concern, you should start getting worried if there are true signs of realignment. What you seem concerned about is attitude towards playing smaller teams…which is not worth being concerned about it the West Africans step up to the plate against bigger teams - which they would have to do at the tournaments proper. If the problem is attitude towards smaller teams in qualification, then what’s the panic for?

Posted: **Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:17 pm**

Perfect time for a bump.

Anybody want to bet against a North African side winning this cup.

An average Tunisia beat a star studed golden generation of SE.

Meanwhile CIV huffed and puffed only to lose to an inferior Egypt.

Senegal is our only hope and they have been absoluye trash.

I predict we may see 4 North African teams in Qatar.

Cybereagles

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