The Remaining Sixteen

32 national teams qualified and were invited to the Soccer World Cup in South Africa. 32 teams were arranged in eight groups of four. The FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) placed a front runner in every group from A to H and then drew other nations to the groups via lottery, considering in the procedure that nations of all continents are well mixed up and yet also fairly arranged according to their ranking. This was meant to not have a top runner be eliminated in an early phase of the competition and also to have the high probability that every continent remains represented as long as just possible.

South Africa hosts the 2010 Soccer World Cup and indeed the FIFA placed all six participating African teams in different Groups: South Africa in group A, Nigeria in group B, Algeria in group C, Ghana in group D, Cameroon in E and Ivory Coast in group G.

In the first two weeks of the World Soccer Championship all the four national teams in one group competed with one another and the best two out of four proceeded while the weakest two dropped out. These two weeks of group phase are now over and 16 nations remain in the competition. Looking at the African nations however, the one and only team which survived this group phase is Ghana of group D. The drop outs here were Australia, the "Socceroos," as they call themselves, who performed well and were truly close to success, and Serbia, who kicked a harsh and hard ball, but finally failed. The German team was the set top runner and kept with its station, though it appeared to be a hard piece of work for the mainly young players who are not much experienced in playing on such world stage.

Top runner and second-placer in group A was France. However "le Bleus" were not able to win a single match, lost against Mexico and South Africa and dropped down to place four of four in their group. Many in Germany were gloating over the French as it appeared they committed the error Germany got trapped in way back in the history of Soccer World Cups, that is, fielding experienced players rather than young ones. The average age in the French team was above 28 years and so it was not a surprise to see any of their opponents just so move and run faster than them. Upon return back home to France, the team was not much welcomed but ignominiously blamed by the papers and media for the debacle caused by the Equipe-Scandal. South Africa however also dropped out, but due to their victory over France in the last group match, the nation and the whole continent celebrated their Bafana Bafana frenetically and blew the Vuvuzela ecstatically.