The definition of a successful Fifa World Cup campaign, for an African side, has always been quite relative.
The range of realistic targets — from beating a global heavyweight to reaching the tournament’s knockout stage, with only a few others in-between — is a very narrow one, however; even so, just a handful of teams, ahead of the latest edition, had registered any significant impact on that scale.
Only three African sides have ever advanced as far as the World Cup’s quarter-finals, and just at one Mundial had more than a single African team made it to the Round of 16.
Genuine upsets, too, had been rather few and far between, most famously Cameroon and Senegal beating Argentina and France — both reigning champions at the time — in 1990 and 2002, respectively.
There have, in fact, been entire World Cups without anything even remotely resembling an African success story — which is why Qatar 2022 has been such a rare feast for Africa, wouldn’t you say?
The continent has had arguably more to celebrate at this World Cup than at any in the past.
Just one of Africa’s five teams, Ghana, finished bottom of their group, on less than four points. And even they went into the final matchday in second place in Group H, before collapsing against Uruguay, a team they had absolutely no business capitulating to.
Speaking of final group matches, all four remaining African teams won theirs, some against truly daunting opposition. Tunisia beat holders France 1-0 days before Cameroon, by the same score, became the first African side in World Cup history to prevail against five-time champions and current world No.1 Brazil.
Belgium, No.2, weren’t spared a round earlier.
The Red Devils thoroughly underwhelmed on what turned out to be a forgettable swansong for their so-called Golden Generation, but the real nadir — the only game they lost, 2-0 — came at the hands of a Moroccan side that would go on to end Africa’s 24-year wait for a group winner.
Morocco secured that distinction — which they were the very first from Africa to achieve, by the way, in 1986 — with a fine 2-1 victory over Canada in closing Group F.
They could have been joined in the Round of 16 by Tunisia and Cameroon after their own giant-killing feats, but both missed out by narrow margins, their big victories little more than souvenirs — priceless ones, though, needless to say.
The other African side that did make it to the next stage, Senegal, do have experience of making great strides at the World Cup, having done so two decades ago during the last tournament staged in Asia before this one.
Senegal’s captain back then, Aliou Cisse, is their head coach now. He masterminded the Lions of Teranga’s maiden Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) triumph earlier this year, and is looking to write a brand new chapter of success on the biggest stage of them all.
That quest brings him up against England, along with the small challenge of becoming the first coach of an African side to ever overcome the Three Lions in any game, competitive or otherwise.
Cisse, currently indisposed, has had very limited physical involvement in his team’s preparation for Sunday’s game, but that won’t rob him of full credit for any success Senegal might attain at the expense of an English team that isn’t quite sure of what it is.
If he manages to do all that without unarguably his finest player, Sadio Mane, who missed the tournament with injury, it would be an even more spectacular feat, wouldn’t it?
A manager who is certainly fit and has his full set of top performers available is Morocco’s Walid Regragui.
The 47-year-old has been to club football in Africa what Cisse is to the international game — the best around, that is — and he proved that with Caf Champions League glory at the helm of WAC in May this year.
Regragui has had far less time with his team than Cisse has with his, appointed only last August, but evidence of his work is already boldly visible. Against neighboring Spain in what qualifies as an inter-continental derby — if such a thing exists — Morocco can afford to dream.
And that’s not just because some of Regragui’s most instrumental players — like Yassine Bounou, Youssef En-Nesyri and Achraf Hakimi — have lived/played in the Iberian nation for years, no.
Luis Enrique’s Spain love to have the ball and could do a whole lot of damage with it on a good day — see their 7-0 rout of hapless Costa Rica in their first group game.
They can, however, also be far too sterile with all that possession against opponents with a plan, seeing how Japan scraped three points off them last week; should Regragui borrow Japan trainer Hajime Moriyasu’s match-winning template, adapting it to his own resources, anything is possible.
But regardless of how those games go for the two African teams left — whether or not they are able to make another last-four crack or, farther still, break entirely new ground — Qatar 2022 has already been kinder to Africa than many World Cups before it.
With possibly more to come, it may well be the best yet.
Enn Y. Frimpong — Ink & Kicks
