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Flash Forward by Looking Back…
Comments(8)
The Ivory Coast blog is back in time for the African Cup of Nations! I am super excited to be writing for the offside and…wait. Wait. The African Cup of Nations is not until…January? Oh geez, my first major soccer blog gig and I start off with a factual mistake. Well let’s just cover that up with a series of factually accurate statements, starting with myself.
My name is Elliott. I am from the United States. I like soccer, err, football, err futbol. I am writing about the Ivory Coast because, at the last World Cup, I fell in love with Les Éléphants. I do not speak French. Sacre bleu!
But seriously, for all the talk of Argentina and Spain, for my money the Ivory Coast put on a slick-passing exhibition. Despite being in a group of death, Les Éléphants played vibrant, technical, bursting football. Yes they gifted two early goals to Argentina, but the proud Elephants clawed back a goal. The Ivory Coast battled the Dutch to a similar 2-1 loss, leaking early goals but showing incredible resolve in the latter stages. Two games, two losses, but at least they managed to, cough cough, unite a nation.
Moral victories may not count, but the Ivory Coast will soon be back on soccer’s biggest stage. The Ivory Coast sealed their qualification for South Africa 2010 with a 1-1 away draw to last place Malawi. The hosts took a shock lead in the 60th minute, but Drogba promptly appeared in super sub mode to pull a rabbit out of his hat. And qualification for the World Cup also means qualification for the African Cup of Nations in 2010. Two tournament birds with one stone!
Thus, the November 14th game against Guinea should be a site of experimentation as younger players get a look. Then, a little over two weeks later, Les Éléphants will eagerly chitter chatter like school girls in anticipation of the African Cup of Nations group draw. Let’s hope it goes better than Germany 2006. In the meantime, I will brush up on my French and do some player profiling. Does anybody know Didier Drogba’s twitter account?
Good to see you on hear Elliott, looking forward to your insights. You’ve picked a good team too! I reckon Ivory Coast could do really well at WC2010 provided they don’t get screwed over with a frankly impossible group again…
Posted from 
United Kingdom
Jose – good call on the Ivory Coast talent pool. They are stacked and right Drogba is an absolute monster in the Premiership. I am doing some research on their non-Europe players and hope to have a piece out pretty soon – but yeah, any team would love to have the Toures.
Jonathan – good to see you too! Hopefully the Elephants can make some strong runs at the African Cup and World Cup.
Who would you back to win the World Cup in 2010, between these two: Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana? (Interesting bit – the Ivorians were leading until I got this great Ghanaian site, and the Ghanaians came in their numbers to give Cote d;Ivoire a bloody nose) Poll closes Friday. http://www.africaplays.com
I hope you will “play fair” against Guinea.
FIFA Fair-Play Code
2. Play to win but accept defeat with dignity
Winning is the object of playing any game. Never set out to lose. If you do not play to win, you are cheating your opponents, deceiving those who are watching, and also fooling yourself. Never give up against stronger opponents but never relent against weaker ones. It is an insult to any opponent to play at less than full strength. Play to win, until the final whistle…..
Unlike Liverpool, Malawi’s destiny is in their own hands
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/unlike-liverpool-malawi%e2%80%99s-destiny-is-in-their-own-hands.html
Posted from 
United States
The Ghanaians are still leading the poll “Who would you back to win the World Cup in 2010, between these two: Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana?” on http://www.africaplays.com/.Hello Ivorians what are we waiting for?
Great to see this blog back. I hope the Elephants can at least make it out of the group stages at the World Cup. This is the most important world cup for the continent. They need at least two of the six sides to get out of the group stages. I personnally expect three to do so. Just so you know I am blogging for Benin, Cameroon and Guinea on the site so please stop by if you get a chance.
Posted from United States
who do you think will win the play off between egypt and algeria? vote now at http://www.africaplays.com
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Awesome that this is back up and running! Although there will be six African teams at the World Cup, I feel like Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana are the main candidates for Africa this go around. By that, I mean, that I can definitely see either of them make the semifinals next year.
I mean, Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, and Didier Drogba? In the Yaya and Drogba, you definitely have Top 3 in the World players in their respective positions.