Africa's World Cup must bring an African Champion.

     An African nation has never won a world cup and with some of the international game's top players today coming from Africa the chances of an African champion is likely to become a reality in South Africa this summer. I hope Africa will come away with the FIFA world cup trophy and show the world that it's time for an African team to shine. South Africa 2010 will mark the best opportunity for an African team for the first time ever. Not only is the event being held in the African continent but also there will be more African teams taking part than ever.

                      Can Drogba and Ivory Coast win the title?

The West Africans seem to be dominating this year's contingency as Nigeria in a last minute rally defeated Kenya 3-2 and with the loss of Tunisia to Mozambique 1-0, the super eagles found a way to fly higher than the Carthage eagles by securing a flight to South Africa. The other teams from the neighborhood include, Didier Drogba and the elephants of Ivory Coast, the black stars of Ghana lead by Michael Essien, and the indomitable lions who will field Samuel Eto as one of their stars. The Pharaohs of Egypt will play Algeria on Wednesday November 18th, 2009 in Sudan as they both ended up with the same amount of points for the fifth spot, while hosts South Africa have already locked in a spot.

                             The blogger with Michael Essien of Ghana.

Hassan Shehata who probably will go down as one of my favorite players ever is enjoying some success as the head coach of Egypt. He did it again as thousands of fans joined in what was an exciting game in Cairo on Saturday. The only negative thing to mention is that fans in Egypt who are too emotional attacked the Algerian bus hurting a couple of the Algerian players slightly. This should be un-accepted behavior and FIFA should warn the Egyptian federation and govt. from allowing hooligans to act that way in the future. Egypt with a 2-0 win secured a playoff game against the desert warriors to be played in a neutral country. Let us not forget the Algerians spirit of a winning attitude as they shocked the world in 1982 with a 2-1 victory over perennial powers the former West Germany that lost to Italy in the championship game. It was their first world cup and they played a role in exposing African soccer with their ability to perform at a high level.

Meanwhile the host team South Africa has a great opportunity to show that Africa is capable of hosting a good event and I pray that the media will cover the entire world cup in a fairly manner even if Africa keeps the cup at home. We are now less than seven month away from the most prestigious event in the world and it is Africa's turn to win. Hopefully the new generation of young stars can win it for all those who sacrificed for the game in the past, despite the terrible treatment the continent got over the years. It's time for Africa to shine.

Good luck to South Africa and the Africa.

For more on the results and the entire world cup stay tuned to Eri-international sports blog. Mean while our reliable sources have indicated that Eritrean Swede star Henok Goitom will be back with his team Almeria of La Liga starting next week. We will keep you informed. In other soccer news, the Eritrean National senior team is slated to participate in the CECAFA senior challenge cup to be held in Nairobi starting on November 28th, 2009. All eleven teams from the region and Zambia as a guest team will take part; meanwhile Libya has expressed an interest in joining as guest. The drawings of the tournament will take place on Wed. November 18th, 2009. We will keep you updated along with the result of the Egypt vs. Algeria game for the last spot of the world cup from the African continent.

Mike Seium

For Eri-International sports blog.