Togo and Angola will struggle
May 10, 2006
THE Germany Tourism Board’s aggressive marketing campaign is intended to lure sightseers during the World Cup, which explains why travel brochures may be dispatched to players of Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, Togo and Iran.<br>Bar Iran, the rest are World Cup virgins and all four ‘tourists’ ar
By Joseph Opio
Tourists
32-Trinidad & Tob. 31-Angola
30-Togo
29-Iran
THE Germany Tourism Board’s aggressive marketing campaign is intended to lure sightseers during the World Cup, which explains why travel brochures may be dispatched to players of Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, Togo and Iran.
Bar Iran, the rest are World Cup virgins and all four ‘tourists’ are solely in Germany more to enjoy an all-expense paid FIFA vacation than win the coveted trophy.
Trinidad and Tobago
Coach: Leo Beenhakker
Star player: Dwight Yorke
Prediction: 32nd
“Burden of expectations†is a phrase alien to Trinidad and Tobago players, who, whatever happens in Germany, are already demi-gods; immortalised as comic heroes by a book publisher back home.
With 1.3 million inhabitants, Trinidad is the smallest country ever to gate-crash football’s glamourous party.
Coach Leo Beenhakker’s secret recipe has been naturalising players with the slightest trace of Trinidadian blood in their veins.
Skipper Dwight Yorke came out of international retirement in 2005 and will inspire Trinidad as a reborn central midfielder.
Angola
Coach: Luis Goncalves
Star player: Fabrice Akwa
Prediction: 31st
Angola’s story rivals the Cinderella fairytale for sheer romance. The voyage from a country ripped apart by civil war to invited dignitary at football’s high table has been charmed.
Football, like death, has never been a respecter of reputations and Angola justified this truism by snatching the plane ticket post-marked ‘Nigeria’.
Angola kick off against their colonial masters, Portugal, which might reawaken the stage fright that paralysed them in Egypt. That disastrous Nations Cup crusade forced the head of state, Eduardo dos Santos and his cabinet to start training with the side to uplift morale.
Togo
Coach: Otto Pfister
The Star: Emma Adebayor
Prediction: 30th
Togo’s miraculous qualification for the World Cup can be summed up in a name —Emmanuel Adebayor.
Succinctly put, without Adebayor and his 11 qualifying goals, Togo would still be that tiny West African nation.
Stephen Keshi was at the helm until the catastrophic Nations Cup campaign. In came Otto Pfister, a 68-year old German journeyman in time to act as an official tour guide.
Iran
Coach: Branko Ivankovic
Star player: Ali Karimi
Prediction: 29th
Bayern Munich’s Ali Karimi was inspirational in Iran’s smooth sailing through the Asian zonal qualifiers.
The going is bound to get more treacherous with Mexico and Portugal lying in ambush.
(Tomorrow: The No-hopers)
Tourists
32-Trinidad & Tob. 31-Angola
30-Togo
29-Iran
THE Germany Tourism Board’s aggressive marketing campaign is intended to lure sightseers during the World Cup, which explains why travel brochures may be dispatched to players of Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, Togo and Iran.
Bar Iran, the rest are World Cup virgins and all four ‘tourists’ are solely in Germany more to enjoy an all-expense paid FIFA vacation than win the coveted trophy.
Trinidad and Tobago
Coach: Leo Beenhakker
Star player: Dwight Yorke
Prediction: 32nd
“Burden of expectations†is a phrase alien to Trinidad and Tobago players, who, whatever happens in Germany, are already demi-gods; immortalised as comic heroes by a book publisher back home.
With 1.3 million inhabitants, Trinidad is the smallest country ever to gate-crash football’s glamourous party.
Coach Leo Beenhakker’s secret recipe has been naturalising players with the slightest trace of Trinidadian blood in their veins.
Skipper Dwight Yorke came out of international retirement in 2005 and will inspire Trinidad as a reborn central midfielder.
Angola
Coach: Luis Goncalves
Star player: Fabrice Akwa
Prediction: 31st
Angola’s story rivals the Cinderella fairytale for sheer romance. The voyage from a country ripped apart by civil war to invited dignitary at football’s high table has been charmed.
Football, like death, has never been a respecter of reputations and Angola justified this truism by snatching the plane ticket post-marked ‘Nigeria’.
Angola kick off against their colonial masters, Portugal, which might reawaken the stage fright that paralysed them in Egypt. That disastrous Nations Cup crusade forced the head of state, Eduardo dos Santos and his cabinet to start training with the side to uplift morale.
Togo
Coach: Otto Pfister
The Star: Emma Adebayor
Prediction: 30th
Togo’s miraculous qualification for the World Cup can be summed up in a name —Emmanuel Adebayor.
Succinctly put, without Adebayor and his 11 qualifying goals, Togo would still be that tiny West African nation.
Stephen Keshi was at the helm until the catastrophic Nations Cup campaign. In came Otto Pfister, a 68-year old German journeyman in time to act as an official tour guide.
Iran
Coach: Branko Ivankovic
Star player: Ali Karimi
Prediction: 29th
Bayern Munich’s Ali Karimi was inspirational in Iran’s smooth sailing through the Asian zonal qualifiers.
The going is bound to get more treacherous with Mexico and Portugal lying in ambush.
(Tomorrow: The No-hopers)