Ivory Coast Should Not Be Taken Lightly

There probably is a proverb somewhere about never underestimating the strength of an Elephant. Cote d’Ivoire had great individual talent. Whether they are able to pull it together to play against a very well organized S&M team should be interesting to see.

Posted from  United States

Funny. I should have titled the thread with something to that effect.

I think they will put it together actually. They look to be Africa’s greatest hope in Germany. They have goalkeeping issues I think, but the rest of their team is solid. It’s unfortunate they’re in such a tough group because they probably deserve to be in the final 16 on paper.

Like you, I predict them to go through to the next round… along with Serbia and Montenegro of course. Argentina will figure out a way to not be the team it supposed to be and the Dutch will be out footballed by SM and out hustled by CIV, imho.

It sure will be fun to watch though.

Posted from  United States

While I obviously disagree with your predictions about the outcome of the matches I agree with you and your assessment of the Cote D’Ivoire. I think every fan in Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia and Montenegro are biting their nails wondering what kind of team will show up.

Posted from  United States

Yeah… Group C is one awesome group. Hopefully one day all the groups will be so difficult.

The Elephants look to be better than Senegal was four years ago and they might could make a run like Cameroon made in Rome that astonished the world. I found Milosevic’s comments about CIV to be really a bit euro-snobbish because if he doesn’t know by now that CIV will be able to run every witch way on SM, he’s in for a show and some embarassment.

He overrates Spanish and Argentinian football as well I think.

Posted from  United States

Couldn’t agree more – they are my dark horse pick this time around and I think this group is the toughest – tougher than the so-called group of death (italy, ghana, czech and US). Right here I’d say argentina better than italy. holland better than czech, cote d’ivoire better than ghana, and serbia and montenegro better than US (no insult to s&m intended). I actually think that any one of the four in this group could go through.

Ivory coast has two seriously world class strikers, two defenders in the CL finals, rest of the outfield isn’t too bad either. Agree about the goalie though.

Posted from  United States

Savos comment fits to the general opinion in Serbia. CiV is completely underrated there – by the public opinion as well as by the media. Probably they dont know that the rest of the world sees serbia as the weakest part in this group and not CIV. There are some more reasonable comments to read in serbia as well though. Krstajic the SCG vice-captain called CIV a very tough and unpleasent opponent.

Posted from  Germany

Krstajic knows better I guess, which is good.

It’s interesting you say the SM public rates themselves higher than CIV… not real surprising, but I think most people in the football world rate SM as the fourth team in the group, like you said.

The thing about SM is their defense may be the best in the WC and the fact that they don’t have the midfield stars or super stars at the forward positions might not really matter.

I think the Argentines and Dutch will prance around the pitch really nice, but I don’t know if they can score against SM.

SM will definitely have problems though if they get down a goal early I think.

Posted from  United States

yes as long as they keep a clean sheet and get some free-kicks up front, they have a chance

Posted from  Germany

Lyle, I would rate SM above Cote D’Ivoire simply because the Ivorians are a completely unknown quantity and don’t have experience against really tough European opposition whereas SM definately do and can compete on that level.

Posted from  United States

yeah, i don’t really disagree with that… but i think there is a gut feeling out there that CIV has so much potential and has enough star players that some people might rate them ahead of SM. and i think there are people who believe that a CIV or Nigeria or Cameroon, if they could get their acts togther, and weren’t really poor countries, they’d be just as potent year in and year out as a brazil. so maybe some people project a really bright light onto African teams like CIV, which raises their status a little.

i think competition wise none of these teams are that much better than any other. maybe argentina or the netherlands will prove me wrong, but i think we’re dealing with a group of equals for the most part. we’ll find out soon enough.

Posted from  United States

I can’t wait. There are absolutely no “soft” games that I can afford to miss. With the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 it could bethe best chance for African teams yet. I can’t wait.

Posted from  United States