Posted in News on Nov 25, 2007.
First though they will need to help their countries come through the tricky qualifiers, success in the qualifier will see them be part of the thirty two teams who will eventually do battle in June and July 2010 to see if Italy will retain the title they won in 2006 in Germany or will the World have a new Champion.
Kaizerchiefs.com spoke to two players who will play a huge role in their countries qualifying process and got their reaction to Sunday evenings draw, and how they feel their national teams will fare on the road to South Africa 2010.
David Obua (Uganda)
The 2005 – 2006 Chiefs player of the season and his Cranes team mates were drawn in group 3 of the 12 African groups along with 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Angola, who are also the hosts of the 2010 CAF Africa Cup of nations. Benin and Niger complete the group Obua though knows all about Niger as Uganda were drawn in the same group as the West African country, during the 2008 CAF Africa Nations Cup qualifying campaign and even managed to score a hat trick in Uganda’s final game against Niger in Kampala.
Obua said of the draw which doubles up as qualifiers for the 2010 CAF Africa Cup of nations in Angola, with the top team and the best runners up proceeding to the next stage of qualifying. Where the teams will be divided into four groups of five with the top team going to the FIFA World Cup and the first three will head off to the CAF Nations Cup Obua said “travelling to Niger will be tough it was hard when we went there for the 2008 CAF qualifier, my feeling is that having had the experience of playing in difficult qualifying games for the 2008 nations, we have gained enough experience to do well both at home and away. Getting to the next qualifying round will not be to hard given the group we in, after the disappointment of getting so close to making it to Ghana I think we have learnt our lessons and will make certain of our qualification our selves”.
Onismor Bhasera (Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe’s have appeared at consecutive Africa Cup of nations in Tunisia in 2004 and at the 2006 Africa Cup of nations in Egypt and being one of the countries bordering South Africa; the Zimbabwean warriors will be desperately looking not to miss out on the carnival that will be taking place in their neighbour hood. The warriors have been pitted in group 2 with their COSAFA rivals Namibia as well as Kenya and the country currently ranked third by FIFA in Africa Guinea. Bhasera though feels that despite Guinea being in the group Zimbabwe have an easy path to the next round of qualification and the 2010 Africa Cup of nations in Angola.
Bhasera said of Zimbabwe’s qualifying draw, “we know Namibia well as we play against them in COSAFA Cup, Kenya are not one of the continents heavy weights, our strongest challenge would come from Guinea. With so many of the Zimbabwean national team based in South Africa and playing in the PSL, not qualifying for the world cup would be a disaster for us given that the starting qualifying group is not a difficult one we must think that we can go all the way to the finals tournament. We can not deny that Guinea are a strong team do though keep in mind that we have are highly motivated and although the FIFA World Cup will be in South Africa we will have a lot of support and it will be like playing at home for us”.