What is wrong with Africa teams?

[Cryptoprincess101]

This same pattern has been repeating itself over and over again. We saw it in other teams performance. I was thinking that the African coaches still left would be able look into it and approach it holistically so they don't make repeated mistakes bit still yet they keep failing in this same aspect. The opposition teams are fully aware of this lapses with the African teams and they tend to take advantage of it. I hope Morroco is also doing some observations also so they don't fallout like the rest of the other African teams.

No need to involve Morocco in this, even if they do not advance further but they don't have same mentality as other African teams. Morocco is the only African team that plays a world class football, the rest were just playing a friendly match and not a tournament. Morocco will face France in the quarter finals, and we know what France can do and they have many advantages over Morocco, their squad depth is exceptional, so they have the odd to win. Other African teams need to step up their game so that they can win the world cup in the future. Cape Verde was one African team i admire so much, they showed real energy in this world cup and if they had players who plays at top European leagues, they could have put up a stronger fight.

[Cityhunter34]

I'm totally not surprised about the game, because I know that African teams are unpredictable. Like they always say, "first to score is not winning" and that's absolutely true, because it makes no sense to start with a huge performance and end up losing the game. Honesty, today's match was quite annoying because Egypt was supposed to see the game out. There wasn't much time left, but they let Argentina find the back of the net after all their effort.

[Byebyebtc]

They are simply not good enough,
I realised one thing that these African clubs do once they have scored some goals ahead they will start playing defensively and that is something that is known killing them, even when they are leading they should still play their same game they way they started and score more goals to try to win. But if they start playing defensively it will backfire them.

[Bobrox]

Not wrong yet with the African team in World Cup 2026, during the phase group many African team reached the round of 32 because not face really strong opponent team and rule have 8 top third standings finish team qualified to next round and African team more dominance.

Since the knock out round face the Europe team have higher great performance and African team one by one eliminating, recently Egypt have leave World Cup 2026 after beating by Argentina indeed performing well but experience of Argentina success beating Egypt at crucial minutes. Morocco is the only one hope for African team in the World Cup 2026 but they are waiting by France in the quarter final round.

[JiiBs]

They are simply not good enough,
I realised one thing that these African clubs do once they have scored some goals ahead they will start playing defensively and that is something that is known killing them, even when they are leading they should still play their same game they way they started and score more goals to try to win. But if they start playing defensively it will backfire them.

You really do think so?
That teams that have being able to take 2 goals lead against one of the best teams in the world instead of good enough?

Perhaps they weren’t able to hold on to the lead they had but, they are good enough alright, they just don’t see themselves to be that good. When it’s time to stay on business, they entertain fear and then you find them making silly mistakes, mistakes they’ve avoided all game and suddenly, the game is equalized and they lose the game.

[boltz]

They are simply not good enough,
I realised one thing that these African clubs do once they have scored some goals ahead they will start playing defensively and that is something that is known killing them, even when they are leading they should still play their same game they way they started and score more goals to try to win. But if they start playing defensively it will backfire them.

You really do think so?
That teams that have being able to take 2 goals lead against one of the best teams in the world instead of good enough?

Perhaps they weren’t able to hold on to the lead they had but, they are good enough alright, they just don’t see themselves to be that good. When it’s time to stay on business, they entertain fear and then you find them making silly mistakes, mistakes they’ve avoided all game and suddenly, the game is equalized and they lose the game.

They are playing good football but also a very unbalanced style and also no real unity between players and as long as they will have these 2 major problems , it will be hard for any other team from Africa to have a real chance to win the world cup. I had this exact subject while I talked with some friends and we all agreed that in the next 20 years max , it's super possible to see an African team win the World Cup but now for now. However , Morocco can surprise us all and reach semi-finals but we will see. 

[Gozie51]

Overall it could be due to the coaches' lack of tactical expertise and the continent hasn't yet mastered it.

If we are to consider the aspect of coaching to be an issue, I believe that over 60% of Africa teams at the tournament came with foreign coaches. Those that I can remember that came with indigenous coaches are Cape Verde, Senegal, Egypt but others have foreign coaches. So does it mean that those foreign coaches are not giving the crucial critical expertise needed? Somehow, I believe the players too have to stand up to the game and not to believe that they have won. In football, it is not over until it is over.

[Z-tight]

There is nothing wrong with African teams, this is football and anything can happen. Yeah, they should have seen out some of those games, but it wasn't to be. I don't think it is fair to attribute that to an underlying problem.

Africa still has one representative in the World Cup, Morocco. South America also has one team left too, Argentina. The rest are all European teams. So, you see, it is not as bad as you think, though there is always room for improvement.

[danherbias07]

Experience? Roster? Confidence perhaps?

From their perspective, they may actually be a bit happy that they stepped into the high rankings that many countries were unable to achieve for decades, and maybe more World Cups to come. Sadly, some African teams cannot go any further, but those experiences can be passed on to the next generation that will enter it.

We Asians are actually celebrating whenever we see our home team achieve high rankings because we are not well-known in this field of sports and many others. Still, we are aiming for the top and hoping it will come real soon.

[Padi24]

I'm totally not surprised about the game, because I know that African teams are unpredictable. Like they always say, "first to score is not winning" and that's absolutely true, because it makes no sense to start with a huge performance and end up losing the game. Honesty, today's match was quite annoying because Egypt was supposed to see the game out. There wasn't much time left, but they let Argentina find the back of the net after all their effort.

I never thought nor imagine that Argentina could make a come back considering how far the match have gone. Though the pressure was much on them in the second half, this made we feel that Argentina is likely to make an equalizer and that's exactly what happened. Egypt tried all Thier possible best just to defend the two goals and I must say they tried to hold on to it until the 70th minutes, Argentina really possessed, and from my judgment I think they deserve the wining i know sometimes we don't judge from possession because there are some teams that usually possessed but can't win a match but it's good they possessed and still end up wining.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Today, Egypt led Argentina up to 78 minutes of the second half by 2 goals and conceded 3 goals within 20 minutes, this is appalling. Although, this is the intrigues in the game but it has become almost like a routine for African teams.
Could it be lack of energy to conclude their winning?
Could it be defensive errors?

The defense was tight up to the point I stopped watching, I don't know who came on the pitch next, so it's either the midfield got slightly weak and Argentina exploded with the attack, or something else I'm too pissed to think of.

Could it be over confidence?

It might be the problem in some cases. I don't think it was part of Egypt's failure.

Could it be wrong substitute or no substitute / coaching crew mistake?

Most of the time, it's wrong substitutions, or wrong timing to introduce a substitute. When the game is pressing and every player is a good fit for their position, why do you make a sub? The freshman doesn't have the previous experience, so there's every tendency to slow down the game, or start a wild counter that might not end well for the team that's suppose to be heavy on their defense. This was Egypt's problem.

Could it be lack of focus from players and coaching crew?

I'll call it errors from the coaching crew instead.

[STT]

Egypt has an amazing effort to get so far but Argentina has the experience.   That is what counts in the full length of a game, its a game of two halves and a full 90 minutes where as gaining the two goals initially could lead to over confidence.   Argentina in their greater experience and training have maintained composure and employed a full range of tactics to regain the advantage where as Egypt only became more tired and less able to innovate as was required to keep their lead.
  Its tragic but its also why football is such a great game and not as simple as it might appear at first, the achievement of Egypt stands none the less to come so close to beating Argentina who have won the world cup so many times.   Only 4 world cups have ever been contested without Argentina placed somewhere in contention, they are long term greats.

[Hispo]

I am not expect in this matter, so I would be lying if I said I have the answer to such complex question.
There is undoubtedly much talent within African selections, but I feel they don't have the same investment and training some American and European teams have, you know?

Also, it seems both European and American teams have carried out campaigns to get the best talents out of Africa, so they will play for their national teams or regional teams.

There is more money and resources in Europe and America to keep things good for their teams, unlike Africa.
Money translated to better training, better gear and more chances to improve their technique.

[alegotardo]

African teams in this knockout stage of the world cup have not played to expected end after early lead up to second half, why?

So what reason could you attribute to this abysmal failure that cut across these teams. Senegal lost to Belgium after 2 goals up, Dr Congo had same issue.

Today, Egypt led Argentina up to 78 minutes of the second half by 2 goals and conceded 3 goals within 20 minutes, this is appalling. Although, this is the intrigues in the game but it has become almost like a routine for African teams.

I think that calling African teams' performance an "abysmal failure" is a quite exaggeration, no!?
Just think with me... the continent had a record breaking performance in the group stage. I do not remember them ever having so many teams qualified to knockout stage, so that alone is already a significant achievement.

I believe the African teams were very competitive and often managed to take the lead early in their matches, but the real problem was keep the consistency. Perhaps the mental aspect is a part of it as well ability to hold on to the result in the closing minutes without letting their guard down. I think that was their biggest issue, and in fact it has been the problem for many teams in this edition. Having the lead on the scoreboard has not guaranteed victory and many bettors who backed those early leads have probably lost a lot of money during this edition of the FIFA World Cup.

[uneng]

Not only African teams, but you can include USA on this as well. When the championship moves into further stages, it seems experience and tradition make a lot of difference over players' performance. Teams which usually reach the semi-finals and finals, play with more enthusiasm and effort as the competition advances.

At same time, teams which don't have tradition on that matter, find more difficulty maintaining the intensity from the beginning until the end of the match. Moreover, the missed goals accumulated by such teams is just too high.

[Julien_Olynpic]

The match between Egypt and Argentina is what makes football interesting. We know the score can change at any moment. But the very fact that Egypt led for a while against Argentina is already evidence that the quality of African teams has improved significantly. However, the main thing African teams lack is technique and experience, as well as good coaching strategy, in my opinion. But progress has begun, and I believe African teams will gradually develop their skills over time and gradually begin to compete with both European and Latin American teams.

[Bigjoe33]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with them. It doesn't happen to them alone, it happens to even some other European teams. Some European teams couldn't even make it out of the group stages, while all the African teams did.

I want to say it's a plus for the African teams in this world cup. They have done really well. Even though Morocco is eliminated today by France, I would still give them there praise, because by now, I believe they have told the world that they are not babies in football anymore.  There loosing isn't anything but just a normal loosing that always happens in football. I believe slowly, they are coming and taking over. They pace isn't the same. The pattern isn't the same anymore. So many things have changed about African football, and am loving it. It's so surprising how African can control a game against an European country, and even scoring goals, for me, am well pleased. An very sure that in 2030, Africans would come stronger and better

[viljy]

In my opinion, there is one main reason for all the failures: a lack of funding. Rich countries and teams will always have the opportunity to lure and purchase the best soccer players. If there were truly national teams, things would change. However, this is not possible because sports are primarily a big business.

[iv4n]

What do you think?

We don't have to think too much, we saw the game... Even though they had the advantage, at some point they started making mistakes, and they lost. Lack of experience in big games, too much pressure, and they couldn't hold on in the last minutes.

So what reason could you attribute to this abysmal failure that cut across these teams. Senegal lost to Belgium after 2 goals up, Dr Congo had same issue.

Today, Egypt led Argentina up to 78 minutes of the second half by 2 goals and conceded 3 goals within 20 minutes, this is appalling. Although, this is the intrigues in the game but it has become almost like a routine for African teams.

Do you think there is any chance we will see the same thing happening to Morocco vs France? That would be an awesome bet...

[Daniel91]

African teams have a lot of talent, physical strength and explosiveness in their teams and they are performing better and better at the World Cups.
Morocco knocked out Portugal and Spain at the last World Cup and ended up fourth in the world.
They are very good again at this World Cup.
As for the other African teams you mentioned, Congo, Senegal and Egypt, the fact is that they played against the strongest teams in the world, Argentina with Messi, England with Kane and Belgium with Lukaku.
At such a top level of football you have to be concentrated for the whole 90 or 100 minutes because at this level every mistake is punished.
Morocco is already at that level and the other African teams obviously still need experience for such competitions.