World Cup 2010 ... 56 days ... by gimleteye

A podcaster recently noted that the top league in France holds more players playing for national teams in the World Cup than any other, and I'm guessing that a fair percentage of these are from African nations. Can an African nation win the World Cup? Yesterday, the NY Times/ IHT reported that the captain of Togo, Emmanuel Adebayor, will give up his chance to play for his nation. Adebayor, only 26 and the leading goal scorer for the British premier team Manchester City, was on a team bus in January when Angolan separatists fired on it, killing three.

"Whether he knew it or not, Adebayor’s abandonment of his national team coincided with an explicit threat by a group allied to Al Qaeda that it plans to attack players and spectators at the United States-England match in South Africa on June 12."
Whether or not an African nation can win the World Cup, it is fascinating how many players from Africa do so well at the most elite level of competition when they lacked any of the sophisticated infrastructure to support youth development. Brilliant players like Lionel Messi-- who grew up in the club farm system (like minor league baseball for adolescents) are the exception.)

In Miami, I spent years and years ferrying kids from one soccer practice to another, back and forth, from the Gables to Kendall; the only area where there are enough fields to support games. What is lacking, not just in Miami, Florida, is the spontaneous way that children from football nations pick up a ball and create a game whenever and wherever they can. It happens in streets, on abandoned lots, without equipment even shoes. And it happens at a very young age. When you watch the US national team in the World Cup, that's the difference. Our kids have the shoes, the conditioning, strength and speed: for the most part, and in the split, fractions of seconds when it counts, they just don't have the instinctual response and brilliance.