Togo qualifies for World Cup

Togo CelebratesCongratulations to the Togolese soccer team for that coveted ticket to Germany next year! The other qualifiers from Africa are Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Tunisia.

With the exception of Tunisia (1978, 1998, 2002), all African teams are newcomers to the World Cup, which leaves most of Africa’s soccer giants like Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon on the sidelines in Germany next year. The biggest surprise probably was Côte d’Ivoire’s squeezing by Cameroon:

The major drama came in Group 3 as Cameroon’s Pierre Wome missed an injury-time penalty against Egypt, which would have taken them through to Germany. His miss allowed Cote d’Ivoire, who won 3-1 in Sudan, to qualify for their first-ever finals.
Four first-timers reach FIFA World Cupâ„¢ finals 8 Oct 2005, by FIFAworldcup.com

The team from Togo had been at the top of Group 1 and it needed only a draw against the team from the Congo, so at this point this was not a huge surprise. This is a huge accomplishment for Togo. And maybe the excitement over the World Cup participation of The Hawks will help unify the deeply divided West-African nation as the Togolese gather around TV sets and transistor radios next year to witness their boys face off with some of the giants in World soccer next year.

3 Responses to “Togo qualifies for World Cup”

  1. yawovi Says:

    Hey Jurgen
    We are all excited about Togo’s qualification for World Cup in Deutchland. Actually we were all following the matches on Internet for the score by score results and calling each other to inform everyone of the qualification.
    “Allez les Eperviers du Togo!!!!!!!!!!!!”
    I hope we’ll defend our own honor and the honor of Africa at the soccer world cup next year. In fact We’re going to get via cable TV5 or CFI French channels just for the world cup next year and we will be cheering “Allez les Eperviers!!!!!!!”
    Agbessi

  2. yovo Says:

    “Allez les Eperviers!!!!!!!”

    I just hope that the teams from Togo and Germany won’t meet until close to the finals because I won’t know whom to root for! This should be fun!

    Jurgen

  3. w o r d s » Blog Archive » 2005 Says:

    […] go Gnassingbé Eyadema died and his son inherited the “family business.” Togo qualified for the World Cup! The last year saw a lot of hardship and traged […]