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Algeria national football team The Desert Foxes
Biographical Information
The Algeria national football team, nicknamed Les Fennecs (The Desert
Foxes), is the national team of Algeria and is controlled by the
Fédération Algérienne de Football. Algeria managed to qualify to two
consecutive World Cups in 1982 and 1986. Algeria also won the Africa Cup
of Nations once in 1990 when they hosted the tournament. In November
2009, Algeria beat North African rivals Egypt in a World Cup
qualification tiebreaker to secure a place at the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa.
History
1980–1990: apogee of Algerian football
During
the 1980 African Nations Cup, Algeria finished runner-up with the
following results: after a draw against Ghana (0–0), it defeated both
Morocco (1–0, with a goal by Lakhdar Belloumi) and Guinea (3–2, with
goals by Hocine Benmiloudi and a double by Tedj Bensaoula). In the
semi-finals, they beat Egypt in a penalty shoot-out (2–2, PK 4–2, with
goals by Salah Assad and Hocine Benmiloudi). In the final, they were
defeated by Nigeria by a score of 3–0. In the 1982 African Cup of
Nations, Algeria finished fourth and qualified for the 1982 FIFA World
Cup.
[edit] World Cup 1982
The 1982 FIFA World Cup saw one of
the great World Cup upsets on the first day with the 2–1 victory of
Algeria over reigning European Champions West Germany. This famous
result for the Algerians put the Germans in grave danger of failing to
qualify for the next round. This led to many people believing that the
final match in the group between West Germany and Austria was fixed, as
Algeria had already played their final group game the day before, West
Germany and Austria knew that a West German win by 1 or 2 goals would
qualify them both, while a larger German victory would qualify Algeria
over Austria, and a draw or an Austrian win would eliminate the Germans.
The fourth team in the group, Chile, were eliminated regardless of the
outcome. After 10 minutes of all-out attack, West Germany succeeded in
scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch. After the goal was scored, the
two German-speaking teams went into an unspoken agreement and just
kicked the ball around aimlessly for the rest of the match. Chants of
"Fuera, fuera" ("Out, out") were screamed by the appalled Spanish crowd,
while angry Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players. This
performance was widely deplored, even by the German and Austrian fans
who had hoped for a hot rematch of the 1978 FIFA World Cup match in
which Austria had beaten West Germany. One German fan was so upset by
his team's display that he burned his German flag in disgust.[1] Algeria
protested to FIFA, who ruled that the result be allowed to stand, but
events led to FIFA introducing a revised qualification system at
subsequent World Cups in which the final two games in each group were
played simultaneously.
[edit] World Cup 1986
In 1984, Algeria
took third place in the 1984 African Nations Cup in Côte d'Ivoire.
During the 1986 African Nations Cup, the national teams recorded two
defeats and one draw and was eliminated in the first round. In Mexico,
at the 1986 World Cup, the Algerians were not able to pass the first
round once again in a group that included Northern Ireland (1–1 draw),
Brazil (1–0 loss), and Spain (3–0 loss). Only one Algerian managed to
score during this competition: Djamel Zidane. From thereon, Algeria
failed to qualify for another World Cup until 2010.
Africa Cup of Nations 1990
In
1990, Algeria hosted the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations. In Group A, the
Algerians started the tournament by beating Nigeria (5–1, with doubles
by Djamel Menad and Rabah Madjer and a goal by Djamel Amani), Côte
d'Ivoire (3–0, with goals by Djamel Menad, Tahar Cherif El Ouazzani, and
Cherif Oudjani) and Egypt (2–0, with goals by Djamel Amani and Moussa
Saib). In the semi-finals, Algeria beat Senegal 2–1 (goals by Djamel
Menad and Djamel Amani in front of 85,000 fans in the Stade 5 Juillet
1962.
In the final against Nigeria, in front of 200,000 fans in
the same stadium, Cherif Oudjani, in the 38th minute, enabled Algeria to
win the African Nations Cup for the first time. Djamel Menad was
crowned top scorer of the competition with four goals.
1990–2008: The walk through the desert
Having
won an African Nations Cup title, the Algerian team, however, had not
managed to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. In 1991, the
national team won the Afro-Asian Cup of Nations against Iran. As title
holders, Algeria disappointed at the 1992 African Nations Cup in
Senegal, recording a loss against Côte d'Ivoire (3–0) and a draw against
Congo (1–1, with a goal by Nacer Bouiche). In 1994, Algeria was
disqualified from the 1994 African Nations Cup in Tunisia due to the use
of an ineligible player and failed during the 1994 World Cup
qualifiying.
In 1996, Algeria returned to African Cup of Nations,
but were eliminated by hosts South Africa in the quarter-finals. The
Algerians failed to qualify for the following World Cups in 1998, 2002
and 2006. During the 1998 African Cup of Nations, Algeria finished last
in its group with three defeats and was eliminated in the group stage.
In the 2000 African Cup of Nations, the Fennecs managed to pass to the
first round only to lose to Cameroon (2–1). Algeria once more failed to
pass the first round in the African competition in 2002 but managed to
get to the quarter-finals in 2004; however, they were eliminated by
Morocco by a score of 3–1 after extra-time (the lone Algerian goal was
scored by Abdelmalek Cherrad. Algeria failed to qualify for the
following two Africa Cup of Nations in 2006 and 2008.
World Cup 2010 qualifiers
On
11 October 2008, Algeria returned to the top 20 African teams by
finishing first in their group ahead of Senegal, Gambia, and Liberia for
the second round on the combined 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of
Nations qualifications. In the third and final round of the qualifiers,
Algeria was joined by Zambia, Rwanda, and Egypt. In July 2009, Algeria
made their return amongst the world's top fifty after a 3–1 win against
the double African champions Egypt and a 2–0 away win against Zambia.
Beating Zambia in Blida 1–0 followed by a 3–1 win against Rwanda,
Algeria ensured that the qualification for the World Cup would go down
to the wire with a final encounter against Egypt in Cairo, where nothing
less than a loss by three goals would stop the Fennecs from going to
South Africa. Prior to the game the Algerian team bus was attacked by
violent hooligans leaving several team members injured. This led to a
diplomatic row between the two countries, which resulted in Algeria
halting gas exports to Egypt. Algeria unsurprisingly lost the game 2-0.
Algeria won the resulting play off in Sudan 1-0. Algeria moved to the
29th position in FIFA ranking – one place behind Egypt in the October
2009 ranking. In November 2009, they beat fierce rivals Egypt in a
playoff 2010 World Cup in South Africa and moved to the highest FIFA
ranking ever reached by Algeria (26) in December 2009.[
They were drawn in Group C, where they will face England, the United States, and Slovenia
Africa Cup of Nations 2010
The
team put on a mixed performance in the tournament. Being drawn in Group
A, with Angola, Malawi and Mali, Algeria started poorly by losing 3-0
to group outsiders Malawi. However, they improved in the following game
against Mali, beating them 1-0 thanks to a Rafik Halliche header. In the
last match, they drew 0-0 with Angola, which sent them to the second
round, finishing with the same amount of points as Mali, but with a
superior head-to-head record. Playing in Cabinda, Algeria faced Côte
d'Ivoire in the quarterfinals, who were considered heavy favourites to
qualify. But they got a historic win. After trailing 1-0, Karim Matmour
equalized, but Keita gave the Ivorians the lead in the 89th minute, a
goal which seemed sure to seal their victory. However, the Algerians
equalized with Madjid Bougherra just 2 minutes later in added time, and
Hameur Bouazza gave the Fennecs the lead in extra time. Algeria faced
Egypt in the semi finals, Egypt, in their first meeting since theWorld
Cup qualification play-off. Egypt won the game 4-0 which was the biggest
defeat in the history of both teams meetings. Algeria lost 1-0 to
Nigeria in the 3rd place game and finished fourth in the competition.
