David and Goliath: Diminutive Snethemba Ngidi stood his man against the tall, strong Ghanaians In the build-up to Euro 2012, a couple of friends and I recently attended an u/20 international football tournament in Cape Town. We watched two matches - South Africa vs Ghana and Nigeria vs Argentina. On display were some of the best future football talent: look out for future star Snethemba Ngidi, pictured, the diminutive South African central attacking midfielder currently signed at SuperSport United, who won plaudits - even from the Argentinian coach - for his distribution and attacking skills; he also seems to enjoy it. But, as the results over the last week have shown, an all too familiar trend for African countries appear: the African teams struggled to compete against their Latin American, European and Asian rivals, in this case Brazil, Argentina and Japan (there are no European countries participating in the tournament). An African country has never reached the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup. It has never won the FIFA Confederations Cup. Only once in the eighteen times the event has been staged has an African country - Ghana in 2009, beating Brazil on penalties - won the u/20 FIFA World Cup.
The Continents Cup
The Continents Cup
The Continents Cup
David and Goliath: Diminutive Snethemba Ngidi stood his man against the tall, strong Ghanaians In the build-up to Euro 2012, a couple of friends and I recently attended an u/20 international football tournament in Cape Town. We watched two matches - South Africa vs Ghana and Nigeria vs Argentina. On display were some of the best future football talent: look out for future star Snethemba Ngidi, pictured, the diminutive South African central attacking midfielder currently signed at SuperSport United, who won plaudits - even from the Argentinian coach - for his distribution and attacking skills; he also seems to enjoy it. But, as the results over the last week have shown, an all too familiar trend for African countries appear: the African teams struggled to compete against their Latin American, European and Asian rivals, in this case Brazil, Argentina and Japan (there are no European countries participating in the tournament). An African country has never reached the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup. It has never won the FIFA Confederations Cup. Only once in the eighteen times the event has been staged has an African country - Ghana in 2009, beating Brazil on penalties - won the u/20 FIFA World Cup.