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Preview:
Angola makes their World Cup debut after a tight qualification
campaign where they dethroned African power Nigeria 2-1, on
aggregate. Angola is a fairly large southern African
nation of 12 million. Colonized by
Portugal
in
1575, Angola didn't win independence until 1975, and is one of the five
countries where Portuguese is the official language. Today many of the
players on Angola's national team play for Portuguese clubs, and coach Luis
Oliveira Gonclaves is Brazilian.
Two of Angola's strikers, Fabrice "Akwa" Maieco and
Pedro "Mantorras" Manuel played for Benfica, and the
team overall has a lot of experience playing with each other
internationally.
Interestingly enough, Angola's first tournament match is against Portugal,
which should be a very important game for the whole nation. Whatever the
outcome, participating in the big tournament should be a big boost for Angola's
fans.
Result: Angola lost 1-0 to Portugal
in the first match, but managed to pull off two draws against Mexico and
Iran. They lead briefly against Iran, and had they been able to hold on
for the win they would have been tied with Mexico
on points and goal differential. The high point of Angola's campaign was
the performance of unheralded goalkeeper Joao Ricardo who stopped 33 out of 35
shots on goal.
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