After more than a week of action now at the African Nations Cup there is little conviction of the capabilities of the African sides that will do duty at the upcoming World Cup in South Africa.



All of the five World Cup-bound sides failed to win their opening games, although admittedly they are all still in the competition.



World Cup-bound teams far from impressive


Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria were beaten and the Ivory Coast looked below par, perhaps still freaked by the attack on Togo in Cabinda, where they too were based.



Certainly, Didier Drogba and his teammates held the upper hand against a Burkina Faso side that deliberately set out to defend in numbers and were patently chasing a goalless draw, but even then, the Ivorian shooting and approach play was well below par.



They looked much better against Ghana in their second game and must be considered Africa's best hope in mid-year, but is hard to see them providing the kind of upset results the continent is hankering after Algeria, who will share a group with England, are patently going to be World Cup cannon fodder.



In a sense, they have already won their World Cup in the passionate beating of bitter rivals Egypt in the qualifying, where Algeria peaked way above their real potential.



In Angola their limitations have being badly exposed. To lose to Malawi is to prove that the sudden improvement of form over the last 12 months from Algeria, who has been on a steady decline over the last decade, was something of a brief anomaly.



That they made it to the quarter-finals does not to assuage the prediction they will not make any impression in South Africa later this year.



Lack of balance for Nigeria


Nigeria, who were handed the easiest of group pairings for any of the African countries at the World Cup draw in Cape Town last month, also squeezed into the World Cup finals on the back of a far from inspiring qualifying campaign and again proved they are not a side to inspire much confidence.



The problem is Nigeria is top heavy with strikers (most of whom have long standing injury problems) but lack a playmaker and midfield inspiration. No new players have come through to adequately replace the generation of Austin Okocha, Finidi George and Sunday Oliseh.



Failure in the Nations Cup will likely see changes at the top for Nigeria too. There is never any time to build solid foundation for the Super Eagles, such is the fevered demand for continued success from their fans. As a result, Nigeria seems these days to be always groping around in the dark.



Cameroon's loss to Gabon in their opening game was a shock and changes to their team need to be made. The international career of Rigobert Song must surely be at an end.



But they have the capacity to bounce back, as demonstrated against Zambia on Sunday. They were badly beaten in their opening game of the last Nations Cup and still recovered to go all the way to the finals.



There is a tough sprit about the Indomitable Lions.



But at the World Cup in less than six months' time, Cameroon is in a tough group with the Dutch and Australians. It leaves hopes of a fiesta for African football looking rather tenuous.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifaworldcup/blog/2010/01/nations-cup-a-sign-of-things-to-come-for-african-teams.html