Advertisement
Algeria improvement reflected by progress in Brazil
Algeria's Essaid Belkalem (C) celebrates with coach Vahid Halilhodzic. PHOYO BY REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
By Mark Gleeson
28/06/2014
SALVADOR Brazil (Reuters) - Algeria delivered on a growing reputation and marked themselves out as a potential African football force for the forseeable future in reaching the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil.
A battling display, backed up by good technical qualities and impressive fitness, saw the north Africans rally from a goal down to hold Russia 1-1 in Curitiba on Thursday and finish second in Group H behind Belgium.
It was the first time in four attempts Algeria, among the top ranked African teams over the last two years, had made it past the first round and came four years after a torrid tournament in South Africa where they went home without scoring. Progress has been swift since, albeit not without one or two blips along the way.
Coach Vahid Halilhodzic has toiled hard to put together a side not only gifted with craft and skill but also now able to compete physically and show the necessary discipline at key junctures of the game.
“We are a team who can play, we have the technical skills but also a wonderful fighting spirit,” he said after booking a second round berth.
Algeria showed good evidence of their new-found qualities as they closed Russia down in the last half-hour of Thursday’s match.
Once they were on course for qualification, Algeria did not look like losing it.
His own players had moaned in the build-up to the World Cup that his pre-tournament training regime was too tough, but Halilhodzic can now point to the benefits of hard work. His goofy grin at the final whistle also betrayed the immense satisfaction of achieving with a country where he has been in constant conflict, notably his own federation president and a feverish media.
He is set to depart the job after the World Cup.
Algeria now revive memories of their best footballing moment when they take on the Germans in Porto Alegre on Monday.
It was at their first World Cup appearance in 1982 that they beat then West Germany 2-1 in Spain in the first major win for an African country over a world soccer power. “The difference on that day was our technical quality against the German power,” warned Nourredine Kourichi, who played in Gijon and now serves as Halilhodzic’s assistant.
“We had prepared a bit like we have for this tournament, with a serenity and with an inexperience but a real enthusiasm,” he told reporters.
Add new comment