Africa Rising?

The first round of matches at Africa's first World Cup has perhaps been a little disappointing for its representatives. Defeats for Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria and draws for South Africa and Ivory Coast have left African fans wanting more and only Ghana have fully delivered with Sunday's victory over Serbia.

In fairness, few sides have lit up the tournament to date but we are already starting to wonder which African sides will make it out of the group stages. Algeria probably won't, Bafana Bafana face an uphill struggle with games to come against Uruguay and France and Cameroon and Nigeria are already 3 points adrift in their respective groups.

At this stage the hopes of Ghana and Ivory Coast look strongest though Ivory Coast may need to get a result against Brazil and to dominate resilient North Korea to make it through. For Ghana, their challenge is to beat Australia on Saturday. Do this and they will be almost guaranteed a place in the last 16 and a potential match-up with England. Lofty expectations for the Black Stars and we hope they continue to light up Africa's prospects this year.