Crisis In The National Team?

September 28th, 2010 | by: kiko | Comments(4)

Before the kick-off in Uganda, Palancas coach Herve Renard claimed that Angola had “brilliant” footballers. From that moment, a win in Uganda seemed a certainty.

The whole country seemed to forget that Uganda had won comfortably in 2006 and expected the team to breeze through the match. Guess what the final score was? 3-0 to Uganda!

The result left the local media and supporters gobsmacked and made a mockery of Renard’s earlier claim. In his post-match interview, Renard was forced to admit that “for a team that hoped to win comfortably away from home, the team’s display was shocking”.

So what exactly happened to Angola?

Despite the fact that the National team has a couple of young “talented” players, they are yet to click as an unit.
There is no doubt that Kivuvu, Djalma and Job are “brilliant” players that will probably go on to play critical roles for the National team’s success in the near future. However, they were hastily thrown into the National team’s starting eleven, making it more difficult for them to adapt. They simply require more time to fully understand the national team’s setup.

Considering that the National team only trains together for a week or less before each match, it should not have been a surprise that the Palancas Negras would struggle away from home, against an underrated Uganda side that deserves more respect and praise than it currently gets.

Expect Angola to improve gradually and hopefully recover early enough to reach the second phase of the AFCON qualifiers.

So, Is there really a crisis in the Angolan national team? No. At least not on current evidence.