Joining an elite club

A story today about Angola joining the elite club of nations that have qualified for the World Cup. As always, the Professor delivers a great quote:

“Firstly we want to show there is more to Angola than just war and strife. We want to prove that we have tactical discipline, professionalism and that we can play,” Oliveira Goncalves said in an interview with Reuters. “But we are not going to win the World Cup. We are going there to fight hard and to make our people proud of us.”

And this from Akwa who says he wants Portugal to do well and that he expects a better game than the previous Angola-Portugal matches:

“We are actually all very good friends and I hope that both Portugal and Angola qualify for the next round,” he said.

It is going to be interesting to follow how the media from around the world cover Angola. I get the sense that they are trying to make out the Portugal match to be something more than it really is. Of course the game has meaning for both sides. But the real meaning is that it is the opening game of the World Cup for the teams. That is the true motivation. It should be a real thriller!