-
Related
Ivory Coast could make it to the 2006 World Cup final in Germany if they survive initial matches in their tough group, Franz Beckenbauer said on Saturday.
Ivory Coast, one of five African teams who qualified for the tournament, face Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro in Group C, regarded as the toughest.
"Ivory Coast are facing a very, very difficult group...it's probably the most difficult group of all," Beckenbauer, head of Germany's World Cup organising committee, told reporters during a visit to the West African state.
"It's a great challenge for them and there's a prognostic that if Ivory Coast survives this group phase, they have a good chance to get to the final," he said as a projector screen behind him counted down each second of the 175 remaining days until the tournament begins on June 9.
Ivory Coast, whose team are nicknamed the Elephants, was the last leg in a tour of the qualifying African nations by Beckenbauer, who captained West Germany to the world title in 1974 and steered them to victory as coach in 1990.
Beckenbauer will also visit Australia, the Americas and the European countries that qualified by February next year.
While visiting Ghana on Thursday, he advised its Black Stars national side to be wary of one of the United States following their strong performance in the 2002 World Cup.
"You mustn't take anyone in your group for granted. Be careful of the US. They reached the quarter-finals (in 2002) and almost beat Germany," he said. However, the Kaiser, who met the presidents of Ghana and Ivory Coast during his visits, said Africa's rising standards in football were helping the continent to make a name for itself in international competition.
"The quality of African football has improved greatly. Five or 10 years ago there were just a couple of teams in the finals, and now we have five for the first time, and it could even be more in the future," he said in Ghana's capital Accra.
African champions Tunisia, Angola and Togo also qualified from Africa for the World Cup.
