Coming into the World Cup, Côte d’Ivoire was widely regarded as the most talented team coming out of Africa.
Now Ghana is the lone African team with a chance to qualify for the second round of the tournament, and the vanquished Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire are pulling for them.
”I wish them, really, all the best,” Côte d’Ivoire striker Bonaventure Kalou said of Ghana, which closes out Group E play with a crucial match against the United States on Thursday. ”I think they are now the only hope for Africa to have a good place.”
The Elephants were dealt the misfortune of a difficult Group C that included Argentina and The Netherlands.
Ghana’s group has been no easy road, either, opening with the Italians and Czechs.
Ghana lost to Italy but then shocked the Czechs with a 2-0 victory to pull into second place in the group. The top two teams from each of the eight groups will advance to the round of 16.
”A lot of people were expecting so much for us. … We feel like we let a lot of people down,” Kalou said of his Côte d’Ivoire squad while in Munich for the Elephants’ final World Cup game against Serbia-Montenegro on Wednesday night. ”We hope that Ghana will do better than us.” – Sapa-AP