Latin America lights up Africa's World Cup (Feature)

By Peter Mayer Jun 18, 2010, 14:54 GMT

Bloemfontein, South Africa - As African teams flounder in the World Cup, the first held on their continent, the superstitious may be inclined to blame Pele for delivering the proverbial 'kiss of death'.

The former Brazilian star has a reputation for notoriously off-the-mark predictions, as in his assertion that an African team would win the World Cup by the end of the previous century.

Over time, Pele's much-quoted epithet has been applied to each successive World Cup tournament, but an African victory has remained elusive.

With the first round in South Africa entering the critical stage, only Ghana out of Africa's six participating nations has won a game.

In contrast, some Latin American teams, Argentina, Mexico and Uruguay have sparkled, while others like Chile and Paraguay have done enough to suggest that a place in the next knockout phase could be theirs for the taking.

And much-fancied Brazil's have made their presence felt even if less emphatically than expected, winning 2-1 against minnows North Korea, despite dominating the match.

Argentina began their campaign with a 1-0 win over Nigeria, but the score-line flattered the perennial African hopefuls as Lionel Messi repeatedly and dangerously darted in from deep behind a three-pronged-attack including Gonzalo Higuain and Carlos Tevez.

In that match, Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama pulled off a string of spectacular saves, including a couple from Messi shots.

But in their second Group B match, Diego Maradona's men finally unleashed their firepower with a Higuain hat-trick in a 4-1 crushing of South Korea, a team that had easily overcome Greece in their opener.

Still, the performance of the two-times World Champions against Nigeria - but also against the Asian team - was not without some cause of concern for their fans.

Time and again the Super Eagles preyed down the flanks and also in gaps left down the middle to expose the Argentinian defence.

In the match against South Korea, the Argentinian triumph was slightly blotted by defender Martin Demichelis serious lapse, one that allowed Lee Chung Yong to snatch the ball and score just before half-time.

The Argentinians later blamed the noise made by the vuvuzelas for a communication breakdown they said had led to the error.

Argentina's southern hemisphere neighbours, Uruguay, opened with a goalless draw against France, but then broke local hearts when they found their stride against South Africa's Bafana Bafana.

In the 3-0 win, Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan scored twice - including one from a penalty - against a South African team reduced to 10 men. Uruguay's win was however, a deserved one.

As for Paraguay, they held reigning World Champions Italy to a 1-1 draw in their opener.

Coach Gerardo Martino's men must believe they have cleared the highest hurdle in a Group F which also includes Slovakia and New Zealand.

But along with Argentina it is perhaps Mexico that has impressed the most in South Africa.

In the cauldron of national expectation that was Johannesburg's Soccer City during the tournament's inaugural game, Mexico emerged with a draw against South Africa.

Their subsequent 2-0 success over France - with Manchester United's exciting new signing, 22-year-old Javier Hernandez, bagging the first - has strongly positioned them to progress to the next round.

A dark horse for many, Mexico will be looking to at least equal their best-ever World Cup placing, the quarter-final berth they achieved in 1970 and 1986 when on both occasions they were also tournament hosts.

And although during a 2007 visit to Mexico Pele said he expected great things for the country's team in South Africa, they were probably relieved to hear that he later predicted a Brazil-Spain final.