The Ivory Coast National Soccer Team and the World Cup

The first time the Ivory Coast (or Côte d'Ivoire )World Cup, with a last minute effort against Malawi.
national team made an appearance in the FIFA WorldHe is joined on the squad by club teammate Salomon
cup was during the last tournament in Germany inKalou, as well as Manchester City's Kolo Toure and
2006. The team had turned in some gritty andArsenal's Emanuel Eboue. Others on the team play in
gripping performances to get themselves there, butSpain, Germany, France and Italy at club level.
once in Germany they failed to advance out of theThe Ivory Coast team is notable for having taken
first round, mainly due to the fact they were stuck inpart in, and won, the two highest scoring penalty
a "Group of Death" with the likes of Argentina andshootouts in the history of any international
the Netherlands.competition. They defeated Ghana 11-10 in the 1992
Few members of the national team play club soccerAfrican Cup of Nations after an astounding 24 shots
on their home continent; with many plying their tradeon goal were taken and then repeated the feat to
daily for some of the best known European clubs indefeat Cameroon 12-11 in the 2006 African Cup of
soccer. In fact in 2008 the Ivory Coast became theNations.
only national team to field a 23 man side consistingThey have had some turnover recently regarding
completely of soccer players who played abroad. Ittheir coaching situation, and it now appears that
was Chelsea's Didier Drogba who scored the goalSven-Goran Eriksson will lead the team at the 2010
that secured the team's qualification to the 2010World Cup.