In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the African team that played the first game also collapsed. Despite holding out for more than 80 minutes, Senegal, the "king of Africa", was lost in the "tulip" and was unknowingly killed by his opponent by two goals. In today's world football dominated by Europe and the United States, African teams are almost always unknown in the World Cup, and this year's World Cup will probably be no exception. Why is African football in decline? Senegal, Ghana, Tunisia, Cameroon and Morocco, who can stop Ragnarok? The answer floats in the wind.
The Dutch team is the "uncrowned king", but Senegal is not weak. As the first African team to play, with the aura of "African Cup of Nations champions", Senegal is still full of ambitions in this World Cup. Despite losing top star and second-placed Ballon d'Or this year, Senegal played back and forth in the face of the Dutch youth storm, shooting far more than the Netherlands and even better than the Netherlands. However, Senegal collapsed in the last 10 minutes of the game, and the Netherlands' first shot on target turned into a goal, scoring two goals with just three shots on target. We will regret the loss of the African lion, but at the same time have to face the harsh reality: like Asian football, African football seems to be getting farther and farther away from the world's great teams.
At the last World Cup in Russia, African football performed poorly, with five African teams – Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt – all eliminated early in the group stage, their worst record in more than 30 years. African football has had brief successes at the World Cup in the past, with Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana reaching the quarterfinals in 2010. However, their performance has become worse and worse in the past few editions. Why?
Some experts have analyzed that in the past ten years, African football has been too heavily influenced by European football styles and lost its own playing style and characteristics. The physical fitness and speed of African footballers have always been very prominent, but the technique is slightly rough, in order to improve the technique, European coaches landed in large numbers, the characteristics and style of African football have been changed, but have become more chaotic and loose, Handan toddlers have learned four different things. On the other hand, the more fundamental reason is that Africa's poverty and backwardness have led to the fact that teams cannot compete with European and American strong teams in terms of youth training, club investment, player salaries, etc., and match-fixing is a fatal blow to them. This is why, although many players in African teams play in the top flight, they can play their abilities when playing for the club, and they are not good when they return to the national team, which is both personal reasons and the influence of the general environment. The physical quality is still there, but the psychological quality is not up to standard, and it is often easy to collapse in the end. Seeing more and more black faces in European powerhouses such as France and the Netherlands, it is not difficult to understand the decline of African football.
Before the match, many experts believed that Senegal was the African team most likely to do well at the World Cup in Qatar. Although the situation of the group group is more favorable, how far can they go even if they can barely qualify after losing the first game?