“Aye, There’s the Rub!”

When I was a college student in Montpellier, France back in 1981-82, the 1982
World Cup was taking place at several different venues in Spain. 

Prior to 1982, most of the soccer/football world had kind of a paternalistic,
condescending view of African Football. You have to remember at that time, that
there were no African players who were starting or creating a buzz in England,
Germany, Italy and Spain-then as now, the top 4 leagues in Europe. The majority
of African players in Europe were in France, like Roger Milla of Cameroon with
Bastia and Algerians Salah Assad with Mulhouse and Mustapha Dahleb with PSG
(some players, like Algeria's Lakhdar Belloumi -some feel the greatest Algerian
player of all time- refused to play in Europe) 

The 1982 World Cup started to change the popular conception that African
football/soccer was inferior. Cameroon did not lose a game in a group that
included World Champs Italy and 3rd place winner Poland. Algeria created the
shock of the tournament, defeating eventual finalists West Germany 2-1. One can
argue that this ranks right up there with the greatest upsets in World Cup
history, along with US beating England in 1950, North Korea beating Italy in
1966 and Cameroon beating Argentina back in 1990.

One of the pictures that I remember the most after the shock win against the
Germans was a picture of Salah Assad leaving hulking German Forward Horst
Hrubesch in his dust. The Algerians looked a sure thing to make the second
round-which would have been a first for an African country. They had two wins
and one loss. The problem for the fast and slick Algerians was that Austria and
West Germany would work out a perfect non-aggression pact that would see them
through to the next round-and condemn the Algerians to a trip back to North
Africa. Germany scored in the opening minutes, and then the Germans and
Austrians played kick ball with no attempt to score. The 1-0 result was the one
result that see the Teutonic nations through and send the Algerians out. I
remember L'Equipe showing a picture with Algerian fans in Spain flashing paper
money lit on fire, they knew that the fix was in. It was a sad, cynical chapter
in World Cup history that makes Theiry Henry's handball against Ireland look
sporting, by comparison.

The Algerian's had a poor World Cup in Mexico in 1986. And had not been back to
a World Cup ever since. 

The sentimental part of me was very glad to see that Algeria not only beat Egypt
in Khartoum on Wednesday to punch their ticket to South Africa,astunning first-half strike by defender Antar Yahya gave Algeria victory in the
playoff match.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/11/18/african.roundup.ap/index.html#ixzz0XMGRbNKA 

The winning goal was very high on style points. It was scored
on what Spanish Language commentator Andres Cantor would call a "Gol-azo"-a
wonder goal.
After the lucky way France qualified for the World Cup, it was good to see some
underdogs, like Algeria and Slovenia, qualify for the World Cup on a couple of
great goals. 

One thing for sure-The performances by both Algeria and Cameroon in 1982 were a
watershed moment that changed the face of football in Europe forevermore. Their
performance opened the door for players like Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and
George Weah to be considered not just great African players, but great
players-period.