FIFA World Cups

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A Tribute to Haiti – The Magic Island!

Despite several problems in the Island, in 1974, the Haitian squad ranked among Latin America’s finest teams, along with Brazil and Argentina, as well as Uruguay and Chile. In that time, the world’s first black republic qualified for the X World Cup in Munich (West Germany). The country’s qualification for the 1974 World Cup was one of the surprises in the Western Hemisphere. Certainly, Haiti did not win the tournament, but it won many hearts in Germany. During the global event, its men’s soccer team finished 15th, ahead of Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Haiti’s first FIFA World Cup Squad is still very popular with local fans. Soccer is wildly popular in the Island.

Country Profile: Haiti

Haiti shares the Island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic (Caribbean). The capital city is Port-au-Prince. By the early 1800s Haiti became the first black republic on Earth-a black government took over in the Island. Over the next 200 years, the nation had a host of dictatorships and anti-democratic governments. But it is democratic nation since the mid-2000s. An earthquake struck Port-au-Prince in January 2010; killed more than 200,000 people and the Haitian capital was left in ruins.Because of this, Haiti became the world’s poorest nation.

The Gold Age

After Haiti failed to qualify for the 1970 FIFA World Cup, the men’s team persisted and continued to train for the next FIFA World Cup. Before the end of 1973 the CONCACAF Tournament -the region’s most important soccer event– was held in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. During that pre-World Cup tournament, the host country’s team placed first, outpacing Mexico, one of the five best squads at the Games of the XX Olympiad in West Germany in 1972, and Trinidad Tobago. The Haitian squad was the only Caribbean team to have eliminated Mexico. As a result, Haiti qualified for the 1974 World Cup. It had never won an international event of such standing before. Haitians were thrilled with the team’s success. Four years ago, El Salvador had defeated Haiti 1-0 in the final of the CONCACAF Championship in Kingston, Jamaica.

Competing in its first World Cup in 1974, the Island became one of the 15 best teams on the Planet. Its poor performance at the FIFA World Cup notwithstanding, Haiti won the admiration and respect of its rivals. Also during that event, Haiti’s athlete Emmanuel Sanon -a Caribbean soccer icon– was one of the most popular soccer players from Latin America. His soccer wonders were well-known by experts in the 1970s.

According to Almanaque Deportivo 1976 (Sports Almanac 1976), the under-16 national football team won the World Championship in the United Mexican States in September 1975, at the expense of Sweden and Australia.

By 1977 the men’s soccer team was runner-up in the CONCACAF Tournament in North America, behind Mexico (host country). In the years that followed, in 1981, Haiti finished sixth in Honduras, Central America. Twenty-six years later, the under-17 national football squad qualified for the global tournament in South Korea. At the 2007 Under-17 World Cup, the team of Haiti tied with France 1-1.

Some outstanding footballers have come from the Island: Emmanuel Sanon, Wilner Nazaire, Roger Saint-Vil, and Joseph Gaetjens,for example. By 1950 Mr Gaetjens competed in the IV World Cup under the American flag. He is best known as the player who scored the famous goal that defeated England 1-0 in 1950. He left Haiti for the States in the late 1940s, and then became a U.S. citizen. Meanwhile, Josmer “Jozy” Altidore, whose parents are from Haiti,is one of the most popular players in the United States of America.

The Fans of Mississippi State Bulldogs had been witnessing the games of their team in the field for a long time – they have cheered with every victory that are achieved with efforts and mourned for every losses incurred. It was unfortunate to take note however that the history of the school didn’t manifest much victory as more of the losses were noted. The Bulldogs have been struggling in their performance in the football field since 1905, and for most people outside the state they are becoming a team that will not be of much concern to their opponents. Their fans can always be seen following their standings with high hopes that they will emerge and turn the tides of fortune in their favor.

Conference concerns
Taking a glance at Bulldogs’ history, you can conveniently say that they are just one of the teams that wouldn’t seem to pull it all together. Well, it will be wrong to say that. The truth is; Mississippi State is suffering from a disadvantage of a major concern; they are playing the NCAAs Southeastern Conference or (SEC). All football enthusiasts are aware that SEC has that reputation of being the strongest in the nations’ conferences historically speaking. It is dominated by motivated major league teams like the Louisiana State, Alabama and Florida; the SEC is comprised of difficult conferences which is makes success a difficult thing to achieve. The nations’ best players in high school want to play on teams that win regularly; that is why recruiting for Mississippi State is never easy.

For a high school superstar it is obvious that when being recruited in the SEC by teams that are not considered to be that famous in winning games it would be a turn off, especially those who want to make it big in the college ranks. Given an option to choose to play for a strong team that is outside of the SEC like Texas or the Ohio state, for example – or playing for the SEC teams that are considered to be weak like the Mississippi State; an average player would most likely to choose the Texas or Ohio state over the Mississippi State. Their thinking would be that it would be worthless to put an effort playing for a team that doesn’t seemed to have a chance in winning their conference title.

Will there be a change of tide?
The structure of the SEC in terms of team performance is seen by most analysts to stay the way they are as it was in the recent years – Louisiana State, Alabama and Florida competing over the Conference crown and for a Bowl Championship Series. The Bulldog fans see the radiance of the spirited team on their field practice. There are many factors that should make the bulldogs not lose hope, the combination of veteran and young talents on the field is a good start in the foreseen progress that the team will eventually accomplish.

The battlefield positioning however can often bewilder even the most optimistic forecast; Mississippi State will surely be sharing the same dilemma on the next season. Beginning with the selection of the quarterback; it is junior against freshmen the competition between Tyler Russell and Chris Relf is building up, and there is this vast predicament on running back, the final organization of the starting team has already been decided. One thing for sure though, the fans of the bulldogs will constantly occupy the stands cheering unconditionally for the team that is representing their school.

France made their entry into the international field of Football in 1903. The team, associated with the French Football Federation, goes under the nickname “Les Bleus” (The Blues) in France. Today, France’s football team offers a high level of competition in matches – but believe it or not, the team used to be very modest, one that some would consider an “easy game”. Their first international match was versus Belgium, and was a tie game. In 1930, France’s national team was one of the four initial teams from Europe that participated in the inaugural World Cup. Nonetheless, at that time, France’s team was still looked down upon as an easy defeat. In the mid 1950′s, France did see some mild success, for once not being at the bottom of the standings.

Their first true experience at being a huge success came at the end of 1984. From December of 1984 to April of 1985, France was ranked number one in the Elo ranking categorization of football teams. This success was held out fairly well, and met another high point from May of 2001 to May of 2002, when the team from France sustained a FIFA ranking of number one; today, this number one FIFA ranking means more worldwide, as FIFA is an internationally recognizable organization.

Perhaps most memorable for many people is France’s win of the FIFA World Cup in 1998. Thirty two different teams, from five different confederations, competed through 64 matches. France won nearly every match that they competed in, and ended up taking the championship upon beating Brazil 0 to 3. Other awards given to the French football team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup include “Most Entertaining Team”, and the “FIFA Fair Play” Trophy. The Stadium that the French Football team usually plays at is the “Stade de France”, which was built in 1995 and opened during 1998. The construction of the stadium cost over 285 Million Euros. In fact, the stadium was built for the purpose of the 1998 FIFA world cup – it’s both ironic and fitting that France would win the world cup at their own stadium the year that it opened. After the World Cup, the Stade de France has continuously been used for various football events, although for the majority of the year, the stadium is empty. The majority of events that France’s team participates in at the Stade de France are won by the French team, partially owing to the home team advantage of having more frequent access to that field, as well as higher morale and support from the crowd.

France’s team may still not be the most reputable team around, but from their humble beginnings they were able to rise into a team that is recognizable in many places around the world, and were even able to claim the glorious title of World Champions.