Angola national football team

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Angola

Nickname

Palancas Negras

Association

Federação Angolana
de Futebol

Confederation

CAF (Africa)

Head coach

Luís Oliveira Gonçalves

Most caps

Fabrice "Akwa" Maieco (80)

Top scorer

Fabrice "Akwa" Maieco (36)

Home stadium

Estádio da Cidadela

FIFA code

ANG

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

45 (July 2000)

Lowest FIFA ranking

124 (March 1994)

Elo ranking





First kit





Second kit

First international

Angola 1 - 0 Cuba

(Angola; 1 June 1977)

Biggest win

Angola 7 - 1 Swaziland

(Luanda, Angola; 23 April 2000)

Biggest defeat

Portugal 6 - 0 Angola

(Lisbon, Portugal; 23 March 1989)

World Cup

Appearances

1 (First in 2006)

Best result

Round 1, 2006

African Nations Cup

Appearances

3 (First in 1996)

Best result

Round 1, all

The Angola national football team, nicknamed Palancas Negras, ("The Black Antelopes") is the national team of Angola and is controlled by the Federação Angolana de Futebol. On October 8, 2005, Angola qualified for the World Cup for the first time ever.

Luís Oliveira Gonçalves took over as coach of the Angola national football team in 2003, after successful appearances with the Angola Under-20 national football team. The coach is the nation's favourite and the team managed to finish in first place of Group 4 Football World Cup 2006 (qualification), ahead of traditional African football powers like Nigeria and Cameroon. Group 4 was considered one of the toughest during the Qualifiers.

Captain Fabrice Akwa scored some crucial goals, including the winners against Rwanda in the last game, and in the game against Nigeria. Akwa is the fans' favourite having scored 30 goals in 67 international appearances. "This is the first time we are in the finals and we want to show off our football. We also want to show there is more to Angola than just war and oil," Akwa said.

Angola's best known player is the striker Pedro Mantorras, who plays for the Portuguese team Benfica.

1 Key players
2 Angola Football Achievements
3 History
4 World Cup record
5 African Nations Cup record
6 2006 World Cup squad
7 2006 World Cup Information
8 External links

[edit] Key players

Pedro Mantorras - SL Benfica
Rui Marques - Leeds United (On loan to Hull City)
Marco Airosa - FC Barreirense signed to UD Leiria
Kali - FC Barreirense
Fabrice Akwa - Al Wakra

[edit] Angola Football Achievements

COSAFA Cup :

3 Times Champion (1999, 2001, 2004)

Central African Games :

1 Time Runners-Up

[edit] History

Angola came to international prominence in the 1990s with appearances in two African Nations Cup tournaments.

They finished runners-up behind Cameroon in the 1998 and 2002 World Cup qualifying series, losing only one game in the process. They finally qualified for their first World Cup in 2006, and performed credibly to finish third in their group behind Portugal and Mexico.

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1982 - Did not enter
1986 to 2002 - Did not qualify
2006 - Round 1

[edit] African Nations Cup record

1957 to 1980 - Did not enter
1982 - Did not qualify
1984 - Did not qualify
1986 - Did not enter

Fans of the Angolan national football team in Cologne supporting their side in its first World Cup appearance

1988 to 1992 - Did not qualify
1994 - Did not enter
1996 - Round 1
1998 - Round 1
2000 to 2004 - Did not qualify
2006 - Round 1

[edit] 2006 World Cup squad

Head coach: Luís Oliveira Gonçalves

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Club
1	GK	João Ricardo	7 January 1970	29	free agent
2	DF	Marcos Airosa	6 August 1984	2	UD Leiria
3	DF	Jamba	10 July 1977	38	AS Aviacao
4	DF	Lebo Lebo	29 May 1977	15	Petro Atletico
5	DF	Kali	11 October 1978	24	FC Sion
6	MF	Miloy	27 May 1981	14	InterClube
7	MF	Figueiredo	28 November 1972	25	Östers IF
8	MF	André Macanga	14 May 1978	35	Kuwait SC
9	FW	Mantorras	18 March 1982	13	Benfica
10	FW	Akwá	30 May 1977	80	free agent
11	MF	Mateus	7 March 1983	7	Gil Vicente
12	GK	Lamá	1 February 1981	9	Petro Atletico
13	MF	Édson	2 March 1980	8	Pacos Ferreira
14	MF	Mendonça	9 October 1982	37	Varzim
15	DF	Rui Marques	3 September 1977	3	Leeds United
16	FW	Flávio	30 December 1979	47	Al Ahly
17	MF	Zé Kalanga	12 October 1983	26	Dinamo Bucureşti
18	FW	Love	14 March 1979	36	AS Aviação
19	FW	André Titi Buengo	11 February 1980	2	Clermont Foot
20	DF	Locó	25 December 1984	14	Primeiro Agosto
21	DF	Luis Delgado	1 November 1979	20	FC Metz
22	GK	Mário	1 June 1985	1	InterClube
23	DF	Marco Abreu	8 December 1974	3	Portimonense

[edit] 2006 World Cup Information

When picking the squad, Gonçalves sought advice from Chelsea manager José Mourinho, whose wife was born in Angola. They lost their opening game in the World Cup to a theoretically much stronger Portuguese side. The final score was 1-0, which was a surprise for most people as Portugal dominated throughout the match, but Angola managed to hold on. Pauleta scored the only goal of the game. Angola played Mexico to a 0-0 draw in Hannover on the 16th of June, earning their first World Cup point and later they also played 1-1 against Iran. They took the lead in the last match when Flávio scored after an hour. This gave them a theoretical chance to qualify for the next round, but Iran equalized after 15 minutes, ending Angola's hopes.