Angola national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Angola
Badge = Angola_FA.gif
FIFA Trigramme = ANG
Nickname = Palancas Negras
(The Black Antelopes)
Association = Federação Angolana
de Futebol
Confederation = CAF (Africa)
Captain = Akwá
Coach = "Vacant"
Most caps = Akwá (80)
Top scorer = Akwá (36)
Home Stadium = Estádio da Cidadela
FIFA Rank = 68
FIFA max = 45
FIFA max date = July 2000
FIFA min = 124
FIFA min date = March 1994

Elo Rank = 71
Elo max = 50
Elo max date = Sept-Oct 2006

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First game = Flagicon|Angola Angola 1 - 0 Cuba Flagicon|Cuba (Angola; 1 June, 1977)
Largest win = Flagicon|Angola Angola 7 - 1 Swaziland Flagicon|Swaziland (Luanda, Angola; 23 April, 2000)
Largest loss = Flagicon|Portugal Portugal 6 - 0 Angola Flagicon|Angola (Lisbon, Portugal; 23 March, 1989)
World cup apps = 1
World cup first = 2006
World cup best = Round 1, 2006
Regional name = Africa Nations Cup
Regional cup apps = 4
Regional cup first = 1996
Regional cup best = Quarterfinals, 2008The 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, winning their qualifying group ahead of three-time qualifiers Nigeria. They did not progress past the first round of the tournament

Luís Oliveira Gonçalves took over as coach of the team in 2003, having previously managed the Under-20 team, and is the most successful in Angolan history, having lead them into their first World Cup, and to the quarterfinals of the Africa Nations Cup for the first time.

Key players

*Figueiredo - Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ
*Mantorras - SL Benfica
*Rui Marques - Leeds United
*Akwá - Petro Atlético
*Flávio Amado - Al Ahly
*Manucho Gonçalves - Manchester United FC

Angola Football Achievements

:COSAFA Cup :::*3 Times Champion (1999, 2001, 2004):Central African Games :::*1 Time Runners-Up

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.

World Cup record

*1930 to 1982 - "Did not enter"
*1986 to 2002 - "Did not qualify"
*2006 - Round 1
*2010 - "Can not qualify"

African Nations Cup record

*1957 to 1980 - "Did not enter"
*1982 - "Did not qualify"
*1984 - "Did not qualify"
*1986 - "Did not enter"
*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
*2008 - Quarterfinals
*2010 - Qualified automatically as co-host

=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.

With memorable saves from their keeper João Ricardo, Angola played Mexico to a 0-0 draw in Hannover on the 16th of June, earning their first World Cup point.

For their third match, the team 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.

Current Squad

The following players were called for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against Benin on September 7 2008.

Recent Call Ups

The following players have been called up for the team in 2008.

External links

* [http://www.fafutebol-angola.og.ao/ Angola FA]
* [http://www.a2bworldcup.com/angola.html Angola World Cup news]
*http://angola.worldcupblog.org
* [http://www.worldcuplatest.com/worldcup2006/groupD/angola/teamprofile Team profile of the Angolan national football team, including World Cup 2006 fixtures and results from the Qualifying tournament.]
* [http://www.martin-muehlbauer.com/html/page13.html Image Gallery of the World Cup Match Angola vs. Portugal]
* [http://www.weltfussball.de/teams.php?m_id=70/ Angola] at Weltfussball.
* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/php/land.php?landid=6/ Angola] at National Football Teams.
* [http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/nationalmannschaft/3585/angola/kader/transferdaten.html Angola] at Transfermarkt.