Like it or not, the World Cup is upon us. So rev up your remote control; figure out that Bruce Arena is the U.S. coach, not a new stadium; and join the planet’s several billion soccer-crazed fans for the duration.
The next four, football-saturated weeks (Friday-July 9) will be infinitely more enjoyable if you’re backing a team. At Tempo, we’re all systems go behind a band of colorful, superstitious, overachieving West Africans — the team from Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), making their World Cup debut.
No, we don’t think they’re going to win. Yes, we’ll also be happy if the Americans do well. But Cote d’Ivoire’s squad has captured our hearts and fired our imaginations. Here, we offer 10 reasons why we’re . . . rooting for the Elephants!
Beginner’s luck
We love underdogs. Not only is Cote d’Ivoire making its World Cup debut, the team is playing against Serbia and Montenegro, Argentina and the Netherlands, so tough their foursome is called “The Group of Death.” But the orange-clad Elephants are no novelty act: They placed second in the African Cup of Nations in February — beating five-time World Cup competitors Cameroon but nudged out by Egypt.
Best nickname
Cote d’Ivoire’s team name is the Elephants, which might be embarrassing if they weren’t so nimble-footed and all-around non-elephantine. But while naming your national football team the Elephants is about as nonsensical as dubbing your track team the Tortoises, there is a method behind the moniker: It derives from the huge herds that once roamed the country and made it a leading producer of ivory.
The new generation
Cote d’Ivoire owes its surprising success to a new generation of players who came up through an academy set up by former French footballer Jean-Marc Guillou outside Abidjan. Aruna Dindane, Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora, Arthur Boka, Blaise Kouassi and Barry Copa all “graduated” from Guillou’s academy and form the nucleus of the Elephants’ World Cup team.
`Cote d’Ivoire’ forever
Three cheers for a country that knows who it is — or, at least, what it’s called. In 1985, the government asked that the country be known as Cote d’Ivoire (coat dee-VOIR) in every language. Not Ivory Coast (in English), or Costa de Marfil (Spanish) or Ivoorkust (Dutch). It even passed a national law dictating that the name cannot be translated from French. So we’ll have none of that Turin/Turino-type nonsense that we muddled through during the early days of the Winter Olympics.
Naming rights
On names alone, the Elephants have the Cup won, thanks to a squad full of mellifluous monikers including: alliterative defender Emmanuel Eboue, euphonious midfielder Gilles Yapi Yapo and saint-evoking forward Bonaventure Kalou.
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The man they love to hate
With his histrionic dives at the mere suggestion of contact, striker Didier Drogba has become an object of jeering in the English Premier League, where he plays for Chelsea. But we love his dramatic style, his aggressive game and, especially, the fact that he has inspired a popular drink back home: a giant beer called the “Drogba.”
Magical thinking
We can’t help but admire the Elephants’ industrious use of witch doctors. Looking for an edge in the 1992 African Cup of Nations, the story goes, the team employed not one but two witch doctors — and promptly won a 21-shot shootout in the finals over Ghana, 11-10. But the federation unwisely stiffed the doctors, and the team went into a decade-long tailspin. In 2002, a government minister approached the doctors with an offering: $500, a bottle of whiskey and a cow. The aggrieved doctors lifted the curse, and four years later, Cote d’Ivoire is in the World Cup.
Give peace a chance
Ever since a coup attempt in 2002 sparked a civil war, soccer is about the only thing Ivoirians can agree on. The Elephants are hoping a good showing will help the peace process at home. After the team — made up of players from both of the warring regions — clinched its World Cup berth, star forward Didier Drogba went on TV and vowed that the win would “bring peace back to our country.” He then urged: “Put down the guns! Let’s reconcile!”
High scorers
If you’re looking for adrenaline rushes, the Elephants come through. They’ve participated in (and won) the two highest-scoring penalty shootouts in international football competition — the 21-shot shootout in the final of the 1992 African Cup of Nations when Ghana lost 11-10, and the 24-shot shootout in the quarter-final of the 2006 African Cup of Nations, when Cameroon succumbed 12-11.
He’s my brother
Cote d’Ivoire has more than 17 million people and it seems as if half of them are players’ siblings. Striker Arouna Kone, 22, comes from a family of 17 kids; Didier Zokora has six brothers (one drowned on the eve of becoming a pro player, during a celebratory ocean swim); Kolo Toure has six brothers and two sisters. Put simply, these guys have a lot of folks back home hoping the Elephants will bag the $20 million the winning team gets — or even the $5.7 million that goes to the last-place side
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Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
– Location: West Africa, on the Bay of Guinea between Liberia and Ghana
– Capital: Yamoussoukro
– Largest city: Abidjan
– Languages: French (the official language); 60 native dialects
– Size: 322,460 square kilometers (slightly larger than New Mexico)
– Population: 17.7 million. Citizens are called Ivoirians
– Main exports: Coffee, cocoa, palm oil
– National anthem: “L’Abidjanaise”
– Flag: Tricolor; orange, white, green vertical stripes
– State arms: Two palm trees and the rising sun framing an elephant’s head in profile
– History: Former French colony achieved independence in 1960. Politically unstable since a coup in 1999; United Nations peacekeeping forces have been deployed in the country since 2004