Angola national football team

Angola

Nickname(s)	Palancas Negras (The Black Antelopes)
Association	Federação Angolana de Futebol
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Head coach	Herve Renard
Captain	Kali
Most caps	Flavio Amado (81)
Top scorer	Akwá (36)
Home stadium	Estádio 11 de Novembro
FIFA code	ANG
FIFA ranking	86
Highest FIFA ranking	45 (July 2000)
Lowest FIFA ranking	124 (March 1994)
Elo ranking	84
Highest Elo ranking	50 (Sept-Oct 2006)
Lowest Elo ranking	101 (October 1994)
Home colours Away colours
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
Africa Nations Cup
Appearances	5 (First in 1996)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 2008 and 2010

The Angola national football team, nicknamed Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes), is the national team of Angola and is controlled by the Federação Angolana de Futebol. Angola reached 45th in the FIFA Rankings in July 2002. Their greatest accomplishment was qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, as this was their first appearance on the World Cup finals stage: they were eliminated after one defeat and two draws in the group stage.

Honours

• COSAFA Cup: 3
  

1999, 2001, 2004

• Central African Games runners-up: 1
  

1987

History

Angola played their first game against Cuba national football team in 1977, winning 1-0.

Angola qualified for their first African Cup of Nations in 1996. They were drawn in Group A with South Africa, Egypt and Cameroon. They lost their first two games to Egypt and South Africa, but managed a 3-3 draw against Cameroon. They finished bottom of the group and did not reach the second round. Angola then qualified for their second successive African Cup of Nations in 1998, but again failed to reach the second round, drawing 0-0 with South Africa and 3-3 with Namibia, and losing 5-2 to Côte d'Ivoire.

After missing the last 3 tournaments, they qualified for the 2006 African Nations Cup. They recorded their fist African Cup of Nations win against Togo, winning 3-2, two goals coming from Flávio and the other coming from Maurito. They also drew 0-0 against Congo DR and lost 3-1 against Cameroon. Angola's best performance then came in the 2008 African Nations Cup. They were drawn in Group D with Tunisia, South Africa and Senegal. They drew 1-1 and 0-0 with South Africa and Tunisia, then defeated Senegal 3-1, two goals coming from Manucho. In the quarter-finals they were beaten by eventual winners Egypt 2-1, but Manucho scored again, finishing with four goals in total.

Angola also won the COSAFA Cup in 1999, 2001 and 2004.

2006 FIFA World Cup

Angola qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup after only losing one game in the qualifying ahead of favourites Nigeria.

When picking the squad, Gonçalves sought advice from Chelsea manager José Mourinho, whose wife was born in Angola. Angola's Golden Generation saw players like Akwá, João Ricardo, Paulo Figueiredo and Jamba selected to go to the World Cup. Angola played six warm-up games against South Korea, Mauritius, Lesotho, Argentina, Turkey and USA.

Angola played their first World Cup finals game against Portuguese side, who won the match 1-0, the only goal coming from Pauleta. There was a very friendly environment in and around the stadium during this match because of the links and friendship between the countries of Angola and Portugal. Angola drew 0-0 in their second game with Mexico, and still had a chance of qualifying for the second round had they beaten Iran in their final group game, but the match finished 1-1 after goals by Flávio and Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh. Angola were eliminated from the tournament only losing one game.

Fans of the Angolan national football team in Cologne, Germany.

2010 World Cup failure

After the 2006 FIFA World Cup many of Angola's most experienced players such as Akwá and João Ricardo retired from the international game, but the expectation was still high for the team to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The team had a bye through the first round of qualification and in the second round they were drawn in Group 3 along with Benin, Uganda and Niger. Despite winning their first two matches, Angola failed to proceed to the third round, missing out by two points.

2010 Africa Cup of Nations

As hosts of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Angola were seeded in Group A along with Mali, Algeria, and Malawi. Coached by Manuel Jose, in their first game they drew 4-4 with Mali, after letting a 4 goal lead slip in the last 11 minutes. They beat Malawi 2-0 in the second match, and topped the group by drawing 0-0 with Algeria. They were knocked out in the quarter final after a 1-0 defeat by Ghana.

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930 to 1978	Not a FIFA member	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986 to 2002	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Round 1	24	3	0	2	1	1	2
2010	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/19		3	0	2	1	1	2

African Nations Cup record

African Cup of Nations
Titles: 0 Appearances: 5
Year	Position		Year	Position		Year	Position
1957	Did not enter		1976	Did not enter		1994	Did not qualify
1959	Did not enter		1978	Did not enter		1996	Round 1
1962	Did not enter		1980	Did not enter		1998	Round 1
1963	Did not enter		1982	Did not qualify		2000	Did not qualify
1965	Did not enter		1984	Did not qualify		2002	Did not qualify
1968	Did not enter		1986	Did not enter		2004	Did not qualify
1970	Did not enter		1988	Did not qualify		2006	Round 1
1972	Did not enter		1990	Did not qualify		2008	Quarterfinals
1974	Did not enter		1992	Did not qualify		2010	Quarterfinals

Latest Games

Date	Tournament	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers
3 March, 2010	Friendly	Luanda	Latvia	1:1	Ricardo Job Estêvão
13 May, 2010	Friendly	Houston	Mexico	1:0	Andrés Guardado

Current Squad

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club GK Lamá February 1, 1981 (1981-02-01) (age 30) 36 0 Petro Luanda GK Wilson July 22, 1984 (1984-07-22) (age 26) 1 0 1º de Agosto DF Kali October 11, 1978 (1978-10-11) (age 32) 56 0 1º de Agosto DF Locó December 25, 1984 (1984-12-25) (age 26) 32 1 Petro Luanda DF Rui Marques September 3, 1977 (1977-09-03) (age 33) 19 0 Free agent DF Jamuana November 23, 1984 (1984-11-23) (age 26) 13 0 Petro Luanda DF Enoque August 16, 1987 (1987-08-16) (age 23) 7 0 Santos de Angola DF Francisco Zuela August 3, 1983 (1983-08-03) (age 27) 7 0 PAOK MF André Macanga May 14, 1978 (1978-05-14) (age 32) 51 2 Kuwait SC MF Gilberto September 21, 1982 (1982-09-21) (age 28) 50 6 Lierse S.K. MF Zé Kalanga October 12, 1983 (1983-10-12) (age 27) 45 5 C.R.D. Libolo MF Job September 27, 1987 (1987-09-27) (age 23) 21 2 Petro Luanda MF Mabiná October 6, 1987 (1987-10-06) (age 23) 16 0 Petro Luanda MF Stélvio January 24, 1989 (1989-01-24) (age 22) 8 0 1º de Agosto FW Flávio December 13, 1979 (1979-12-13) (age 31) 60 24 Al-Shabab FW Mantorras March 18, 1982 (1982-03-18) (age 28) 29 4 Benfica FW Manucho March 7, 1983 (1983-03-07) (age 27) 25 10 Bucaspor FW Mateus June 19, 1984 (1984-06-19) (age 26) 21 4 Nacional

External links

• Angola FA
• Angola World Cup news
• Team profile of the Angolan national football team, including World Cup 2006 fixtures and results from the Qualifying tournament.
• Image Gallery of the World Cup Match Angola vs. Portugal

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