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Algeria national team. CAF (Africa). Nickname: Les Fennecs (The Foxes). Home jersey: white with green and red trim.
-Algeria is in Group H (with Belgium, South Korea, and Russia). ‘2014 FIFA World Cup/Group H‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
FIFA World Cup qualification: 2014 is Algeria’s 4th qualification out of 19 tries.
Algeria has qualified for the World Cup in: 1982, 1986, 2010, 2014. Previous World Cup appearance: 2010, 1st Round / 0-1-2. Highest World Cup finish: 1982, 1st Round / 2-0-1.
Population of Algeria: 37.9 million {2012 estimate}. Capital and largest city: Algiers, pop. 3.4 million {2011 figure} [location of Algiers shown on globe-map below].
Coach of Algeria national team: Vahid Halilhodžić. ‘Vahid Halilhodžić‘. Halilhodžić was born in the former People’s Republic of Yugoslavia – he is an ethnic Bosnian, and his primary residence is in Lille, France. A former Velež Mostar and Nantes forward, he helped Nantes win the 1983 French title and was leading scorer in France two seasons later {‘1984–85 French Division 1′}. Halilhodžić’s coaching career includes stints at Lille, Rennes, PSG, and Trabzonspor, and he was Ivorry Coast coach from 2008-10 (following Ivory Coast’s poor showing in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, he was fired four months before the start of the 2010 World Cup, and replaced by Sven-Göran Eriksson). After one year in charge of Dinamo Zagred, Halilhodžić was given the Algeria job in June 2011.
Captain of Algeria squad: DF Madjid Bougherra. ‘Madjid Bougherra‘. Like many players on the Algeria squad, the 31-year-old Bougherra was born in France – in Longvic, in the Burgundy region in east-central France – and he grew up in nearby Dijon. Bougherra opted to play for Algeria, where his grandfather was born. Bougherra got his pro start in 2002 with the nearby then-3rd division French club Gueugnon. After 4 years there, Bougherra was loaned out to (current English 3rd division English/then-2nd division) Crewe Alexandra, in the latter half of 2005-06. Bougherra then spent the next 7 seasons in Great Britain, next with Sheffield Wednesday (2006–07), then with Charlton Athletic (2007–08), then with then-first division Scottish giants Rangers – for 3 seasons (2008-11), where he was part of the three title-winning Rangers teams of 08/09, 09/10, and 10/11, made 81 league appearances and saw Champions League action. 11 months before Rangers (I) imploded and liquidated (in June 2012), Bougherra still had a year left on his contract with Rangers but the Glasgow club wouldn’t offer the central defender near what he wanted {see this, ‘Madjid Bougherra: Rangers’ offer of two-year deal made me sick‘ (dailyrecord.co.uk by Allan Marshall on 9 Aug. 2011)}, so Rangers sold Bougherra to Qatar side Lekhwiya for £1.7 million. Bougherra continues to play his pro career in well-paid irrelevancy in Qatar. His contribution to the national team recently has been immense, though, as his goal on 19 November 2013 against Burkina Faso sends Algeria to the World Cup in Brazil, and now Algeria has qualified for World Cup for the second straight time {see this, ‘Bougherra hands Algeria final ticket‘ (cafonline.com)}. {Celebrating Bougherra’s World Cup-appearance-clinching goal, see this photo by menosultra at flickr.com}. Here is an article on that decisive CAF World Cup qualifying match, from the Algerian national team fansite DZfoot.com, by Maher M. on November 24, 2013. ‘Algeria 1-0 Burkina Faso: A statistical analysis‘ (en.dzfoot.com).
Photo and Image credits -
Map of Algeria on globe, by L’Americain at Algeria.
Algeria home jersey, photo from prlog.org/algeria-world-cup-home-jersey2010.
Coach,
V. Halilhodžić, photo from dzfoot.com/2013/11/vahid-halilhodzic-one-match-to-determine-a-legacy.
Goalkeeper,
Raïs M’Bolhi (CSKA Sofia), photo by Biso at en.wikipedia.org.
Defenders,
Essaïd Belkalem (Watford), en.dzfoot.com/2013/10/belkalem-starts-for-watford-in-1-0-loss-to-blackburn-rovers.
Madjid Bougherra (Lekwiyah), photo from pesstatsdatabase.com.
Carl Medjani (Olympiacos), photo by EuroFootball/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com
Djamel Mesbah (Parma), photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Midfielders,
Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia), photo by David Ramos/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Saphir Taïder (Internazionale), photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Hassan Yebda (Granada), photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Mehdi Mostefa (Ajaccio), photo from AC Ajaccio via tf1.fr/telefoot/photos/can-2013-les-joueurs-de-ligue-1-selectionnes.
Forwards,
Islam Slimani (Sporting Club Portugal), photo from en.dzfoot.com/2013/08/islam-slimani-makes-sporting-league-debut-rafik-halliche-injured.
El Arbi Hillel Soudani (Dinamo Zagreb), photo from dzfoot.com/2013/09/soudani-strikes-again-as-dinamo-zagreb-tops-croatian-league.
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Thanks to the contributors at ‘2014 FIFA World Cup qualification‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
Thanks to the contributors at ‘Algeria national football team‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
Thanks to dzfoot.com for several of the photos used here plus the article on the Algeria squad.