Football World Cup 2014 / Ivory Coast

This article covers the Ivory Coast national soccer team at the 2014 World Cup . Ivory Coast took part in the finals for the third time and for the first time in a finals in South America . So far, the preliminary round has never been survived.

qualification

Ivory Coast qualified through the CAF qualification . In the group stage of the 2nd round, the team met Morocco, Tanzania and Gambia. All home games were played in the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny , the largest stadium in the country in the former capital Abidjan . Ivory Coast came out on top as group winners and was already qualified for the group winners' playoff games on the penultimate matchday. At least one goal was scored in each game. In the first playoff game against Senegal a 3-1 was presented and the draw in the second leg made Ivory Coast the second African team to qualify for the World Cup finals.

Group stage

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Ivory Coast	6th	4th	2	0	015: 500	+10	14th
2.	Morocco	6th	2	3	1	009: 800	+1	09
3.	Tanzania	6th	2	0	4th	008:120	−4	06th
4th	Gambia	6th	1	1	4th	004:110	−7	04th

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goalscorers for Ivory Coast
06/02/2012	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	-	Tanzania	2: 0 (1: 0)	Kalou (10th), Drogba (71st)
06/09/2012	Marrakech ( MAR )	Morocco	-	Ivory Coast	2: 2 (1: 1)	Kalou (8th), K. Touré (60th)
03/23/2013	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	-	Gambia	3: 0 (0: 0)	Bony (51./ Penalty), Y. Touré (57.), Kalou (70.)
06/08/2013	Bakau ( GMB )	Gambia	-	Ivory Coast	0: 3 (0: 1)	Traoré (12th), Bony (61st), Y. Touré (89th)
06/16/2013	Dar es Salaam ( TZA )	Tanzania	-	Ivory Coast	2: 4 (2: 3)	Traoré (13th), Y. Touré (23rd, 43rd / Elfm.), Bony (90th + 3)
07.09.2013	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	-	Morocco	1: 1 (0: 0)	Drogba (83rd / Elf)

Playoff games

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goalscorers for Ivory Coast
13/10/2013	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	-	Senegal	3: 1 (2: 0)	Drogba (3rd / Elf), Sané (14./ET), Kalou (49th)
11/17/2013	Yaoundé	Senegal	-	Ivory Coast	1: 1 (0: 0))	Kalou (90th + 4)

A total of 30 players were used in the eight games by Sabri Lamouchi , who became Ivory Coast's coach in May 2012. Only goalkeeper Boubacar Barry was used in all games. The top scorer was Salomon Kalou with five goals, making him fourth best African scorer with four other players. Five other players contributed the remaining goals. There was also an own goal.

preparation

Test matches

• 0March 5th in Brussels for the first time against Belgium 2-2 (scorers for Ivory Coast: Drogba / 74th and Gradel / 90th)
• May 30 in St. Louis for the first time against Bosnia and Herzegovina 1: 2 (scorer for Ivory Coast: Drogba / 90.)
• 04th June in Frisco for the first time against El Salvador 2-1 (goalscorers for Ivory Coast: Gervinho / 9th and Drogba / 42nd)

Squad

A preliminary list of 30 players had to be submitted to FIFA by May 13, 2014. The final list of 23 players had to be received by FIFA by June 2, 2014 at the latest.

The preliminary roster for the World Cup was named on May 13th. 14 players were already in the squad at the last World Cup , seven of them who were already there in 2006 . Record national player Didier Zokora and record scorer Didier Drogba were both record holders in the squad.

No.	Surname	Club 1	International matches 2	Länderspiel- gates 2	Date of birth	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goal
01	Boubacar Barry	Sporting Lokeren P	077	000	December 30, 1979	3	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	4th	0
16	Sylvain Gbohouo	Séwé Sport	002	000	October 29, 1988	0	0	0	0	0
23	Sayouba Mandé	Stabæk Fotball	001	000	June 15, 1993	0	0	0	0	0
Defense
17th	Serge Aurier	Toulouse FC	008th	0	December 24, 1992	3	0	0	0	0
22nd	Souleymane Bamba	Trabzonspor	043	02	January 13, 1985	3	0	0	0	0	2010	0	0
03	Arthur Boka	VfB Stuttgart	078	1	April 2, 1983	3	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	4th	0
02	Diarrassouba Viera	Çaykur Rizespor	001	00	December 21, 1986	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Constant Djakpa	Eintracht Frankfurt	005	00	17th October 1986	1	0	0	0	0
04th	Kolo Touré	Liverpool FC	107	06th	March 19, 1981	1	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	5	0
05	Didier Zokora	Trabzonspor	119	1	December 14, 1980	2	0	2	0	0	2006, 2010	6th	0
midfield
07th	Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro	Toulouse FC	001	000	October 11, 1992	0	0	0	0	0
06th	Mathis Bolly	Fortuna Dusseldorf *	004th	000	November 14, 1990	1	0	0	0	0
14th	Ismaël Diomandé	AS Saint-Etienne	002	00	August 28, 1992	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Max Gradel	AS Saint-Etienne	026th	03	November 30, 1987	1	0	0	0	0
20th	Serey The	FC Basel M.	007th	00	November 7, 1984	3	0	2	0	0
09	Cheik Tioté	Newcastle United	043	01	June 21, 1986	3	0	1	0	0	2010	3	0
19th	Yaya Touré	Manchester City M	082	16	May 13, 1983	3	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	6th	0
attack
12	Wilfried Bony	Swansea City **	024	08th	December 10, 1988	3	2	0	0	0
11	Didier Drogba	Galatasaray Istanbul P	101	65	March 11, 1978	3	0	1	0	0	2006, 2010	5	2
10	Gervinho	AS Roma	053	14th	May 27, 1987	3	2	0	0	0	2010	3	0
08th	Salomon Kalou	Lille OSC	067	22nd	5th August 1985	3	0	1	0	0	2010	3	1
21st	Giovanni Sio	FC Basel M.	007th	00	March 31, 1989	1	0	0	0	0
13	Didier Ya Konan	Hannover 96	025th	07th	May 22, 1984	1	0	0	0	0
Coaching staff
	Sabri Lamouchi	Trainer	November 9, 1971	12 3	1 3

¹ M - The club became champions of its country in the 2013/14 season, A - The club was relegated from the highest league in the country, P - The club won the cup in the 2013/14 season, * - The club plays in the second highest league his country, ** - The club plays in the highest English league.

²only those games and goals are given that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup ( source (as of May 16, 2014) , as of: after the games against Bosnia-Herzegovina on May 30, 2014 and El Salvador on June 4 2014 )

³ As a player for France

Finals

Group stage

Recife Brasília Fortaleza Águas de Lindóia

Venues (red) and quarters (blue)

In the previous two participations, Ivory Coast was drawn into a so-called “death group” (2006 Argentina, the Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro, 2010 Brazil and Portugal) and was eliminated each time after the preliminary round. When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Ivory Coast was drawn into the seemingly easy group C with Colombia (group head), Greece and Japan. Ivory Coast had never played against Colombia and Greece before the World Cup. There were three friendlies against Japan with one win and two losses. Ivory Coast had never played in South America before.

The team's quarters were the Oscar Inn Eco Resort in Águas de Lindóia .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Colombia	9: 2	9
2	Greece	2: 4	4th
3	Ivory Coast	4: 5	3
4th	Japan	2: 6	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 10:00 pm (3:00 am CEST) in Recife Ivory Coast - Japan 2: 1 (0: 1)
  
• Thursday, June 19, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Brasília Colombia - Ivory Coast 2: 1 (0: 0)
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Fortaleza Greece - Ivory Coast 2: 1 (1: 0)
  

Sports impact

In the FIFA world rankings , Ivory Coast fell two places from 23rd to 25th, but was still the second best African team.

Resignations

• Sabri Lamouchi resigned as national coach after the preliminary round. He was succeeded by his compatriot Hervé Renard .
• On August 8, 2014, 36-year-old Didier Drogba announced his resignation from the national team. Record national player Zokora did not appear again after the World Cup.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup ™, para. 29 List of players, rest time, preparatory phase
2. ↑ fifa.com: "Ivorer with four Germany professionals and Drogba" ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
4. ↑ World champion fifa.com: "Germany takes over the top position"
5. ↑ kicker.de: "French follows Lamouchi with the" Elefanten "Renard's order: Do it like 2012"
6. ↑ fifa.com: "Drogba resigns from national team" ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ Didier Zokora - Century of International Appearances

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All Ivory Coast qualifiers