Written by Johnny Salinas
The Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) women’s national soccer team is not nearly as well known or as successful as their male counterparts. Having never made an appearance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Cote d’Ivoire looks to make a statement at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup by being the first African team to win the world cup. The Cote d’Ivoire women will be entering the 2015 edition of the tournament ranked 67th in the world (1). Cote d’Ivoire will be one of three teams from Africa at the world cup along with Nigeria and Cameroon.
Trend of Cote d’Ivoire women’s rankings from Fifa.com (a)
Early History of the Cote d’Ivoire Women’s national team
Compared to their male counterparts, the Cote d’Ivoire women’s national team does not have as long or as great a competitive history. Their first official FIFA recognized match was a 3-0 loss against the Netherlands on June 1, 1988(2). They would go onto play 2 more FIFA official games that year, both of which occurred over the span of four days and were losses against Canada and China(2). The coming years for the national team would be filled with very few chances for officially recognized or recorded games. The Cote d’Ivoire women’s soccer team would not play an official international match between 1989 and 2002 and would not enter the 1991,1995 or 1999 FIFA World Cup or the 1991, 1995, 1998, or 2000 CAF Women’s Championship and they would also fail to qualify for the 2002 CAF Women’s Championship (2).
Cote d’Ivoire soccer since the beginning of the millennium
It wouldn’t be until 2002 that the Cote d’Ivoire women’s national team would play an official match as they attempted to qualify for both the 2002 CAF Women’s championship and the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Cote d’Ivoire would play Mali in the preliminary stages of the world cup qualifiers for the CAF region, but would be held to a 3-3 tie at home and a 1-1 tie while on the road. With two draws in the preliminary stages of world cup qualifiers, Mali would advance on away goals and Cote d’Ivoire would miss out on the 2002 CAF Women’s championship, and as a result, also miss out on the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup (3).
Following their failure to qualify for the women’s world cup, the Cote d’Ivoire women’s national team would not enter the 2004 CAF women’s championship(2). After not entering the 2004 CAF Women’s Championship, Cote d’Ivoire would attempt to qualify for the 2006 CAF women’s championship, which would also act as a means of determining whether they would qualify for the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In their preliminary qualifier matches, Cote d’Ivoire would face off against Benin and would be held to 1-1 draws. A penalty shoot-out would be used to determine who would advance and Cote d’Ivoire would loose 3-4. With that, would miss out on the CAF Women’s Championship, which would also mean that they would miss out on the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup (4).
Cote d’Ivoire would then attempt to qualify for the 2008 CAF Women’s Championship. In their preliminary qualifier matches, Cote d’Ivoire would go up against Senegal and would move onto the second round of qualifiers after a 1-1 draw and a 3-0 win(5). Cote d’Ivoire’s attempt to qualify for the CAF championship would come to an end in the second round of the qualifiers after drawing and losing to Ghana (6).
Moving on from the 2008 CAF championship qualifiers, the Cote d’Ivoire would attempt to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup by attempting to qualify for the 2010 CAF Women’s championship. In the preliminary round of qualifiers, the Cote d’Ivoire women would find themselves playing against Gabon and would go onto win both meetings (2-1 and 3-1). In the second round of the qualifiers, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves playing against African powerhouse Nigeria. Cote d’Ivoire would lose both matches against Nigeria (1-2 and 1-3) and thus miss out on qualifying for the CAF Women’s Championships and the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup (7).
Two years following the CAF Women’s Championship qualifiers, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves qualifying for the 2012 CAF Women’s Championship. After winning qualification matches against Mozambique (preliminary qualification) and Guinea (second round of qualifiers) Cote d’Ivoire wound find themselves in the group stage of the 2012 CAF women’s championship. Cote d’Ivoire was placed in group B which would also contain Ethiopia, Cameroon and, powerhouse Nigeria. Cote d’Ivoire started their CAF campaign by beating Ethiopia 5-0. The win against Ethiopia would be the only win that Cote d’Ivoire would get as they would go on to lose their next two matches against Cameroon (1-4) and Nigeria (1-3). Having won only one match and losing two, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves eliminated from the tournament (8).
2012 CAF Women’s Championship Group B standings from Wikipedia. (b)
2014 CAF Women’s Championship and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers
Cote d’Ivoire qualified for the 2014 CAF Women’s Championship by beating Mali with an aggregate score of 5-0 and drawing against Equatorial Guinea 3-3, but advancing due to away goals. In the group stage, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves placed in group A, which contained Nigeria, Namibia and Zambia. Cote d’Ivoire started the tournament off by playing Nigeria to a 2-4 loss. Following their opening match loss, Cote d’Ivoire managed to beat Namibia 3-1 and draw with Zambia 1-1. After three matches, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves as runners up of the group and would advance to the knockout stages of the tournament. In the knockout stage of the tournament, Cote d’Ivoire found themselves playing against Cameroon in a match that they would lose in extra time. Following their loss to Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire would go onto play South Africa for third place and a spot in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Cote d’Ivoire would find themselves beating South Africa 1-0 to finish third at the CAF Women’s Championship and as having qualified for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time(9).
2014 CAF Group A group standings from Wikipedia (c)
2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup
For the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Cote d’Ivoire have found themselves placed in group B along with Germany, Norway, and Thailand. As of February, Cote d’Ivoire have been given 250/1 odds of winning the Women’s World Cup(10).
Player to Watch: Tia Vino Ines N’Rehy
Tia Vino Ines N’Rehy is a 21 year old forward for the Cote d’Ivoire women’s national team who plays for ZFK Spartak Subotica in the Croatian Women’s League. She made her International Debut in 2011(11). She scored 3 goals for Cote d’Ivoire during the qualifiers and was a member of the team that placed third at the 2014 CAF Women’s Championship(12). Having just under 4 years of national team experience, but having already proved to be a threat for other teams after her performance at the 2014 CAF Women’s Championship, Tia N’Rehy will be a young and dangerous talent to watch.
Image from cafonline.com (d)
Return to the Main Players to Watch Page
Works Cited
(1) “The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – Associations – Côte D’Ivoire – Women’s – FIFA.com.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/associations/association=civ/women/index.html>.
(2)”Ivory Coast Women’s National Football Team.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast_women%27s_national_football_team>.
(3)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2002/index.html>.
(4)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2006/index.html>.
(5)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2007/index.html>.
(6)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2008/index.html>.
(7)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2010/index.html>
(8)”Live Scores.” FIFA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/teams/country=civ/women/matches/year=2012/index.html>
(9)”2014 African Women’s Championship.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_African_Women%27s_Championship>.
(10)”2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Odds – USA Opens as Favorite.” Linemakers. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/article/4635523-womens-world-cup-odds-2015-betting-lines-las-vegas-usa-germany-brazil-japan>.
(11)”Eight Things We Have Learned from the African Women’s Championship so Far… – Womens Soccer United.” Womens Soccer United Site Wide Activity RSS. N.p., 20 Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.womenssoccerunited.com/eight-things-learned-african-womens-championship-far/>.
(12)”Women’s World Cup Opponent Breakdown: CONMEBOL and CAF.” – U.S. Soccer. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/12/03/09/47/141203-wnt-2015-wwc-draw-opponent-caps-caf-conmebol>.
Images
a.) Cote d’Ivoire Ranking
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/associations/association=civ/women/index.html
b.) 2012 African Women’s Championship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_African_Women%27s_Championship
c.)2014 African Women’s Championship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_African_Women%27s_Championship
d.)Tia N’Rehy.
How to cite this article: “Cote d’Ivoire” Written by Johnny Salinas (2015), World Cup 2015, Soccer Politics Blog, Duke University http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/world-cup-guides/world-cup-2015-guide/players-to-watch-at-the-2015-womens-world-cup/cote-divoire/(accessed on (date))
