Angola finally succeeded in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Finals in its sixth attempt. The team is banking on its solid defence that that could come up as a challenge for many teams in the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Germany.

The team first competed for a place at the FIFA World Cup in 1984 in the preliminary competition for World Cup 1986 in Mexico. Since then it has been a long wait. After a span of 21 years the team has now earned its golden opportunity. Angola was a part of a very tough group comprising Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Angola narrowly succeeded in getting the ticket from football powerhouse Nigeria. Credit for that goes to the coach - Luis Oliveria Goncalves for inculcating team spirit and resilience in the Angolan team.

Unfortunately the Angolan campaign got off on an inauspicious start during their preliminary match with minnows Chad. Angola suffered a shocking 3-1 defeat in November 2003. As a result their Brazilian Coach Ismael Kurtz was dismissed. Their Captain Akwa led Angola to a 2-0 victory under the guidance of new coach Goncalves. Through this win Angola entered the Group stage. Here they were placed in Group 4 alongside Nigeria (a strong contender to qualify) as well as Algeria, Gabon, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. Along with Akwa, the players to look for in the Angolan side include Mantorras, Figueirido, Joao Pereira, Maurito and Ze Kalanga.

Seeing it's past record, initially everyone was not very confident if Angola would make it to the World Cup Finals. Two appearances at the CAF African Cup of Nations Finals, 2001 CAF African U-20 Championship triumph and participation at FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina was all that was there in the team's performance kitty.

The point that Angola earned in Nigeria helped the underdog get into the summit of Group 4. Angola was successful in Algeria and Gabon too. Angola defeated Nigeria 1-0 in Luanda and had a 1-1 draw match in Kano.

Angola is in Group D along with Mexico, Iran and Portugal. The Angolan fans have a lot of expectations from their team.