Halilhodzic Predicts Divisions to Sink Cote d'Ivoire

Vahid Halilhodzic was fired by Cote d'Ivoire just over a month ago, a firing that I thought rash.  Since, the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football has hired Sven-Göran Eriksson to lead Les Éléphants through this summer's World Cup.

Despite recent struggles at the helm of México, Eriksson has a decent record from his days with England, and his club coaching record is very good.  Regardless, Halildovzic is predicting failure for Cote d'Ivoire this summer, pointing to divisions within the team that 20 days of training with Eriksson will not solve.

"I would say that the team has great players, but it is not a great team," Halilhodzic told the Ivorian newspaper Le Patriote.

"Some of the players do not want to play together. My job was to overcome this, to ensure that everything goes well.

"I think the defeat against Algeria was good because it revealed these internal fractures."

With Elephants expected to start camping just three weeks before the World Cup starts on 11 June, Halilhodzic insists Eriksson will find it difficult to unite the players.

"I had three or four months to heal the rift among the players and that was possible," the former Paris St Germain coach said.

"A new coach can't do that, because he will have only 20 days to prepare for the World Cup."

It seems a fair point, whether you're talking about divisions, lack of form, disorganization - what have you.  How can Cote d'Ivoire expect Eriksson to come-in and within twenty days take the Elephants to a level Halilhodzic was not able to achieve?  He will have a group of players worn-down by their club calendars, coming off the disappointment of January's Cup of Nations in Angola, and he will be expected to re-create the team, forging a World Cup contender.

The good news for Eriksson:  Cote d'Ivoire is not that far away.  Through World Cup Qualifying and the Cup of Nations, Cote d'Ivoire only lost one time - Halilhodzic's last match, the quarterfinal loss to Algeria.  Even in that match, Algeria needed a second half stoppage time goal to force extra time, in which they won the match.

That was the only loss of Halilhodzic's time with the Ivorians.  In a group with Brazil and Portugal, Eriksson could lose more matches in group play than his predecessor lost in a year-and-a-half.