The Ivory Coast is a rising African power that has put together two consecutive trips to the World Cup, their first two in their history. In their only previous appearance, the Ivory Coast was grouped with perennial powers Argentina, the Netherlands, as well as Serbia and Montenegro. The Ivory Coast, also referred to by their nicknames, the Elephants, fell behind 2-0 in every one of their games, but managed to claw their way back to a 3-2 win against Serbia and Montenegro. However, they fell out of the tourney in the first round, after dropping their other two games.

The Ivory Coast qualified for the tournament with little trouble, finishing at the top of their group, earning 16 out of a possible 18 points in six games, and finishing with a plus-15 goal differential, though the group (Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Guinea) accounted for much of the ease.http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/team/qualify/_/id/4789/ivory-coast?cc=3888&ver=global

In South Africa, the Elephants will be led by two of vital players on two of the finest club teams in the world: Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, of Chelsea and Barcelona, respectively. The Ivory Coast had the misfortunate to again be lumped in a very difficult group, with Brazil and Portugal, the second- and fourth-ranked teams in the world, respectively, as well as North Korea. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html (Because of the difficulty of the groups in 2006 and 2010, they were deemed their respective tournament's "Group of Death".) However, Portugal is coming off of a very difficult stretch, and was lucky to get into the World Cup at all, and according to odds-makers, 25th-ranked Ivory Coast has virtually equal chance of winning the tournament. http://world-cup.betting-directory.com/odds.php