Players to Watch in the World Cup 2010...Gervinho

The Ivory Coast knew that they would have a difficult task ahead of them if they wanted to advance into the knock out stages of the WC. They were drawn in a group that consists of Football giants, Portugal and virtual unknowns North Korea. This draw quickly became known as this tournament's group of death. If that was not enough, the team soon received dreadful news that their captain and top striker Didier Drogba fractured his elbow in the final warm up match before the tournament. Their manager then looked to a young emerging talented striker, known as Gervinho to take up the huge mantle of leading the attack line against Portugal.

The outcome was the young man played his role magnificently and caused Portugal defense numerous problems and was quite unlucky not to have scored a goal. The young man with the long braided hair style, similar to Drogba's except natural possessed great ball control and dexterity as he flawlessly dribbled through Portugal's defense causing major trouble especially when he took the ball on the left and cut inside to make short passes. He was a key contributing to Ivory Coasts opening draw with Portugal, which had analysts crediting the Africans with being the stronger team.

He was so impressive, that I expected that Ericksson would have made him a permanent fixture in the teams starting line up. Ericksson had other plans and decided to start Drogba for the match against Brazil. I felt that Drogba starting up front was the correct decision because he gave the team a psychological lift but I expected that Gervinho would have started on the wing, where he is more than competent to hold. In fact it is his preferred position for his club side. I felt that Ivory Coast lacked pace in attack, Dindane the player I would have replaced him with lacked pace and slowed the attack to the point the Brazilian defense had no problems handling the Ivory Coast front line.

Gervinho came on in the final quarter of the match and almost immediately there was new energy in the Ivory Coasts attack with his dribbles. During the closing minutes he lead his team on a counter attack that saw him cover the entire pitch leaving Brazilians seeing the back of his heels but his team mate provided a weak finish to his hard work. It was quite obvious that it was a mistake not to have started him because he would have been able to provide the Ivory Coast with an outlet. A player that can dribble through the Brazilian midfield wall that consisted of Gilberto and Melo and provide passes that would have been eaten up by Drogba

Gervinho 23, was born in Anyama and is a product of Ivory Coast's world famous football academy ASeC Abidjan that garnered talents like Barcelona's Yaya Toure and Arsenal's Eboue. During his stay at the academy he was under the tutelage of a Brazilian coach and was given the nick name Gervinho since his actual name is Gervais Yoa Kouassie. He possessed great dribbling ability and his nickname stuck to him, despite other players also receiving Brazilian nick names. He then played in small teams around Europe in Belgium.

In 2007 he moved to French Ligue 1 club Le Mens. He spent two seasons there scoring 8 goals and attracting the attention of larger clubs. In 2009 he signed to French team Lille for a transfer fee estimated around 8 mill pounds and had an impressive start scoring 13 goals in 32 appearance. Apart from scoring he created a number of highlight reels with his fluent ball control and dribbling skills, entertaining Lille supporters. It is now rumored that large clubs in Europe such as Arsenal and Manchester Utd are contacting Lille interesting in purchasing his services. He has definitely made his mark on the World Cup, we will have to see if Ericksson will give him the opportunity to start against N. Korea so he can show the world what he is capable of doing in his preferred position for 90 minutes on the World Cup stage.