SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - By Sunday, December 2, one more spot available for African countries for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China will be determined while another one will only be decided in February 2019.

Who will join African champions Tunisia and Nigeria, the first African countries to qualify for the reformulated 32-nation World Cup?

For three days, starting on Friday, November 30, Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia will gather in the Angolan capital of Luanda for the decisive and second leg of Group E of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 African Qualifiers with a lot of it at stake.

Cameroon used a 9-0 to start their latest game against Egypt but lost 62-58

According to FIBA's new competition system, the countries that finish in the first and second places from each group qualify automatically for the World Cup while the best third-placed team from across Groups E and F will complete the five-team African lineup at FIBA's flagship competition.

However, as I mentioned above, the decision on the fifth country to qualify for next year's World Cup won't be known until the second leg of Group F (Nigeria, Central African Republic, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda and Mali) takes place in the sixth window of the qualifiers next February.

With nine victories in as many games, Tunisia lead Group E, and more than anything, they head to Luanda to defend their continental prestige while the qualifiers become somehow trickier for Cameroon, Angola and Egypt.

For those three countries, it's all about winning, go home or wait for February 2019.

This is how Group E standings look like so far: 1st: Tunisia (18 points), 2nd: Angola (15 points), 3rd: Egypt (14 points), 4th: Cameroon (14 points), 5th: Chad (12 points) and 6th: Morocco (12 points). 

In what could be the most important game in the recent basketball history of these two countries, Cameroon take on hosts Angola on Day 1 at Kilamba Arena.

And based on the latest Angola v Cameroon played two months ago in Tunisia, it's hard to predict a winner between these two good teams for so many reasons.

 Although the Cameroonians have lost all three games against Angola dating back to the FIBA AfroBasket 2007 and 2011, which was followed by an 83-76 loss in the first-leg of Group E of the World Cup Qualifiers two months ago, they have no reason for backing down just yet. After all, Cameroon must start with a win if they are to keep their World Cup aspirations alive.

As Angolan power forward Reggie Moore recently acknowledged, "That's the game that is really going to decide for us to qualify because they are right there with us in the group. They have even more talent than Tunisia. Tunisia play better together, but talent wise, Cameroon is the most talented team."

On Day 2, Angola will face Chad before closing their World Cup qualifiers campaign against Tunisia.

In addition to Angola, the Cameroonians will square off against Morocco, and Egypt, who currently sit one place above them in Group E.

With the appointment of Lazare Adingono - their third head coach in a year after Brazilian Carlos Barbosa and Frenchman Jean Denys Choulet - Cameroon will need to find urgent answers to rewrite their history and beat Angola and Egypt for the first time in more than a decade. 

I wouldn't rely on history or theories to declare Cameroon as outsiders, Angola as the favourite or Egypt as the possible best third-placed team in entire qualifiers, especially because most players and coaches involved are desperate to join FIBA's flagship tournament, where the best of the best are on display.  

Let the battle begin in Luanda.

Follow all the African Qualifiers action on this link.

Julio Chitunda
FIBA

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