Angola played their first game against
Congo on 8 February 1976, losing 3–2 with goals from Giovetty and Nelson. On 26 June 1977,
Cuba became Angola's first non-African opponent when the two countries met in Angola, with Angola winning 1–0. Angola entered World Cup qualifying for the first time in the
1986 qualifying competition. Angola defeated
Senegal on penalties in the first round before narrowly losing to
Algeria 3–2 on aggregate in the second round. That generation inclued great players of coutry's history like
Jesus,
Ndunguidi,
Joseph Maluka, Alves,
Vata and others. Angola qualified for their first
Africa Cup of Nations in
1996. They were drawn in Group A with
South Africa,
Egypt and
Cameroon. They lost their first two games to Egypt and South Africa, but managed a 3–3 draw against Cameroon. They finished bottom of the group and did not reach the second round. Angola then qualified for their second successive African Cup of Nations in
1998, but again failed to reach the second round, drawing 0–0 with South Africa and 3–3 with
Namibia, and losing 5–2 to
Ivory Coast. Also in this generation, there were great players:
Paulão,
Quinzinho (who scored the first goal in the
AFCON and played in
FC Porto) and
Joni. This national team was coached by
Carlos Alhinho, who gave opportunities to young players, thus forming Angola's golden generation. After missing the last 3 tournaments to the AFCON of
2000,
2002 and
2004, they qualified for the
2006 African Nations Cup. They recorded their first African Cup of Nations win against
Togo, winning 3–2, two goals coming from
Flávio and the other coming from
Maurito. They also drew 0–0 against
Congo DR and lost 3–1 against Cameroon. Angola's best performance then came in the
2008 African Nations Cup. They were drawn in Group D with
Tunisia,
South Africa and
Senegal. They drew 1–1 and 0–0 with South Africa and Tunisia, then defeated Senegal 3–1, two goals coming from
Manucho. In the quarter-finals they were beaten by eventual winners
Egypt 2–1, but Manucho scored again, finishing with four goals in total. Angola also won the
COSAFA Cup in 1999, 2001 and 2004.
2006 FIFA World Cup The Angola national team's journey to the World Cup began in
CAF preliminary rounds in a duel with
Chad. At the time Angola was ranked 70 places higher in the
FIFA rankings but lost 3-1 away to Chad, following a hat-trick by
Francis Oumar (coriosly,there were the only goals he eved scored for his national team). However, in the second leg at the Cidadela stadium Angola won 2-0, advancing on the away goals rule (3-3 on aggregate) the team played the first match under
Ismael Kurtz but he was dismissed and replaced by
Oliveira Gonçalves.The FAF's goal was not the World Cup but rather the
AFCON, as the quapification process for both was the same. Angola was placed in group with
Nigeria,
Algeria,
Gabon,
Rwanda and
Zimbabwe, the qualifiers began on june 5,2004, with a 0-0 draw away to Algeria. In the second match, Akwá scored in the 84 th minutes to secure a victory over Nigeria, in the third round, Angola drew 2-2 in
Libreville against Gabon, but back at the Cidadela, they defeated Rwanda with a goal from Freddy. In october of that same year, Angola beat Zimbabwe with a goal by Flávio, but their first defeat came shortly after, losing 2-0 in
Harare. Back at the Cidadela, Angola defeated Algeria 2-1 with goals from the duo Flávio and Akwá. The next match took place in
Kano,Nigeria; Angola was losing,but
Paulo Figueiredo (born in Angola to portuguese parents) equalized. This draw left Angola and Nigeria tied at the top of group but Angola held the advantage through tye head-to-head record. With two games remaiining, Angola beat Gabon 3-0 at home, even though Nigeria defeated Algeria 5-2. In the final match round, 8 october in 2005, Angola raced Rwanda in
Kigali. While Nigeria was beating Zimbabwe 5-1, the "hero fo kigali" appeared in 79th minutes following a cross from
Zé Kalanga, Akwá headed the ball in, qualifyng Angola for the
World Cup for the first time. In total, Angola scored 12 goals and conceded 6,with Akwá finishing as the top scored with 5 goals. When picking the squad, Gonçalves sought advice from
José Mourinho because his wife has angolan and saw players like
Akwá,
João Ricardo,
Paulo Figueiredo,
Flávio Amado, and
Jamba selected to go to the World Cup. Angola played six warm-up games against
South Korea,
Mauritius,
Lesotho,
Argentina,
Turkey and
USA. Angola played their first World Cup finals game against the
Portuguese side (Ronaldo's first world cup match), who won the match 1–0, the only goal coming from
Pauleta. There was a very friendly environment in and around the stadium during this match because of the links and friendship between the countries of
Angola and
Portugal. Angola drew 0–0 in their second game with
Mexico with a great performance from João Ricardo (goalkeeper, also of portuguese descendent, and curiosly conceded
Cristiano Ronaldo's first carrer goal) he was named man of the match. Although he was the only unemployed player in the tounement, he was helping Angola as still had a chance of qualifying, but the match finished 1–1 after goals by
Flávio and
Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh. Angola were eliminated from the tournament only losing one game and 11 cards in 3 Matches.
2010 World Cup failure After the
2006 World Cup, many of Angola's most experienced players such as
Akwá and
João Ricardo retired from the international game, but the expectation was still high for the team to qualify for the
2010 World Cup in
South Africa. The team had a bye through the first round of qualification and in the second round they were drawn in Group 3 along with
Benin,
Uganda and
Niger. Despite winning their first two matches, Angola failed to proceed to the third round, missing out by two points.
2010 Africa Cup of Nations As hosts of the
2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Angola were seeded in Group A along with
Mali,
Algeria, and
Malawi. Coached by
Manuel José, in their first game they drew 4–4 with Mali, after letting a 4–0 lead slip in the last 11 minutes (including three goals in stoppage time) and so, it became known and nicknamed "selection of almost" in Angola. They recovered from this by beating Malawi 2–0 in the second match, and topped the group by drawing 0–0 with Algeria. Were knocked out in the quarter final after a 1–0, defeat by eventual finalists Ghana.
Failure in afcon 2012 and 2013 After 2010, Angola came from a brilliant debut in the
2011 Chan with a silver medal and was the third team to qualify after the hosts (
Equatorial Guinea and
Gabon). With the core of the 2006 team and new coach Lito Vidigal, Angola featured Flávio, Kali, Gilberto, Love and Mateus, and the new generation included
Djalma,
Amaro,
Dani Massunguna and Manucho, the latter having gone to
Manchester United and playing for
Valladolid at the tim having already played 2008 and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. Angola was in Group-B with
Burkina Faso,
Sudan and
Ivory Coast. In first round, with goals from Mateus and Manucho, Angola won the 2-1 against Burkina Faso. In the second game, Manucho scored 2, but
Mohamed Ahmed Bashir also maneged to scored 2. The last game against alrealy qualified Ivory Coast, Angola lost 2-0, but even though they were tied on points, they lost difference, with sudan, and were eliminated. After this tournament, player like Flávio, Kali and André Macanga. Angola returned to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 in South Africa (which would now be held in odd-numberg years) and was played in Group-A with the host nation,
Morocco and fellow angolan debutan and language partner,
Cape Verde. Although it wasn't ther golden generation, they still had good players like goalkeeper Lamá(who was called up for the 2006 world cup), Manucho and Mateus Galiano. To funiher strengthen the new generation,
Neblú ( a 19-years-old goalkeeper)
Bastos, others. The first game ended 0-0 with Morocco, the secon game ended 2-0 against
South Africa, and in the final round, Cape Verde opened the scoring with an own goal by Nando, but
Fernando Varela equalized.
Héldon, in the 90+1th, qualified Cape Verde for the next phase (since Morocco finished with 3 points and the blue sharks with 5), eliminating Angola.
Decline and retourn ==Kit history==