With Nigeria's breathtaking 3-2 loss to Argentina, Stephen Keshi made history.

He became the first African national to lead an African team into the knockouts at the World Cup finals as his Nigeria team joined their victors in the second round.

This is no mean feat.

In the 80 years since Egypt made Africa's debut at the second­ World Cup in Uruguay and including the five countries representing the continent this year, there have been 38 African teams that have played at the tournament proper.

Shockingly, just 10 of those squads have been entrusted to an African manager.

In that time Africa's teams have been led by Scots, Serbs, Brazilians, Russians, Dutch, French and Swedes among others­ but with the same amount of success: very little.

Excluding this year's ongoing qualification, in the 34 tournament­ opportunities to make it to the knockout stages only seven African teams have ever made the cut.

These are statistics that quickly­ put Keshi's achievement into concrete perspective.

Keshi is no overnight success. He has put in the hard yards as a coach and suffered disappointment along the way.

He masterminded Togo's qualification for the 2006 World Cup only to be dropped from the tournament itself in favor of a German coach, Otto Pfister.

The Nigerian has managed the Super Eagles for the past three years, in which he took them to victory in last year's Africa­ Cup of Nations where they beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in the final.

He then delivered his nation to Brazil via a 4-1 aggregate playoff victory over Ethiopia.

It has not always been easy for Keshi during his successful stint as Nigeria manager.

In a sign of the drama that seems to follow African soccer at every turn, he handed in his resignation right after the Cup of Nations victory and then reneged on the decision only 24 hours later.

In Brazil the 52-year-old has endured media criticism for the dour performance that Africa's great entertainers­ put in against Iran that also led to calls for his head.

 Those calls are a little quieter for now.

It's been 37 years since the Brazilian­ soccer legend Pele made his famous declaration that an African­ team would win the World Cup before the year 2000.

That has not yet come to pass and the best a team from the continent has managed is the quarterfinals.­

The strongest performance at that stage came from Ghana in South Africa four years ago, when they were a penalty away from the semifinals.

Ghana are among the two remaining­ African teams with a chance to qualify for this year's knockout stages.

If they do make it then they too will have done so with an African­ national at their helm.

Akwasi Appiah could make a decent claim for Ghanaian qualification being the more difficult­ task having been drawn in a group alongside the US, Germany­ and Portugal.

Even if the Black Stars do not make it out of their Group of Death, Nigeria could still be joined by Algeria.

The North Africans stand a good chance of coming second behind Belgium in Group H.

Despite not being coached by an African, the Algerians would make more history should they go through as 2014 would be the first World Cup where more than one African team has made the knockouts. 

Regardless of whether any of the continental compatriots joins Nigeria in the second round, the future looks bright for African soccer.

The likes of Keshi, Appiah and Cape Verde coach Luis Antones, who nearly guided the island nation­ to Brazil, hint at a growing­ quality off the pitch to match that which the continent has long provided on it.