Port Said, Egypt (PANA) - Nigeria's Super Eagles midfielder Nwankwo Kanu has expressed optimism Africa's World Cup teams will surprise everybody this summer during the tournament in Germany.

Kanu's views come in the context of most pundits who are concerned of a poor showing by African representatives to the World Cup finals in because of the poor performance the teams have displayed so far in the ongoing African Nations Cup finals in Egypt.

Africa will be parading four debutants in Ghana, Angola, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo. But the performance of the teams have raised some level of concern to everybody here, including Confederation of African Football (CAF) officials,

But Kanu, a former Africa Footballer of the Year winner, is of the view that the on-going tournament could be used to step up their standard before the World Cup instead of reaching their peak now only to decline on the centre stage.

"I have no doubt of the ability of the teams representing Africa at the World Cup finals in Germany and it will be good for the continent if we all give them the moral support instead of judging them based on the matches they have played so far," he told PANA on Wednesday.

So far the Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes) of Angola, Ghana's Black Stars and the Sparrowhawks of Togo have fumbled in the respective opening rounds of matches, while the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia's Carthage Eagles are the only teams to have registered victories.

"I don't believe in judging teams like that because football can be unpredictable most of the time. After all, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon had poor outing at Algeria '90 but their performance at the World Cup finals in Italy is still a reference point in African football to date.

"Senegal did not do much at the Mali 2002 African Nations Cup finals in Mali although they were finalists but it was a different
performance at the World Cup finals in Korea/Japan.

"Hence from all these examples, it will be difficult to dismiss the teams just like that because the game itself is full of surprise and that is why it's the called 'king of all sports'," Kanu explained.