Ivory Coast's older stars aim to break new ground

Didier Drogba, the Toure brothers and Didier Zokora are the best players left from the generation that made Ivory Coast relevant in world football nearly a decade ago.
This World Cup may be the last chance they get to make history for their nation.
"We know we have very good players," Zokora said before practice Friday, the eve of their Group C opener against Japan. "We want to show our class."
Individually, the stars of "Les Elephants," as they're known in their French-speaking African nation, have flourished for their professional club teams.
Drogba was among the most dangerous strikers in the English Premier League with Chelsea for much of the past decade.

Yaya Toure is coming off a 20-goal, championship-winning campaign with Manchester City. His brother, Kolo, spent last season on the back line of Liverpool, the team that narrowly trailed Manchester City in the standings.

Zokora has played in both the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur and Spain's La Liga with Seville.
Yet, when they've come together to represent their nation on the biggest stages, they've left disappointed.
They never managed to win the Africa Cup of Nations -- which Ivory Coast has won only in 1992 -- despite being among the favorites, losing twice in the championship game.
Now comes their third straight World Cup, and what on paper, at least, looks like their best chance to advance past the group stage for the first time.

After Japan, they will round out group play against Colombia and then Greece. While those teams are no pushovers, they don't pose the challenge Ivory Coast faced in 2006, when its group included Argentina and the Netherlands, or in 2010, when the team was matched with Brazil and Portugal.
Zokora was quick to point that out Friday.
"In 2014, at least, the group is worse, which is good for us," he said.