Ethiopia W

Early history

Ethiopia has a long football tradition and was among the pioneers of international competition in Africa, playing its first international match in 1947, defeating French Somaliland 5–0. The EFF joined FIFA in 1952, and was one of the founders of the Confederation of African Football in 1957. The team took part in the inaugural African Nations Cup in 1957, where it finished second. In 1959, Ethiopia entered the 1962 World Cup qualifiers for the first time and faced Israel in the second round after a bye. The team lost both games; and with an aggregate score of 2–4 was knocked out of the competition.

The team won the African tournament on home soil, in 1962. Nine countries entered the competition, including the reigning champions, the United Arab Republic, meaning for the first time a qualification tournament was required. As with previous tournaments, the finals only included four teams. The United Arab Republic, as holders, and Ethiopia as hosts, qualified automatically meaning each needed to play only one game to reach the final. Ethiopia won the tournament for the first time after extra time in the final against the United Arab Republic. Mengistu Worku and Badawi Abdel Fattah were joint top-scorers, both with three goals each, but the award itself was given to Worku because his team had won the title. This was the greatest feat ever achieved by the Ethiopian National team, and the only African Cup of Nations title it has ever won. Luciano Vassalo was the team's captain, and the coach was Ydnekatchew Tessema.

In the 1963 African Cup of Nations, they finished fourth, after losing the third place battle against the United Arab Republic. The 1965 edition was even more of a disappointment for Ethiopia, as the national team was eliminated in group phase by Tunisia and Senegal, finishing at the bottom of the group, with only one scored goal.

The next African Cup of Nations was the 1968 edition. Again, but this time on home soil, the team finished in fourth place after losing to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the semi-finals, and losing the third place match to Ivory Coast 0–1. But two years later, the team went through a real disaster, as they finished at the bottom of the group phase, with a goal difference of 3–12. The worst was yet to come for Ethiopia as they did not qualify for the 1972 African Cup of Nations at all, losing to Kenya in the qualifying tournament with a 0–3 aggregate. Almost the same thing happened for the 1974 African Cup of Nations. This time, they were eliminated by Tanzania.

Ethiopia hosted the Nations Cup tournament in 1976, but failed to progress to the final four, finishing third in the group, behind Guinea and Egypt. In 1977, they played Mauritius in the qualifiers for the 1978 African Cup of Nations. After a 4–2 win on aggregate, they had to play Uganda. After a 0–0 draw from the first match, Uganda won the second match, 2–1, and progressed to the final tournament. They also missed the 1980 African Cup of Nations. Until 2013, Ethiopia last qualified for the tournament in 1982, under coach Mengistu Worku, legendary former player. They failed to make it past the group stage.

Earlier success in CECAFA Cup (2001–2007)

In the 2001 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia beat Zanzibar 5–0 and tied 1–1 with Rwanda B to advance to the quarterfinals against Burundi. After a 2–2 tie in regulation, they beat Burundi 5–4 in penalty kicks. Ethiopia went on to beat Rwanda A 1–0 in the semi-finals and Kenya 2–1 in the finals to win the championship for the first time since 1987. Because of their success in 2001 with Asrat Haile at the helm, Ethiopia jumped 17 spots in FIFA rankings from 155th to 138th. Despite their success, the EFF chose to replace Asrat with German coach Jochen Figge in August 2002.

In the 2002 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia failed to qualify past the group stage of the competition; they lost all four of their games against Zanzibar, Uganda, Somalia, and Rwanda. In 2003 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia withdrew just before the start of the tournament. The competition only had six participating countries with Burundi, Djibouti, Somalia, and Tanzania also choosing not to participate. The EFF fired Figge in May 2003, even though the team had won two games and was second in their group in the 2004 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. Then assistant coach, Asrat was appointed interim coach. Ethiopia failed to qualify by 3 points with a loss in the final game in Guinea. Asrat was soon replaced by Seyoum Kebede whose tenure with the "Walias" was also short lived.

The next challenge was the 2004 CECAFA Cup in Addis Ababa. There were 9 teams in regional tournament: Burundi, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia. Ethiopia was led by captain Zewdu Bekele, and again by coach Asrat who was recalled to the position a mere two weeks before the beginning of the tournament. After defeating Burundi, tying with Rwanda and beating Tanzania, and Zanzibar, the team advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2001. Ethiopia advanced to the championship after a dramatic nail-biting penalty shootout with Kenya. The team went on to beat Burundi 3–0 and win the 2004 CECAFA Cup on 25 December 2004. That night, people all across Addis Ababa sang and danced in the streets.

The Ethiopian national team was the champion of the same CECAFA Cup competition again in 2005, in Kigali, Rwanda. This time coached by Sewnet Bishaw—after a 0–0 draw with Uganda and a 3–1 victory over Sudan—Ethiopia thrashed Djibouti in a 6–0 victory. They then went on to beat Somalia 3–1. Semi-finals saw Ethiopia whip Zanzibar 4–0, with Fikru Tefera scoring a hat-trick. In the final match, Andualem Negusse's goal allowed Ethiopia to take the cup again with a 1–0 win over Rwanda.