NIEDERKASSEL, Germany -- A game-breaking striker in one of the best soccer leagues in Europe should have been a shoo-in for a spot on Ivory Coast's World Cup team, right?

Wrong.

If there's one thing the Elephants do not lack, it's players who can go on the attack and score -- at all positions.

"It's our African way of playing," Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zakora said. "We like to attack."

That means accomplished players such as Lecce's Axel Konan, who scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over AC Milan this season, failed to make the team.

And there are other talented strikers from Ivory Coast who are not at the World Cup, either by choice or because the national team -- with the likes of Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Paris Saint-Germain's Bonaventure Kalou -- was already stacked with world-class forwards.

The tendency of even Ivory Coast defenders to surge forward on counterattacks makes the Elephants' brand of soccer exciting to watch even when they lose, as they did 2-1 to Argentina in their World Cup debut Saturday.

The Ivorians had trouble finishing, but they got off more shots than the Argentines, held an edge in possession time and had double the number of corner kicks.

A number of European teams, the Italians in particular, have refined a conservative, defensive style of play that often results in low-scoring games.

Defensive soccer has its rewards: European clubs often advance deep into international tournaments with such an approach, as Greece did in winning the 2004 European Championship.

African teams have improved defensively as an increasing number of players from the continent have been snapped up by top clubs in Europe. Still, they won't shy away from taking risks in an effort to score.

They are fast and flashy, with great dribbling and shooting skills, and they refuse to suppress those attributes.

"For me, the attack is the best defense, and that's my point of view," striker Bakari Kone says.