England and Senegal will meet for the first time in a World Cup match on Sunday.
After losing to the Netherlands, the West African team won their next two games to advance out of Group A.
In 2002 they reached the first Africa Cup of Nations final and the World Cup quarter-finals. There was no doubt as to who was in charge of the game.
Aliou Cisse was the conduit for coach Bruno Metsu's orders and was present for all 12 games.
It wasn't an easy ride for an individual to lead a team of such diverse individuals.
In the very worst of circumstances, Cisse's leadership qualities were needed again, just three months after the World Cup where they beat defending champion France and became only the second African team to reach the last eight.
In September of this year, 11 of Cisse's family members, including his sister, died in a ferry disaster off the coast of The Gambia.
The first time Cisse spoke about the sinking was in the press. It was a tough time.
We need to remember the dead and the families that were wiped out from the fathers down to the children.
My main motivation is to say that we are thinking of you.
He believes he could have been a part of the tragedy.
On the evening of 26 September 2002, Cisse was just two months into his career with the new club and preparing for a game against the old one.
Cisse's relatives were boarding the Joola ferry at the city where he was born.
The Joola operated between a region known as the Casamance, which is the home region of current Teranga Lions star Sadio Mane, and the capital Dakar, which is in the middle of a horseshoe shaped country.
The Joola had been out of operation for a year for maintenance and repairs but was back up and running two weeks ago.
The man who masterminded Senegal's maiden Africa Cup of Nations title said he loved the Joola.
I don't know how many times I've taken the ferry. I traveled to the Casamance on the Joola every time I returned.
I was fortunate to be on the boat.
The second-worst peacetime nautical disaster in history was caused by his relatives and nearly 2,000 other people.
Children were the majority of these.
The Joola was in no state to survive the heavy storm that hit it just off the coast of TheGambia and after capsizing, it sank.
No rescue signal went out because there was no effective radio system to call for help.
The communications were terrible for those who wanted to know more about the boat.
Cisse said that it was a day when they were all on the phone.
It was the most difficult part. It was difficult to get accurate information.
In those moments, you could catch your breath, but you were told 30 minutes later that the boat hadn't arrived.
Confirmation came through sadly.
Yet Cisse did not tell anyone for a few days at Birmingham, the Premier League side he had joined from Paris Saint-Germain after the World Cup, as he did not want to "betray his state of mind" to his new team-mates.
He played against West Ham a week later, which resulted in a fine 2-1 away win and endeared him to the fans.
As he spoke to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, he explained that he flew back to his hometown of Dakar immediately after the game.
My family needed me so I had to be strong. These days were difficult for a man.
In a ghastly nightmare rather than football's biggest stages, Cisse's leadership qualities were once again shining through.
Even though he clearly had his own unimaginable grief, his stature as the captain of the country made people think more of him.
I needed to be close to my family as well as my neighbours who lost sisters and aunts. I needed to be there for them, try to give them a voice and be there in a sad moment.
The Joola is still at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean twenty years after it was first discovered.
The victims' associations want the Senegalese government to lift the debris in order to find out what happened.
Critics claim that the government has failed to act despite being given funds to do so by the European Union.
Families want this boat to be raised and they have answers to all their questions, that's normal. Cisse said that their demands make sense if it helps them find closure.
As Cisse waits for the preferred response from the government, this leader is nonetheless leading the country's presence in front of a world watching.
Cisse was named Africa's coach of the year in July.
Babacar Diarra reports additional reporting.
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