Cameroon 0-Japan 1

"a date which will live in infamy"-

Franklin D Roosevelt

Cameroon suffered its own Pearl Harbor to the Japanese except this time the blow was almost fatal.

the problem with the side was the lack of cohesiveness within the team. players were not making runs off the ball and it made it easy for the Japanese to maintain their shape in defence and in midfield. once the Japanese scored there was almost a sense of deja vu. the Lions found it increasingly difficult to penetrate the Japanese defence. only when Geremi came on was there some width. Stephane Mbia's 30 yard strike that cannoned off the crossbar failed to hide the tactical limitations of coach Paul Le Guen.

Training Day

first day of training in South Africa all pictures courtesy of AFP

More pictures of the Lions' arrival

More from Cameroon's arrival

The Lions Arrive Durban

More pictures to follow. source AP

Goodbyes before travelling to South Africa

The National side were given an "official " farewell prior to leaving for South Africa. Personally i see it as a waste. they should cut all this out and focus on preparing for the task at hand. anyway here are the pictures of the "send-off" all picture courtesy of Camfoot(www.camfoot.com)

Serbia 4 Cameroon 3

Many positives and negatives. at least we scored 3 goals. what wasn't so good was we let 4 in the first half

Portugal vs Cameroon [3-1] - International Friendly [01/06/2010]

Portugal 3 Cameroon 1

Disappointed with the result. that said we played close to an hour with 10 men. there were a few positives but our Achilles heel is the lack of creativity in the final third. Only Benoit Assou-Ekotto once again was an outlet who at times tried to get forwards and stretch the Portuguese defence. Samuel Eto'o for once should have known better to get two yellows in such quick succession even if the foul for the second really didn't merit one. Maxim Chupo Moting looked useful, especially granted that this is his first game with the team. He tried to combine with both Eto'o and Achille Emana. after Cameroon were reduced to ten men he tried to play as the sole front man. a very difficult task under normal circumstances for players with more experience as him. Emana looked lively at the start of the game but was let down by some of his decision making. He too faded after the red card to Eto'o. Nicholas Nkoulou and Stephane Mbia look like a decent defensive pairing. i certainly would start Mbia ahead of Sebastien Bassong ahead of the opening game. Georges Mandjeck was generally okay and tried to keep the menacing Christiano Ronaldo in check. His passing and distribution however were not good and as a defensive midfielder used as a right back he did not show much attacking initiative. Alex Song did not have the best of games and the midfield trio of he, Jean Makoun and Eyong Enoh must figure out why the left Raul Meireles free to shoot for Portugal's opening strike. Makoun in particular didn't have a good game. As Cameroon committed more players forwards in search for an equalizer Ronaldo combined with Nani caught Cameroon with the counter and Nani finished brilliantly. Kameni was clearly at fault for the second goal and still looked ill at ease in goal, as if he was still traumatized from his experience at the last Nations' cup in Angola. In all it was a good work out for the team but there is still a lot to do.

friendlies

Today Cameroon play their third friendly against Portugal. Their first two against Georgia (above)and Slovakia respectively showed a steady improvement but there is still a lot of work to be done. within that period Cameroon announced the final 23. they 23 players are.....
Goalkeepers : Hamidou Souleymanou (Kayserispor, Turkey), Idriss Carlos Kameni (Espanyol Barcelona, Spain), Guy Roland Ndy Assembe (Valenciennes, France).

Defenders : Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Tottenham, England), Sebastien Bassong (Tottenham, England), Gaëtan Bong (Valenciennes, France), Aurélien Chedjou (Lille, France), Geremi Njitap (Ankaragücü, Turkey), Stéphane Mbia (Olympique de Marseille, France), Nicolas Nkoulou (AS Monaco, France), Rigobert Song (Trabzonspor, Turkey).

Midfielders : Enoh Eyong Tarkang (Ajax Amsterdam, Netherlands), Jean II Makoun (Olympique Lyonnais, France), Georges Mandjeck (FC Kaiserslautern, Germany), Joël Matip (Schalke 04, Germany), Landry Nguemo (Celtic Glasgow, Scotland), Alexandre Song (Arsenal, England).

Forwards : Vincent Aboubakar (Coton Sport Garoua, Cameroon), Eric Choupo-Moting (FC Nuremberg, Germany), Achille Emana (Betis Sevilla, Spain), Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan, Italy), Mohamadou Idrissou (SC Fribourg, Germany), Achille Webo (Majorque, Spain).

all pictures courtesy AFP

Cameroon at training days 1 and 2 part 2

All pictures courtesy of getty images

pics of players in training Days 1 and 2

All pictures courtesy of camfoot and Getty Images

National Team Profile

• Country-Cameroon
• Nickname-The Indomitable Lions
• Past Performance at World Cup-1982-Group Phase 1990-Quarter finals 1994-Group Phase 1998-Group Phase 2002-Group Phase
• Honours-4 times African Nations cup champions (1984, 1988,2000,2002)
• Coach-Paul Le Guen
• Captain-Samuel Eto'o
• Current betting odds of winning the World Cup-80/1
• Current squad

Goalkeepers:

Roland N'Dy Assembe (Valenciennes)

Idriss Carlos Kameni (Espanyol),

Hamidou Souleymanou (Kayserispor),

Patrick Tignyemb (Bloemfontein Celtic)

Defenders:

Patrick Abouna (Astres Douala),

Benoit Assou Ekotto (Tottenham Hotspur),

Sebastien Bassong (Tottenham Hotspur),

Gaetan Bong (Valenciennes),

Aurelien Chedjou (Lille),

Geremi (Ankaragucu),

Boukar Makadji (Al Nahdha),

Stephane Mbia (Marseille, France)

Nicolas Nkoulou (Monaco),

Rigobert Song (Trabzonspor)

Midfielders:

Achille Emana (Real Betis),

Enoh Eyong (Ajax Amsterdam),

Jean Makoun (Olympique Lyon),

Georges Mandjeck (Kaiserslautern),

Joel Matip (Schalke 04),

Patrick Mevoungou (Canon Yaounde),

Marcel Ndjeng (Augsburg),

Landry Nguemo (Celtic),

Alexandre Song (Arsenal)

Forwards:

Vincent Aboubakar (Coton Sport),

Eric Choupo-Mating (Nuremburg), ,

Samuel Eto'o (Inter Milan),

Mohamadou Idrissou (Freiburg),

Dorge Kouemaha (Club Bruges),

Achille Webo (Real Mallorca),

Jacques Zoua (Basle)

No African country has participated at the world cup as often as Cameroon. in spite of reaching the quarter finals in 1990 Cameroon has yet to fully build on their success. results in subsequent tournaments post 1990 have been disappointing even though many of the problems have stemmed from poor organization especially administratively. That said Cameroon will be looking to have a good World Cup. The Cameroonian football federation, Fecafoot seem to be getting its house in order and problems in the past such as match bonuses are not so much of an issue today. that said it seems as if the world cup has come perhaps at a time when the team is going through a transition phase. The older guard such as Geremi and Rigobert Song no longer seem to have the pace to compete with many players at the highest level even though they boast of well over 200 appearances between them. In addition the new young generation lack experience with many of the players being recently added to the squad.All of this puts more pressure on the spine of the team composing Carlos Kameni, Nicolas Nkoulou (19 years but one of the most experienced centre backs in the team), Alex Song and Captain Samuel Eto'o. Generally there is guarded optimism and if the team manages to gel and works as a coherent unit there is every chance the team can at least past the group phase.

Tactical Formation

Under Paul Le Guen Cameroon have tended to play 4-3-3. what is still to be decided is the starting eleven. During the African Nations cup in Angola certain players like Benoit Assou Ekotto were not available so changes before the opening match against Japan are inevitable. This is especially because the defence showed serious lapses in Angola which urgently need to be rectified. icholas Nkoulou is usually one of the centre backs. who will still parter him is still be seen. Stephane Mbia had a great season with Marseille at that position though he is not comfortable there. he has also been tried at right back too. Sebastien Bassong is also an option as well as Veteran Rigobert Song. The midfield relies on Alex Song as the midfield. He, as well as being the principal holding midfielder also acts as a deep lying play-maker. Most of Cameroons moves start from him. In midfield he usually plays with two other central midfielders, usually either Eyong Enoh, Jean Makoun or Georges Mandjeck. Schalke's Joel Matip is another new option. this gives the midfield a lot of compactness and stability though this comes at the price of creativity. the attacking trio is usually spearheaded by Inter Milan Star Samuel Eto'o. He is the superstar of the team, captain, talisman and is a world class talent. the main problem is he does not have enough support in attack. As a result of this Eto'o often plays a deeper role for Cameroon than he would usually in Europe. in attack he usually plays with Achille Emana and a variety of other players like Achille Webo or Mohamadou Idrissou. Idrissou would usually play as the point man by virtue of his height and his physical presence.

World Cup part 1

Finally after four years of waiting the greatest tournament is finally upon us...the World Cup in South Africa. As a Cameroonian naturally i will be rooting for Cameroon to go all the way though realistically i thing Brazil or Argentina (if they click) will end up winning it. the European sides will be strong and the weather will play in their favor but its hard for European sides to win outside their continent. watching games for me won't be easy especially waking up early but it all will be worth it. i hope i will be able to find a bar open here at 7 in the morning. if not...my home will be my stadium.

in order to get into the spirit of the tournament here are a couple of songs to kick things off..the first one is "Waka Waka 'Esto es Africa" by Shakira. the song is in fact plagiarized from a Cameroonian song "Zangalewa" by the Zangalewa especially from 7:33. Check out both songs below.

The second song is "O Africa" by Akon featuring Keri Hilson with appearances from Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Kaka, Michael Ballack (sorry mate) and Frank Lampard.