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