After missing two major continental competitions, Cameroon qualified last Sunday for the 2014 World Cup. What joy! What satisfaction! And for good reason, the entire Cameroonian people have been waiting for a moment like this for a long time. However, even if many are happy for the Indomitable Lions, very few believe in an exploit by Eto’o and company in Brazil.
A 4-1 victory against Tunisia and such a determined Cameroon, we haven’t seen in a long time. Sunday, November 18, the Indomitable Lions showed an efficiency and precision in front of goals that they lacked for a long time. Twice, this country, considered one of the greatest in terms of football on the continent, missed the African Cup of Nations (2012 and 2013) because of its lack of lucidity and its weakness in the game. But against the Eagles of Carthage, the Lions transcended themselves to snatch his ticket. After this victory, some saw the return of the great Cameroon that we knew a few years ago. And yet…
At the next World Cup, many are waiting for Ghana and Ivory Coast or even Nigeria. Nobody wants to bet on Cameroon, starting with Patrick WeboM’Boma, former glory of Cameroonian football and several times titled with his country. “I have no illusions and I expect nothing from our run in the World Cup. A surprise like in 1990 will not be possible. Yes, I wanted us to go there, but for the happiness of 20 million people and 23 athletes who dream of it. Not to expect anything from it,” he said at the start of the week in an interview with Fifa.com.
Like him, many Africans in general and Cameroonians in particular do not believe that Eto’o and his teammates can be capable of an exploit in Brazil as their elders did 23 years ago in Italy.
“Yes, we qualified and that’s good, but I don’t see us winning a single match in the World Cup. There, the level will be completely different and it is certainly not a team from Cameroon which beat a moribund Tunisia which can claim to compete with the great European and South American nations,” declared a Cameroonian football analyst after the match. back.
However, is it not going too quickly to bury so quickly a Cameroonian team which transcended itself during the play-off matches to obtain its ticket?
In recent years, the Indomitable Lions have become much more famous for the divisions and quarrels that they themselves have helped to create in their den. Teammates who do not get along and who hold grudges, suspicions, high doses of mistrust, this is what characterized the Cameroonian football selection.
But before the match on November 17 against the Eagles of Carthages, the players, given the stakes of the match and aware that a victory cannot be obtained under these conditions, decided to talk to each other and empty their bags to get back on better footing. With the contribution of some of their elders like Joseph-Antoine Bell and Geremi Njitap, Samuel Eto’o and Alexandre Song, two sworn enemies, buried the hatchet. And it is in this new spirit that Cameroon finally defeated Tunisia for a long-awaited qualification for the 2014 World Cup.
This is an important element that should not be overlooked. An element which, for sure, will help the Indomitable Lions to do well in Brazil. A united and united team like the one we saw last Sunday at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium can do more harm than the divided one which did not participate in the 2012 CAN, nor in that of 2013.
The second element which should push us to bet on Cameroon is Samuel Eto’o. At Chelsea since the start of the season after his Russian trip, the 32-year-old will probably play his last World Cup. What could be more normal than that he gives his all to leave this competition on very good notes. When Eto’o says they will do better than Ghana in 2010, there is reason to be optimistic.
But Cameroon still needs to correct certain things, notably the inadequacies noted by Patrick M’Boma during his interview with Fifa.com. “We are lucky to have a bottomless tank, so we always manage to get players out. But look at the current team, there is no one at the right-back position or to occupy the entire lane in a 3-5-2, so inevitably the game swings to the left. In attack, there are young people arriving but they are only emerging and I am not sure that they can take over from previous generations. We have eight midfielders but no one to liven up the game and give away the balls. As a result, it’s Alexandre Song who often has to deal with it, it’s not normal,” he said.
