The Herald
YAOUNDE. — Cameroon’s big gamble for the World Cup football was putting their campaign in the hands of one of their greatest players.
Rigobert Song, a highly respected former captain, was appointed coach in February despite a lack of managerial experience outside of Cameroon’s youth structures.
He faces the challenge of trying to take the Indomitable Lions past the group stage of a World Cup for the first time since Roger Milla and Co. made their way to the quarter-finals in 1990 and put African football on the map.
Song succeeded in his first mission when Cameroon won a two-legged playoff against Algeria in March to qualify for the tournament in Qatar, although only after a last-ditch goal by Karl Toko Ekambi four minutes into injury time at the end of extra-time of the second game.
Subsequent losses to Uzbekistan and South Korea in World Cup warm-ups have provided a reality check and raised questions about whether federation president Samuel Eto’o, a former teammate of Song, was too hasty in replacing Toni Conceição.
The Portuguese coach led Cameroon to a third-place finish at this year’s African Cup of Nations and laid a foundation to build on in Qatar.
No one doubts Song’s huge contribution to Cameroonian football. He played at four World Cups, eight African Cup of Nationss, won two African titles and made a national record 137 appearances for his country. But he has yet to win everyone over in his new role.
Song’s coaching resume is nowhere near as extensive as his playing achievements. A Cameroon “A” team he was in charge of at the African Nations Championship in 2018 finished last in its group and was embarrassed by losses to Republic of Congo and Angola.
The 46-year-old former Liverpool defender coached the Under-23 team before his promotion but the doubts about his ability are set to follow Cameroon to the World Cup, where they play Switzerland, Serbia and Brazil in Group G.
Cameroon’s attacking threat has been boosted by former France Under-21 international Bryan Mbeumo’s decision to switch allegiance to his father’s home country.
The 23-year-old Brentford forward offers English Premier League experience up front alongside Vincent Aboubakar and Toko Ekambi, who were a formidable strike combination and the top two scorers at this year’s African Cup of Nations with 13 goals between them.
There’s also Bayern Munich forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Holding midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa is arguably Cameroon’s most important player but Song has so far failed to bolster a defense that has a habit of leaking early goals.
He hasn’t managed to convince Liverpool defender Joel Matip to return to international duty.
The Milla team that beat Argentina and Colombia and took England to the wire at the 1990 World Cup in Italy broke barriers for African football by reaching the quarter-finals and nearly the semi-finals, and is the standard against which every Cameroon team since has been judged.
Every one has been a disappointment. The Central African country may yearn for a repeat of that magical run of 32 years ago but the cold reality is that Cameroon have won only one game at the World Cup since 1990, against Saudi Arabia in 2002.
Cameroon lost all three of their games and had the worst record of all 32 teams at the last World Cup they played at in 2014. — AP
Denial of responsibility! planetcirculate is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
