ACTUALITE |
07.02.2002
Indomitable Lions get hangman’s job : For Cameroon to successfully defend their African
For Cameroon to successfully defend their African
title in the current 23th edition of the African Nations Cup, the Indomitable Lions must do the dirty job of the hangman by eliminating hosts Mali in the semi-finals today
The Lions found themselves in this situation after
scraping through a one nil victory over Egypt in the
quarter-finals on Monday in Sikasso. Though the Lions
know the job well, having done it in Abidjan in 1984,
Morocco in 1988, Senegal in 1992 andNigeria in 2000,
they must cure their weaknesses which greatly came to
the fore in the game against Egypt. With apparent
difficulties, the Pharaohs of Egypt played defensive,
waiting for the Lions to bang against them while
hoping to counter attack.
It was a game the Lions could easily take home with
at least a5-0 win, were it not for the poor show of
Salomon Olembe in the midfield and Samuel Eto’o at the
attack.Eto’o failed to combine properly with Patrick
Mboma and lost at least five clear scoring chances.
When he had to shoot, he dribbled around the box with
his headdown. And when he had to dribble, he shot
against the Egyptian wall, sometimes lousily.
Olembe could not just click. There were several calls
from fans for head coach Winfried Schafer to throw
them out, but he hesitated until the 71st minute when
he substituted Olembe with Daniel Ngom Kome. Patrick
Suffo played in place of Eto’o only during stoppage
time.
After the game some players said Schõfer should next
time try out other strikers. The crippling Egyptian
side held their ground in their half apparently
planing to drag it into extra time and may be penalty
shoot outs where luck counts more.
But Mboma’s goal, a header from the trademark
GeremiNjitap corner at the 62nd minute set them
lose.Veteran Hassan Hossam, still recovering from
injury came in in place of Hassan Ahmed at the 65th
minute and attempted to over work defence pillars
Rigobert Song and Raymond Kalla. Unfortunately he had
no backup from midfielders Ramzy Hany, Mohamed Barakat
andEmam Hazem who were all limping ducks.
The Egyptians claimed they lost the game because most
of them were injured. But they failed to confirm their
giant status in Africa, earning only one corner and
one real attempt at goal, all after Mboma’s goal. The
Lions dominated the game, won it and head for the
semi-final tomorrow in Bamako.
Meanwhile the indomitable Lions were quick at
putting the game behind them. They immediately began
preparing for the higher hurdle against Mali tomorrow.
All acknowledged it will be a very difficult game
because Mali will have the large crowd behind them.
However, the Lions were convinced they will find the
way to harvest victory. For Head coach Winfried
Schõfer, the Lions have enormous courage to crush Mali
on their way to the final. While Pius Ndiefi garner
enough experience to make their way through. “It will
be a difficult match for us because of the crowd and
their fast strikers. But our experience will enable us
win”, Ndiefi said.
Striker Patrick Mboma said the fact that he is
leading scorer in the tournament will not get into his
head and hoped for a clean game. “There will certainly
be a big crowd behind the hosts. All I want is that
there is also an excellent game for us to demonstrate
our capabilities”, Mboma said.Samuel Eto’o, who
justified his misses in Monday’sgame on the hazards of
the game of football praised the Malians for reaching
the selmi-finals.
He said:”Mali has a good team and the added
advantage thatthey will be playing in front of their
fans. We also know that Cameroon have become the team
to beat in the tournament. So we work on this premise
and get our opponents suffer”. Optimistic Eto’o held
that the final ‘was already in sight’.
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Hits: 1 | Source:The Herald | |
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