African Cup of Nations Preview: Cameroon

January 15th, 2008 | by: Daryl | Comments(6)

There are now just five days until African Cup of Nations kick off, which means just five more teams to preview. We’ve already met all of Group A and Group B and now we finish Group C with Cameroon.

The Indomitable Lions have one of Africa’s most experienced coaches, one of the world’s greatest players and a proud and successful footballing history (if you ignore some of the team’s more questionable fashion choices.) So come on in and meet Cameroon.

Nickname: The Indomitable Lions

Kits: Green shirt, red shorts, yellow socks (home.) Yellow shirt, green shorts, red socks (away.)

This time out Cameroon has a nice normal kit after spending recent years as fashion guinea pigs for PUMA with the sleeveless shirt (left, kinda cool) and the onesie (right, not cool at all.)

Geography: “Situated in West Africa, Cameroon is shaped like an elongated triangle. It borders with Chad in the north and northeast, Central African Republic in the east, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in the south, the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) in the Southwest, and to the west and northwest lies Nigeria.” – The Africa Guide

History: Cameroon are four time African Cup of Nations champions, including recent wins in 2000, 2002. In 1990, Cameroon got the whole world’s attention by beating Argentina in their opening World Cup group game and then going all the way to the quarter-finals. Cameroon also won the Gold Medal at the 2000 Olympics.

Manager: Otto Pfister is officially German, but he’s basically African. The man has coached all over the continent in; (deep, deep breath if you’re reading this out loud) Rwanda, Burkina Faso (back when they were Upper Volta,) Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Zaire and Ghana and was in charge of Togo at World Cup 2006. He’s also coached clubs in Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan.

FIFA World Ranking (December 2007): 24th, second highest ranked team behind Nigeria.

Expectations: Cameroon will be expecting to win this thing.

Pros: Cameroon have a highly respected keeper in Carlos Kameni, who wears the gloves for Espanyol, currenly 4th in La Liga. In defence, Rigobert Song (pictured) has been playing international football since anyone can remember and has something like a million caps. He’s also the only man in the world brave enough to stare directly into the horror that is Ollie Kahn’s face. That’s why Song is captain. Hamburg left back Thimothée Atouba is skillful on the ball if a little over-eager with his tackling, but his presence is a definite plus. In an imporessively deep midfield, Newcastle’s Geremi has been around the block a few times and know what’s what. He’ll probably relish being away from the current nigtmare at St. James’s Park. Lille defensive mid Jean Makoum is a force to be reckoned with and may have one eye on earning a move to a bigger European club, while skillfull attacking mid Modeste M’bami of Marseille was part of the victorious Olympic squad. Up front we all know about Samuel Eto’o, who has returned from injury just in time to take on Cameroon’s African Cup of Nations goalscoring duties.

Cons: Eto’o is in a class of his own up front, so Cameroon will rely heavily on him. If there’s any re-occurrence of Eto’o’s meniscus injury then Otto Pfister can’t exactly turn to Joseph-Désiré Job and ask for the same level of performance. Pfister is also a little light on numbers at the back, naming just six defenders to his 23-man squad.

Player to Watch: It has to be Samuel Eto’o, doesn’t it? The Barcelona striker was African Footballer of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005, has won La Liga more than once, has a Champions League winners medal, an Olympic Gold Medal and two African Cup Nations winners medals. And he’s still only 26. If you’ve got a spare 22 minutes and 59 seconds then settle in and watch this exhaustive compilation of the man’s goals.

Team Blog? Definitely. Chris will be taming all the Indomitable Lions news on the Cameroon blog.

Fixtures: In Group C with Egypt, Zambia, Sudan
Cameroon vs Egypt (Kumasi, January 22nd, 17:00)
Cameroon vs Zambia (Kumasi, January 26th, 17:00)
Cameroon vs Sudan (Tamale, January 30th, 17:00)

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Kameni Idriss Carlos (Espanyol, Spain), Hamidou Souleymanou (Denizlispor, Turkey), Janvier Mbarga (Canon Sportif)

Defenders: Rigobert Song (Galatasaray, Turkey), Andre Bikey (Reading, England), Timothee Atouba (Hamburg, Germany), Bill Tchato (Qatar Sport, Qatar), Benoit Angbwa (Saturn, Russia), Gilles Augustin Binya (Benfica, Portugal)

Midfielders: Geremi (Newcastle United, England), Alexandre Song (Arsenal, England), Achille Emana (Toulouse, France), Jean Joel Epalle (Vfl Bochum, Germany), Jean Makoun (Lille, France), Landry Nguemo (Nancy, France), Modeste Mbami (Olympique Marseille, France), Paul Tchamba Essola (Arsenal Kiev, Ukraine), Stephane Mbia Etoundi (Stade Rennes, France), Alain Nkong (Atlente, Mexico)

Forwards: Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona, Spain), Bertin Tomou (Excelsior Mouscron, Belgium), Mohamadou Idrissou (MSV Duisburg, Germany), Joseph Desire Job (Nice, France)