African power house Cameroon lost their second consecutive Group E fixture against Denmark last night to end their dreams of advancing to the second round of the FIFA World Cup. After a poor showing against Japan in their opening group game, there was a lot of optimism that the Indomitable Lions were ready to deliver to the entire continent a long awaited victory.
Both teams came into this match on the back of losses and a victory would have greatly improved their chances of qualifying for the next round. It looked very promising for the Lions as they terorrised and dominated play for most of the first half with their star striker Samuel Eto’o returning to his preferred centre-forward position.
The Inter Milan forward opened the scoring for Cameroon on ten minutes after Pierre Webo squared the ball for him after latching onto Cristian Poulsen’s misjudged pass. This inspired Cameroon to action immediately as Achille Emana’s thunderbolt strike missed the target by only a few inches.
Denmark got back into the game in the 33rd minute when Arsenal forward Niklas Bendtner tapped in a Simon Kjaer cross. The first half provided the kind of entertainment that has not been seen in the tournament so far and it had me relishing the second half.
However, my anticipation quickly turned to frustration when Cameroon failed to capitalise on the numerous chances they had. I know i speak for many when i say that our so called stars have let the continent down. Its very ironical that out of the more than five chances Cameroon had, the failed to put the ball in the back of the net while Denmark’s only clear scoring opportunity resulted in a goal.
I guess this speaks volumes about the abilities of African sides to finish off a game. The same was witnessed with Ghana earlier in the day. Even with a numerical advantage, they still failed to beat the Australians despite dominating.
Ghana and the Ivory Coast have now been left with the enormous responsibility of delivering success to the more than 1 billion desperate African fans. The question however, is whether they have what it takes to get the job done.