Fred Vubem
24 November 2008
The Indomitable lions of Cameroon were last Wednesday November 19 humbled 2-3 by the Bafana and Bafana of South Africa. The stunning defeat came as a surprise especially as the Lions have been lining up victories in the recent past and classified the best team in Africa according to FIFA rankings. However, information trickling out of South Africa suggests it wasn't a fair fight after all as the defeat could be qualified as a stab in the back for the Lions.
First, visas and air tickets were given to the players just at the nick of time which made seven players who constitute the back bone of the national team unable to make the trip to South Africa. Players like song, Geremi and Eto'o had to return to their clubs after futile attempts to join the rest of the squad in South Africa.
An offer by the Cameroon football federation to take care of the travelling expenses of the players to be reimbursed by the South African football federation upon arrival in South Africa was turned down. Secondly, the players got to South Africa only on the eve of the game and had no time to rest or train together before the game.
Even feeding was an uphill task for the Cameroonians who were expected to spend calories of energy defending the nation colours. What was initially announced to be a mere friendly match turned out to be the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup with medals and a cash prize of 500.000 Rands given to the victors.
The match in itself had nothing to do with a friendly match judging from the level of engagement of the players and the celebration that followed after South Africa got the victory. There was the shooting of fireworks as jubilant South Africans beat their chest that they had beaten the best team on the African continent according to FIFA rankings.
The violent diatribe of head coach, Otto Pfister, after the encounter is therefore understandable given that he was completely left out of the arrangements for the encounter. A feeling which was shared by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education who was equally present in the company of the Prime Minister's personal representative, to present Cameroon's birthday gift to the South African icon, Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
The Minister however said the match gave an opportunity for Cameroon to test young players like Ndjana Kana of Coton-sport Garoua who took part in the final of the African Champions league against Al Ahly of Egypt. The Minister lauded the effort of the players who put up a good performance despite the extremely difficult context under which they had to play.
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