Despite their lasting high sounding victory against the Brazilian Selecsao in the last FIFA World cup, Cameroon has for a long while now stopped being the African football powerhouse that attracted much admiration in the past. Hitting the pitch this evening for their first outing against the Syli National of Guinea in the ongoing 34th edition of the African Cup of Nation, many football analysts do not give them a bright prognostics in the curtain raiser match and even in the tournament.
The five times African champions will be showing up this afternoon a little limping with the absence of their captain, the very experience and prolific center forward Vencent Abubakar who picked up a lap injury, that could keep him out of the competition. Lately the selection had built up a sure attack lines that will always figure out names like Bryan Mbeumo, Aboubakar Vicent and Choup Moting. But with the absence of the first two by unfortunate injuries and the latter by non selection, everybody wonders what combination Coach Rigobert Song will bring out of his magic box for today’s encounter. Especially that he is known for being very varying in his team formation. Lately we have noticed a selection that has in about 65% of their matches conceded a goal before the first 30 minutes of the game, thought they will fight back and in most cases win their game. This time around it might be a different ball game, especially that Coach Song is going in with a selection that is more than 50% inexperience and young, with an average age of 25 year.
However, flanked by high sounding football names like Raymond Kala Nkongo and Patric Mboma, accompanied by other technicians in the field, head coach Rigobert Song will have to lay out a strong strategy that will write his name in the history books. Will he choose to stay behind and trap his opponents by counter? Or will he choose to take them up front, thereby stopping them from developing their game? However, either of the technics that he will choose, he must make sure that he stays out of the disagreeable surprises that the big teams have so far picked up in this edition of the AFCON, in the likes of Egypt that begged Mozambic for a 2-2 draw on Sunday, Ghana that got shocked by an ambitious young Cap Evert selection 1 goal to 2 and the Super Eagles of Nigeria that did not have enough steam to outsmart Equatorial Gunea in a 1-1draw match, sending a direct message to the Lions’ den that the word underdogs has just been erased from the vocabulary of African football.
Following its recent performance in friendly matches and the caliber of players the indomitable lions have this time around, Cameroon has be rated among the outsiders in the 34th edition of the African Cup of Nation going on in Ivory Coast. Nevertheless, knowing the DNA of the Lions that will always make them spring back when pushed to the wall or when least expected, supporters have their hopes alive and football observers have kept their arms folded with question marks on their faces. Will Cameroon repeat the Gabon 2017 exploit?