Strange Stories from Scotland
As far as shocks go it couldn’t have been bigger or better. On paper the holders had little to fear against the Africans especially when the Indomitable Lions lost Andre Biyik to a straight red in the 61st minute. Luckily little brother Oman managed save Andres blushes by rising to meet a deflected cross. Pumpido made a rickets of a save and Cameroon held on to win an historic victory.
Roger Milla didn’t even get on.
Not for the purists but you cannot match it for drama. Roger Milla had already captured football lovers hearts with his display against Romania in Italia 90 but he cemented his World Cup legend with his display against Colombia.
Rene Higuita in a typical act of madness and hubris decided to take the ball for a walk miles from his goal. Milla, wise to Rene’s tricks stole the ball and galloped off to secure his countries win.
Cameroon’s progression to Brazil was straight forward enough.After topping a group consisting of Libya, Congo and Togo they moved into a pay-off spot with Tunisia. A 4-1 home win was enough to secure their attendance this summer.
A poor showing in South Africa together with bad showings in recent African Nations Cup’s leave Cameroon as an unknown entity. They certainly have class in captain Samuel Eto’o and Barcelona’s Alex Song which added with a squad mainly from France’s Ligue Un means they are competitive.
We having waiting for an African team to reach the latter stages of the World Cup for decades now. The Cameroon of Roger Milla were closest to making this a reality, eventually going out to a lucky England in 1990.
This time around will really depend on Eto’o and whether he can pull he recent Chelsea form into the World Cup. Mexico, Croatia and Cameroon are of similar levels but in this tournament I see the Africans going home early, along with Croatia.
Alistair McLauchlan 