Group E - Cameroon

Group E

Netherlands

Denmark

Japan

Cameroon

Nickname: Lions Indomptables (Indomitable Lions)
(admittedly one of the more badass nicknames out there)

Colors: Green, yellow, red

Current World Ranking: 19

Manager: Paul Le Guen

The Frenchman, Le Guen, replaced the German Otto Pfister after Cameroon started off their qualifying for the 2010 Cup with a loss to Togo and draw with Morocco. He had an immediate impact on the team and led them to a comfortable qualification. Le Guen is a former player in the French league and even featured a few times for his nation. His managerial career has been marked by several ups and downs. The peak was winning three consecutive league titles with Lyon in the French league followed shortly by the briefest managerial position with Scottish side Rangers in their history, lasting less than a full season. Le Guen is now the 8^th Frenchman to manage the Lions.

History: Cameroon is the most successful African team of all time. They’ve made it to six World Cup Finals, including this one, won 4 African Cups, and one Gold Medal and they were the first team to reach the Quarter Finals of the World Cup in 1990. Unfortunately in their three Cups since then they’ve only managed 1 win out of 9 matches.

Recently Cameroon missed out of the 2006 World Cup having been drawn into a tough qualification group with Ivory Coast, Egypt and Libya. In the Africa Cup of Nations this past winter they qualified out of the group stage behind Zambia even though they beat Zambia head to head because they were shocked by Gabon in the first match then could only muster a 2-2 draw with Tunisia. They then lost in the Quarter Finals to Egypt 3-1.

Players: The Lions have a formidable squad of players competing all over Europe and boast one of the most promising holding midfielders in the world along with one of the top strikers to ever play. They can still be described as inexperienced though with a large gap between a handful of players with 90 or more caps and the majority of the rest of the team with less than 10.

Samuel Eto’o – Striker (Captain)

Eto’o is the real deal. At 29 he’s one of the most experienced players on this squad having played on the Gold Medal winning side in 2000, in two World Cups and in 5 Africa Cup of Nations where they’ve won twice in his tenure. In fact, he’s the leading scorer in the history of the Cup of Nations with 18 goals.

He started his club career at the age of 15 with Real Madrid but failed to make an impact with the first team before being loaned out a few times. He ended up at La Liga side Mallorca where he established himself as a goal scoring force before signing with Real’s rivals, Barcelona, in 2004. In 5 seasons with Barcelona he scored more than 100 goals and earned three African Player of the Year awards as well as multiple league titles and two Champions League titles. He is the third all team leading scorer for Barcelona and earned more appearances in La Liga than any other African player.

In the summer of 2009 after winning an unprecedented 6 trophies in the previous season, Barcelona agreed to transfer Eto’o to Italian side Internazionale for Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. While Barcelona went on to win another league title with Ibrahimovic this year Internazionale went on to win their 5^th straight title with Eto’o and will also be playing in the Champions League final this coming weekend against Bayern Munich, which will be an opportunity for Eto’o to win an unbelievable third title.

Despite his on field success, controversy has never been far from his doorstep off the pitch. On more than one occasion Eto’o has been accused of threatening to kill someone - once a journalist and once his former agent - and admitted to head-butting a reporter.

Alexandre Song – Midfielder

At just 22, Song has a brilliant career ahead of him. He’s the younger cousin of Cameroonian stalwart defender, Rigobert Song, who basically raised Alex after his father passed away when he was just 3. Alex signed with Arsenal in the English Premier League in 2005 where he struggled to get first team appearances. In 2007 he was loaned to Charlton Athletic where he was impressive, before coming back to Arsenal at the end of the season. He again struggled for playing time behind a more experienced cast in 2007-08 but thanks to the departure of a lot of those players Song has had the opportunity to develop into a promising, strong holding midfielder and one of the most dependable players on the pitch for Arsenal. He’s only played 20 times for his country but he was so impressive in the recent Africa Cup of Nations that he was the only Cameroonian to be named to the tournament’s Best 11 team.

Prediction: Cameroon is currently the highest ranked African team, followed closely by Nigeria. Combine that with a World Cup being played virtually on their own soil and this could just be the Indomitable Lions’ year to really re-impress the World as they did in the early ‘90’s. They have the moxie to upset a team like Netherlands but ultimately their fate in the group comes down to their ability to beat both Denmark and Japan.

There’s no question that Japan is the team in this group on the outside looking in. Netherlands should be able to handle their business, which means the second place spot in this group is up for grabs between Denmark and Cameroon. The safe bet is probably Cameroon but it’s hard to dismiss Denmark. Plus, the runner-up in this group will face the winner of Group F, which is going to be a shaky Italian side or an unproven Slovenia. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see the Group E runner-up make it to the Quarter Finals, just as Cameroon did 20 years ago.