Nothing Goes Right For Cameroon

(Tuesday, June 11, 2002) - Two second-half goals gave three-time world champion Germany a 2-0 victory over Cameroon on Tuesday for a berth in the second round of the 2002 World Cup in a physical affair featuring two red cards and 12 other yellow cards issued by Spanish referee Antonio Lopez Nieto.

Needing a draw from this match, Germany instead came away with all three points and captured the top spot in Group E (7pts), two points ahead of the Republic of Ireland (5pts) which won its game against Saudi Arabia played simultaneously. Germany takes on the second-place team from Group B while the Republic of Ireland goes up against the first-place team from that same group. Those pairings will be determined on Wednesday.

Cameroon, the reigning Olympic and African champions, could have gotten through to the second round with another of combinations of results but for matters to be in the Africans' own destiny, they had to beat the Europeans. And it looked like things were going their way when German defender Carsten Ramelow was sent off in the 40th minute after a second bookable offense for fouling forward Samuel Eto'o just outside the box.

"The decisive moment of the match was when Ramelow got a red card," Cameroon's German head coach Winfried Schaefer said. "I'd have preferred it if he'd stayed on the field and Eto'o had scored."

The Germans, playing a man down for the entire second half, did not lose a beat. German Head Coach Rudi Voller believes his team may have played even better because of the sending-off.

"There was great pressure on us and it was only when we were one man down that we played good soccer," Voller said. "Cameroon dominated the first half. Only after we were leading 1-0 did things get better and better for us and we began dominating the match."

German defender Carsten Ramelow would get two yellow cards in the first half, earning a sending-off in the process.

The key tactical change in response to the sending-off was made by Voller at the interval when he brought on versatile 32-year-old Marco Bode for 27-year-old workhorse forward Carsten Jancker, who was not having much luck in the first half.

"We couldn't really find the rhythm in the first half," Bode said. "We had to play more defensively in the second half. The conditions were very different then because we only had 10 men. The pressure was off and we didn't have anything to lose. We knew they had weaknesses but we didn't take advantage of them in the first half."

Bode opened up the scoring with a run down the middle of the Cameroon defense. Star striker Miroslave Klose was ably holding the ball amid a converging group of defenders and saw the Bode run, serving him in stride. The veteran Werder Bremen player blasted home the eventual game-winner on a one-on-one against the goalkeeper just five minutes after the break.

After going up 1-0, the Germans played a compact game and frustrated a Cameroon side that tried its best to force the ball past the opposing defense but could not get the job done.

"We played too much through the middle in the second half against the 10 men and we lost possession and that's how they scored the first goal," Schaeffer said.

Klose would eventually seal the match with his tournament-leading fifth goal, as he scored in his third consecutive World Cup game. Once again Klose's goal came on a header, this time from a Michael Ballack cross with 11 minutes remaining. Just moments before, Cameroon were also reduced to ten men when Patrick Suffo was sent off for a second booking.

However, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon could have gone up by several goals in the first half. They wasted a golden opportunity in the 13th minute when midfielder Salomon Olembe exploited a defensive blunder from Thomas Linke to go one-on-one with goalkeeper Oliver Kahn but lost his duel with the Germany captain, considered by many the best goalkeeper in the world.

In the 26th minute, a point-blank header from defender and captain Rigobert Song was also inexplicably sent wide of the target. Luck did not aid Cameroon as midfielder Lauren hit the post in the second half, on what could have been the equalizer at 1-1.

Germany, which had named the Round of 16 as its minimal target after a shaky run in qualifying and a string of injury blows survived every scare. The Germans have now reached the second round at every World Cup since 1938. This was their 13th successive qualification beyond the first round which is a World Cup record.

Cameroon, on the other hand, exit in the first round of the World Cup for the third straight tournament. The last time they advanced was 1990, when Cameroon made it to the quarterfinals, eventually losing to England.

"It was a great World Cup and the boys didn't deserve to go out this way," Schaeffer said of the Cameroon players. "It was just not be. I told the players to keep their chin up."

"I wish we had arrived in Asia on time, maybe then we would have won that first game," Schaeffer said in reference to the fact that the team arrived five days late for the tournament because of issues involving bonus disagreements and flight problems. "I didn't want the last game to be decisive but that's how it goes. I want to congratulate the Germans but also Ireland who played fantastic football and deserved to go through."

Scoring Summary:

GER - Marco Bode 50
GER - Miroslav Klose 79

Lineups:

Cameroon: 1-Boukar Alioum; 2-Bill Tchato (18-Patrick Suffo 53), 3-Pierre Wome, 4-Rigobert Song, 5-Raymond Kalla, 8-Geremi; 12-Lauren, 17-Marc-Vivien Foe, 20-Salomon Olembe (23-Daniel Ngom Kome 64); 9-Samuel Eto'o, 10-Patrick Mboma (21-Joseph Desire-Job 82)

Germany: 1-Oliver Kahn; 2-Thomas Linke, 5-Carsten Ramelow, 21-Christoph Metzelder; 22-Torsten Frings, 8-Dietmar Hamann, 19-Bernd Schneider (16-Jens Jeremies 80), 13-Michael Ballack, 6-Christian Ziege; 11-Miroslav Klose (7-Oliver Neuville 84), 9-Carsten Jancker (17-Marco Bode 46)

Referee: Antonio Lopez Nieto (Spain)