The failure of the Indomitable Lions to successfully defend the African title by at least reaching the final of this year’s Nations Cup has exposed the weaknesses of head coach Winfried Schaefer.
Although other persons, including the minister of youth and sports Bidoung Mpkatt, are to share the responsibility for Cameroon’s below expectation performance in CAN 2004, the bulk of the blame is at the doorstep of Schaefer. So there are calls for the coach to respect international standard and resign for the failure.
Majority of fans, national coaches and other technicians of football want Schaefer’s head on several counts, including poor tactics and management styles.
Although there were some administrative influences on choosing the 22 players for the Nations Cup, Schaefer failed to make proper use of the talents available.
The fact that the minister of youth and sports does not give Schaefer a free hand in the selection of players should offer Schaefer enough reason to resign and speak out on the causes of Cameroon’s unconvincing showing in Tunisia.
Otherwise the German technician who was hailed as a high profile coach has turn out to be a big disappointment. Many Cameroonian coaches were able to pick holes in Schaefer’s tactics and deployment of players.
They question why Schaefer insisted in playing with three defenders through out the Nations Cup group game against Zimbabwe when it was evident from the very first minute that the system was a failure. Though Cameroon won 5-3, the game has been one of the worst for Cameroon in recent times.
Then when Schaefer decided to replace players he took out right footers like Jean Makoun and Geremi Njitap, put in left footers Idrissou Mohamadou and Daniel Ngom Kome and sent them to play at the right wing. Even journalists on the press stance were shocked and wondered aloud whether Schaefer possessed all his senses. Idrissou and Kome were lost in that new position and the team got weaker. Zimbabwe then found space to score their third goal. Victory in that game was not of Cameroon’s making. The Zimbabwean defense simply gave off the game to Cameroon.
Then like in the 2002 World Cup when Schaefer insisted on using Patrick Suffo, he made blind use of Idrissou, in spite of Idrissou’s poor skills. Idrissou did well during the Confederations Cup last June, but from day one in the Nations Cup he demonstrated his poor form and was supposed to stay on the bench for the rest of the tournament.
With such poor judgment, how will ministers not intervene in the selection of players? To demonstrate how Schaefer is a confused coach, he failed twice to execute his own very well thought out ideas. First, on the eve of the Nations Cup, Schaefer declared that he will use Patrick Mboma as a joker. All were therefore expecting to see Schaefer field other strikers before Mboma comes in to finish the job. But Schaefer turned round and began starting Mboma.
It may not have been bad because Mboma got the needed goals, but in some circumstances he could be used as a joker. One of such instances was in the game against Nigeria.
Before that game, Schaefer properly diagnosed that Cameroon had to play fast to beat Nigeria. But when time came to execute the diagnosis, Schaefer left out Salomon Olembe and Pius Ndiefi, his fastest players on the bench. He continued with his stereotyped line up as if there was a law that Ndiefi can never be paired with Mboma up front.
Look at the electric atmosphere Ndiefi set in when he entered the game in the dying minutes. That was when Mboma was needed to finish up properly. Sorry Mboma was out.
In that same game Schaefer failed to warn his defenders not to abondon their positions in their urge to score. The defenders did that several times before Nigeria caught them in a counter attack and John Utaka scored the winning goal. Cameroon lost 2-1 and were eliminated for the first time in over 20 years by Nigeria.
Schaefer has also been booked by football lovers for making Idriss Kameni, who has not played club competition in the past five years, his regular goalkeeper. What are therefore his criteria for selecting players? The national team is not a place for jobless
players. By chance Cameroon used Kameni during the Sydney Olympics and the Confederations Cup and were successful. But chance always comes after hard work.
Kameni was too sure of his position after every valuable rival had been eliminated that he failed to train properly.
Basically Schaefer has made no fundamental changes to the team Pierre Lechantre used to win the Nations Cup in 2000 with style. Only players have changed and every opponent now knows that once Cameroon’s wings are blocked, the team is dead. Once Geremi cannot make a cross, Cameroon cannot score.
In more than two years Schaefer has been unable to create alternative systems of play. That is disgraceful for a coach who had led several German clubs to big European victories.
Schaefer speaks no French, the language of the majority of the players. Speaks very little English which cannot come in crucial moments. In the beginning of his job many thought Schaefer could use English as working language. But those who are closed to the team have realized that communication between the coach and his players is a big problem.
May be Schaefer has reached his limit as he stayed for several years without a job before Cameroon recruited him. Now that Cameroonians have also seen his limits, let him leave in style before he is forced out by circumstances.
With over 20 million CFA Francs monthly pay, Schaefer is the most expensive coach Cameroon has ever recruited. So very few errors are expected of him.
Schaefer may instead be killing the Indomitable Lions. With him, Cameroon won the Nations Cup two years ago. The fact that Cameroon did not concede any goals during that tournament was no pride when compared to the fact that the team did not score many goals. It was a similar performance during the Confederations Cup where Cameroon reached the final. Those were signs that the team’s play standard was falling.
Good enough Cameroon tumbled in the Nations Cup, leaving them time to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers without Schaefer. In less than one month Cameroon can recruit a less expensive, but more talented coach.
Schaefer’s departure has become a national issue. Bidoung Mpkatt should not waste his time calling on Schaefer to take up residence in Cameroon. Schaefer has refused to respect that order many times and may continue to do so. Let Bidoung Mpkatt just ask Schaefer to go.
Martin ETONGE, The Herald
