Winfried Schaefer, Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions, says training will focus on goal-scoring techniques: « You saw what happened in Tunisia. Cameroon-Algeria, one goal; Cameroon-Egypt; no goal; Cameroon-Nigeria, one goal. It is not good enough. We need more goals »…
Out of 29 players who you invited to the first training session ahead of the 2006 World Cup, only ten are present. Any explanation?
Many players wanted to come but their clubs refused. The clubs could not allow them because we have no match in the near future. As you know, when we don’t have a match, the clubs can stop the players from coming for training. That is why we didn’t have players such as Doumbe, Djemba, Makoun, etc. But I can assure you that when we have a match, all of them would come. I was in England, for example, and met with Geremi Njitap and Lauren Etame Mayer of Arsenal. I spoke with Lauren. He is coming for the next match against Bulgaria. I am happy that he has accepted to come back because he is a talented boy and one of the players who we can count on.
The Lions often train out of the country. Why did you decide to start preparing for Germany 2006 in Cameroon?
It was important that we start our training in Cameroon. The next stage will be in Paris from the 25th to the 30th of April 2004. Thereafter, we would have a friendly encounter against Bulgaria in Sofia. We intend to have one other friendly match in Cameroon (preferably with an African country) by the end of May, 2004, before we start our 2006 World Cup campaign. Our first match will be against Benin in Yaounde on June 6th 2004. I will talk with the unit in charge of managing the national team and officials of the Cameroon Football Federation so that we can arrange the friendly match with an African country. The final preparation ahead of our first match will be here in Cameroon because the players will need to get used to the prevailing hot climate.
What was the focus of this training session?
You were present in Bamako to watch the Cameroon-Mali encounter. What lessons did you learn from the match?
We do not have a good Olympic team. For an entire match, there were only three shots at the Malian goal. This is incredible! You cannot win a match with that type of performance. As I have always said, the Olympic team should not function like the senior team. It should not be half of the senior team but should be a sort of team « B » of the senior team. The Under 23 team should not rely on professionals abroad. We should be able to have a good Olympic team up made of entirely home-based players. It will be an added advantage if the team can be reinforced with professionals abroad. Valery Mezague came this time because he had a red card in his team. The others, such as Djemba Djemba, Eto’o, Mokake, etc, could not come because their teams could not allow them.
Irene MORIKANG
