It is fitting, I believe, to start off by acknowledging that our national side’s performance has been at best mixed in the past few years. Even though we did chalk up a few wins, the fact remains that we are weak, boring to watch and overall just plain ordinary. But virtuous accidents do happen in football, and we could very well find ourselves on our way to Brazil. I do not believe that this is likely to occur, but I wouldn’t be caught dead betting against the Lions.
Mr. Finke, our newer coach, has his work cut out for him. He must win crucial games with a squad probably depleted of the finest cog in its setup and with scarce talent to tap for replacement souls. The coach, I believe, needs help, and we dutifully oblige.
We will not, it certainly would be foolish, rule out the “ntong” or the “accident” factor. It could very well come to the coach’s rescue as it was the case in 1990 and much later in 2000 in Nigeria, when Mourad Daami, the Tunisian referee, went suddenly blind in Surulere. That said, I strongly suggest to the coach to please call Mr. Otto Pfister, and learn. He understands both German and the Cameroon game.
Mr. Pfister is the best coach we were never allowed to have for a significant period of time. Not only did his craftsmanship burst on the pitch, but he was the only coach who meant to build a national side based on insight gained from a no-frills assessment of available talent and a protracted experience in African football. He won great games that no other coaches before him could have won, including the heart-stopping Ghana-Cameroon and the gorgeously violent Tunisia-Cameroon at the Ghanaian CAN, and he almost single-handedly stole the final at that event.
But what endeared Mr. Pfister to us was his candid take on the situation of football in Cameroon. There was just not enough talent around, he argued, and there is not likely to be any in the next few years. He was right, of course, and when he started building a team that resembled a fortress, with lots of defensive skills in midfield which, granted, we had a-plenty, I thought the coach was doing what the situation and the future commanded. We were buying time, digging in and hanging in there waiting for better skills to blossom. Had Mr. Pfister stayed a little bit longer, the Lions would be on a clearer path towards redemption and not the ragtag group of reluctant performers that the various clowns who replaced him have created.
