World Cup Group E preview: Cameroon v Denmark
Simon Poulsen has an odd sense of humour.
The Danish full-back’s disastrous defensive header – which bounced in off an unaware Daniel Agger for the Netherlands’ opening goal in Johannesburg last Monday – was enough to bring a smile to Poulsen’s face, but not to anyone else’s in the Danish camp, nor the Danish nation.
“I think the team and myself played a good first half,” said Poulsen after the match. “I have thought about it [the own goal] a thousand times.”
Not that that’ll do much good now, and after Dirk Kuyt’s late strike confirmed a 2-0 defeat for the Danes, they’ll be looking to bounce back against Cameroon in Pretoria, and the good news for them is that the Cameroonians are in even more disarray than Poulsen was on Monday afternoon.
“What we have seen in recent games, which we think is unfortunate, is that many young fresh players have been introduced into the team at the expense of experienced ones," says midfielder Achille Emana.
“They cannot withstand the sort of pressure that comes with playing in big tournaments such as the World Cup,” he carried on. “That is why we are appealing to the coach to review the lineup for Saturday's game against Denmark.”
What the coach makes of that though, is anyone’s guess.
Paul Le Guen has kept his counsel since the disappointing defeat to Japan in Bloemfontein on Monday afternoon, and so we’ll have to keep hearing from Emana.
“More often than not I am not fielded in my right position,” he continued. “I'm made to chase the ball all over the field. And, in that case, how do you expect me to be effective?”
Many of the squad – and you won’t be surprised to hear that Emana is one of them – are calling for Le Guen to pick a more experienced side for this one, with both Rigobert and Alex Song and Geremi all tipped for recalls.
Rigobert – the grand old man of African football – is these days sporting a bleach blond dreadlocks and beard look, but the very public humiliation of Le Guen have made the coach look even sillier.
Quite what he’ll do in Pretoria remains to be seen, but a concession to player power might well be the best option for him, both in terms of squad harmony and for the good of his team on the pitch.
They were desperately poor against the Japanese, with Samuel Eto’o wasted over on the right hand side of midfield. That tactic may have worked under José Mourinho at Inter Milan, but Eto’o is surrounded by better players there, and he surely needs to be moved into a central striking position for his country.
If he is, then he’s likely to come face-to-face with Thomas Sørensen, who is trying to see the positives from the Dutch defeat.
“We have a great team spirit – that's what has carried us through,” he says from a more subdued Danish camp.
“I think that is one of the good things about our team. One defeat is not going to bring us down.”
We’ll see. But up against these warring Cameroonians, perhaps Poulsen will finally have something to smile about for the right reasons.
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