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CAMEROON CRASH OUT OF U-17 WORLD CUP

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

African champions, Cameroon on Friday morning became the first African side to be eliminated from the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil after losing 3-1 to Argentina.

 

Cameroon had earlier been the only African team not to win its opening match of the competition after succumbing 0-1 to Tajikistan.

 

The Asians later became punching bags to Spain on Friday night, losing 1-5 to the La Rojit.

After losing their second consecutive match, the Cameroonians are now glued to the bottom position on the Group E table. Even a win against Spain’s La Rojit on Sunday will be mere consolatory.

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In their match with Argentina, Cameroon initially appeared set to re-enact the magic of Italia ’90 World Cup match when they outsmarted a Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina to secure a memorable 1-0 win.

On Friday, they shot ahead 1-0 after 13 minutes. Just as it happened in 1990, it was a towering header that gave Cameroon the lead as Francois Bere put the Africans in front. Guided by an Italian ’90 veteran, Thomas Libiih, it initially appeared another memorable win was loading for Cameroon.

 

But all that changed  in the second half as the South Americans turned the game around with three goals. First the Cameroonians lost their first choice goalkeeper, Manfred Ekoi on the half hour mark. That proved very costly.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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