Cameroon can outdo class of 1990, Le Guen says

YAOUNDE, (Reuters) – Cameroon’s players are capable  of taking the team beyond the World Cup quarter-finals,  surpassing the country’s 1990 performance, coach Paul Le Guen  said yesterday.

“We’ve scouted around and brought together many  talents…fresh players like (Benoit) Assou-Ekotto, Enoh Eyong,  and (Eric) Choupo-Moting have integrated well,” Le Guen told a  news conference on the eve of the team’s departure for South  Africa. “Today I am proud to say I have a team which is efficient,  the players are in good condition. I am optimistic we will go  far, and why not beyond the quarter-finals?”

Cameroon became the first African team to reach the World  Cup quarter-finals, in Italy in 1990.

Le Guen said he would be relying heavily on striker Samuel  Eto’o, who helped Inter Milan to win the Champions League final  last month.

“I have players on whom I can count and Eto’o is the first,”  he said. “He is a great player, he is my captain, I believe in  him, I’m sure he will deliver the goods. I will be counting on  Eto’o and Choupo-Moting to make a good match and score goals  because they are very intelligent players.”

Eto’o threatened last month to miss the World Cup after  being irked by criticism of his commitment to the Indomitable  Lions from 1990 World Cup scorer Roger Milla, but the striker  played for part of a friendly against Portugal last week before  being sent off for dangerous play.

Le Guen said Cameroon had deliberately organised a tough  build-up to the World Cup.

“We had a very hard training programme. Instead of going for  weak teams to pounce on them with plenty of goals, we chose  tough, difficult teams like Georgia, Slovakia, Portugal and  Serbia because we wanted our players to do better and be  stronger,” he said.

“I can say I am very satisfied with the preparations. Even  if we lost the last two warm-up games against Portugal and  Serbia, we are getting better and better, the team spirit is  very good, the players are very ambitious and I am sure we’re  going to do well in South Africa.”

Cameroon takes on Japan in their opening Group E World Cup  match in Bloemfontein next Monday.