Worldcup: Mexico vs Cameroon highlight

Mexico v Cameroon, World Cup 2014: live
   






77'

::::Att 39,216:Estadio das






The heat is on: Samuel Eto'o and Giovani dos Santos go head-to-head as Cameroon face

FT: MEXICO 1 CAMEROON 0 Odd game. Couple of poor decisions in the first half, Mexico having two goals chalked off. In a downpour, Cameroon sat back with a back six and invited Mexico on. Not a great game but entertaining in its way.

90+ mins: That's the last major action and a strange game comes to a close.
90 mins: We're going to have four minutes added on, and Hernandez could have settled it. Cameroon give it away, Layun crossed and the Little Pea has time and space in the box. But he snatches at it and blazes over.
89 mins: Brilliant save! Assou-Ekotto crosses and Moukandjo is allowed a free header. He meets it hard and directs it well, and there's an excellent save from Ochoa.
88 mins: Someone in the crowd has got a whistle and is blowing it at opportune moments. Not for the first time, a couple of players seem to stop.
86 mins: He's got World Cup fever.

Or some other serious tropical disease.
85 mins: Moukandjo with a run down the right and a low cross, bundled clear by the Mexican defence.
84 mins: Moting lets fly with a shot but it's blocked.
83 mins: Can the plucky (not actually that plucky) Africans rouse themselves for a final burst? I would say that a Mexico second is more likely.
80 mins: Hernandez with a superb run and cutback, and it takes a top-class saving tackle to save the day from Nounkeu. Fabian was about to pull the trigger.
78 mins: Song off, striker Pierre Webo comes on.
76 mins: Nounkeu tries to catch Fabian as the latter surges towards the Cameroon box. Lunging tackle, he brings him down, luckily (or deliberately) just outside the box.
74 mins: Super tracking back from Dos Santos, an impressive player for his country, and he curtails a dangerous attack.
73 mins: Javier Hernandez replaces Peralta.
70 mins: Mexico's defence is nothing to write home about but they're passing the ball around well. Cameroon are frustrating, too negative and just hoping for some individual brilliance from Eto'o.
69 mins: Moukandjo with a good run down the right but Eto'o is on his own in the area and that just doesn't seem like a percentage game to me. Sure enough, the cross picks out one of three defenders tracking back.
67 mins: Cameroon come forward now with Song but the attack peters out. Guardado is coming off and Fabian takes his place.
64 mins: They must get more men up to support Eto'o.
63 mins: Samuel Eto'o tries to raise the energy level for Cameroon. He's made a good run but is brought down.
62 mins: Don't think that Cameroon can have too many complaints, they haven't done a great deal so far. So how do they change it up?
Goal GOAL! Finally! Mexico break, for once Cameroon don't have all that many back. Do Santos gets the ball on the edge of the box, good movement from him and he hits a good shot. Excellent save from the Cameroon keeper but, unlucky for him, he palms the ball straight back at Peralta, who slots it home. And, for once, that linesman keeps his flag down. MEXICO 1 CAMEROON 0 (Peralta 61)
57 mins: Good freekick, in the end, and a big deflection off the Mexico wall.
56 mins: Superb! Comedy running and stepover madness from Mbia, he then stumbles and THIS is the moment that the referee finally gets his card out. Brilliant. Moreno in the book. This means freekick. And this means spray paint.

Imagine being a footballer with black boots. You'd never live it down.
54 mins: Peralta clatters Song, perhaps in retribution. Song and dance from Song. I've got hopes of a 22-man brawl here, I must say. Just starting to simmer.
52 mins: Another tough tackle, Layun the victim this time. The game in a quiet period.
50 mins: Naughty tackle from Alex Song, two footer, off the ground, studs up, hitting him with a brick, etc etc on Dos Santos. No card!
48 mins: Lovely flick-on form Dos Santos frees Peralta, who bursts into the area and drills a good hard shot at goal. Well saved by the Cameroon keeper
46 mins: Cameroon kick off. They're getting a few men further forward in this early attack. Now it's Mexico's turn to sit back. Dany Nounkeu replaces Cedric Djeugoue at the half.
<noframe>Twitter: Kristian Walsh - Chiles. Cannavaro. Their chats remind me of that seemingly compulsory two-minute discussion you have on holiday with a Spaniard about Xavi.</noframe>
18.05 Players are just coming out for the second half, so just time for this email from Stuart Slingsby.
E-mail With the UK Teams we favour foreign players over English so the English get pushed aside hardly getting a game, then when it comes to the WORLD CUP them foreign players wonder off to rep their own country then we wonder why we are left with players that are no good. They get pushed aside for foreign players. 
It's raining harder than ever there!
18.00 Here's the scenes in México City main Square from Our Woman In Mexico, Martha Guerra.

HALF TIME: Mexico 0 Cameroon 0 Well, not really sure what to make of that. Eccentric, I think it is fair to say. Some strange offside decisions: the Mexicans should have had two goals. It's bucketing down in a biblical stylee. The Mexican coach looks like he might throttle someone. The Cameroon side are playing with a back six. It's all fun and games, basically.
Here's the second Dos Santos disallowed goal, the ball being flicked on by the Cameroon defender, Dos Santos at the bottom of the screen.

Half-time highlights... Fabio on the 'African mentality'.
44 mins: Djegoue denies Dos Santos in the area and it's a very tight call whether he got the ball or kicked his foot. Given as a corner, anyway.
43 mins: Dos Santos with a super run into the box but he's tackled by, erm, his own player Peralta. I reckon this game is shaping up as a nice farce.
40 mins: Still chucking it down. Hope we get through the game. The pitch still looks okay. I'm just going to cut and paste the following from the news wire.
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 13 (Reuters) - Between 50 and 100 fans have been moved to different seats for the Mexico v Cameroon World Cup match in Natal on Friday due to safety concerns over some of the temporary seating, a spokesman for the World Cup's local organizing committee said. 
The local fire service requested that the places be moved to a different part of the stadium after a last-minute visit on Friday morning. 
But the fire service said it had not been able to complete a full and final approval of the area and refused to vouch for the safety of the seating. 
"For safety reasons there was a request that 50 to 100 places were re-allocated within the temporary seating," Saint-Clair Milesi, spokesman for the Local Organizing Committee which works with FIFA to organise and operate the World Cup, said. 
The World Cup in Brazil has been plagued by delays with preparations at a number of the 12 stadiums running right to the wire. In the north-eastern city of Natal around 10,000 temporary seats have been installed in the stadium to accommodate fans for matches. 
"The new seats may be done, but we didn't have the access to give our final approval," said state firefighters' spokesman Christiano Couceiro.
38 mins: Mbia shoves Guardado in the face, a sort of rugby-style hand-off. Deliberate and a definite yellow. But not given. Cameroon, as the impressive Clark Carlisle points out, are playing a back six, three in midfield and one up front.
37 mins: Here come Mexico surging forward, several in this attack but Cameroon are looking more solid now. They break, Moting making decent ground down the left.'
36 mins: Lot of Brazil fans, I mean, obviously I guess, in the crowd, looks like everyone is having a grand old time of it despite the rain.
34 mins: Several minutes have passed without an incorrectly disallowed goal..

31 mins: Mexico coach Herrera involved in a full and frank exchange of views with the officials
29 mins: Corner comes in from the left for Mexico. Cameroon defender Moting gets a touch, and there's Giovani Dos Santos with the header into the net. But the linesman's ruled that one offside as well. And, again, it doesn't look like it was.
28 mins: More comedy! And it's the same linesman again!
26 mins: Chopou-Moting chops down Aguilar but gets no booking.
25 mins: Some good old skool World Cup defending here from the Cameroons, they're all marking God knows what as the ball comes in from the right. Moreno and Marquez for Brazil are both free in the area but they get in each other's way and the header is poor. Excellent email from Matthew Bathurst:
Regarding the worry that the refs won’t let them play and call everything. Let Howard Webb ref a couple and everything would be allowed, aka kicks to the chest as in 2010. And if Chicharito comes in, since he is a Man U player, he will be allowed to use his hands without penalty.
22 mins: BUNDLE! Ball into the Mexico box, there are approximately 76 players in the six-yard box. Mexico cannot clear, there are three, four half-chances, stabs at goal, panicky failed hacks clear but somehow the Mexican goal-line remains unbreached.
19 mins: Song kicked in the elbow by the flying Vazquez. Now Assou-Ekotto with an electric run down the left, surges past the defender and cuts it back. Eto'o meets it crisply! Good first-time drive but it hits the outside of the post.
17 mins: Mbia gets across his man for a decent header at goal but the ref's got a whistle and he's damn well going to use it. Blows for an infringement although hard to see what it was. I hope this doesn't become a tournament theme....
15 mins: Cameron finally get to check out the Mexico half, they win a corner and now Chopou-Moting has the ball in the net. Yet another offside call, but this one quite correct.
13 mins: Another very tight offside decision goes against Mexico.
11 mins: Herrera crosses, it's turned into the net by Gio dos Santos! Goal disallowed for off-side - wrongly, on review. Oh dear.. Linesman has blundered there. Shame, becuase that was an excellent volley.
9 mins: Mexico look alright. Another good move from them opens Cameroon up down the left, and Herrera shoots over.
8 mins: Mexico caught offside in a dangerous position.
7 mins: Cameroon very deep, Eto'o isolated and currently sitting on a deck chair trying to keep the rain off with a copy of the Racing Post, or he might as well be.
5 mins: Fussy ref so far. Good move Mexico, Herrera slips it to Aguilar, he tries to cut it back across when perhaps he might have shot. Mexico's wing back are able to skip past the Cameroon back four with some ease.
3 mins: Aguilar has found a bit of space down the right and crossed, it comes off Benoit A-E but the ref fails to spot the obvious deflection. Volker Finke, the Cameroon coach, apparently missed training the other day because he got lost trying to find a bureau de change. This is clearly the team to watch if you want some World Cup squad drama.
1 mins: Mexico enjoying some time on the ball early on, but here's Benoit Assou-Ekotto doing some good tidying up work at the back and clearing.
17.00 The Cameroon coach frankly looks like he doesn't want to be there. A right sulk on. Perhaps that's just his way. Or perhaps Eto'o's upset him. Anyway. We're off.
16.58 Mexico national anthem and everyone is giving it the full gun. Cameroon, more of a mixed showing, few mumblers in there. Goodness it really is lashing down. Here's reader Kevin Grist with a scouting report:
E-mail Went to see Mexico-Portugal in Boston last week. Have to say that Mexico were very poor, a bit like watching England on one of their bad days - lump it up field and look for a lucky rebound. The only improvement came when Chicharito came on, surprised he's not starting, Peralta is about as mobile as Andy Carroll.
16.55 It might be raining but it looks fun in there with those Mexico fans. Here is Fabio and Pat V's tactical analysis of how the game will play out. It's either genius or nonsense, I can't make my mind up.

16.50 Surprise for many UK football supporters to see that there is no place in the Mexico eleven for Javier Hernandez.

16.40 Pat Vieira say "the history of the World Cup, in every competition with African teams, there is arguments between the players and the politics. They are not in the right mind to start a big game like this."

16.36 Right. What is going on in Natal? It is absolutely hosing down with rain. Wonder if there'll be many Cameroon fans in? Who do you fancy to win?

16.35 Now Fabio Cannavaro says that Wayne Rooney is a "top player" - it's just like watching Jamie Redknapp, only with a nicer accent - and now we're discussing Andrew Pirlo, who will need "to be stamped out" according to Glenn Hoddle.
16.32 This all sets off a long discussion about Sturridge, and then there's an interview clip with Roy Hodgson. Mexico v Cameron will, er, follow after these messages I guess.
16.31 Fabio Cannavaro, asked if Sturridge would get in the Italy side, says "Mmmm," and then, as if remembering himself, "Oh yes."
16.30 Nice feature on ITV now about Danny Sturridge and interviews with his family. Seems like a good lad. It does feel that there's a slightly different vibe around England this time. Less objectionable players than in previous squads.
16.25 Lovely. What better way to spend a Friday afternoon than a bit of delicious World Cup action? I hope you have bunked off work and are reading this in, or on the way to, the pub, or if you are still at work, I hope we can enliven the rest of the day. Mexico v Cameroon, the second match of the Brazil World Cup, is nigh.
16.10 Teams! They have dropped and Little Pea gets the chop in favour of Giovanni Dos Santos. The sprightly Samuel Eto'o will be leading the line for Cameroon.
Mexico: Ochoa; Rodriguez, Marquez, Aguilar, Layun; Herrera, Vázquez, Dos Santos, Moreno, Guardado, Peralta 
Cameroon: Itandje, Assou-Ekotto, Nkoulou, Djeugoue, Song, Moukandjo, Eto'o, Choupo Moting, Chedjou, Mbia, Eno
Mexico coach Miguel Herrera will leave Manchester United forward Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez on the bench for their World Cup opening game against Cameroon.
Herrera has chosen Villarreal forward Guillermo Dos Santos and Oribe Peralta to start in attack for the Group A encounter in Natal, Brazil.
He also ended speculation as to who will start in goal with Ajaccio's Guillermo Ochoa selected ahead of Jesus Corona of Cruz Azul.
"I know that all of my players are going to leave their soul on the pitch to achieve a result," Herrera said. "We are ready to go out and win."
With Brazil and Croatia also included in the group, Mexico know how vital Friday's game is.
The Aztecs have failed to reach the knock-out round in the past five tournaments.



"This is a very important game for us, key to our aspirations to progress to the next round," Herrera said. "We know it's not going to be easy but we are going to work very hard to beat Cameroon."
Mexico will have to show a vast improvement as they suffered 1-0 defeats in their last two friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal.
"We are only interested in a win and not on the actual result," he said. "A win is what matters, taking three points and that is what we want."
Mexico had to beat New Zealand in the play-offs to reach Brazil and maintain their record of qualifying for every World Cup since 1990.
Herrera believes Cameroon's pace poses the biggest danger for his side.
"They have a very good team, with fast players, who have experience," he said. "We will try to manage possession."
Cameroon go into the encounter at the Estadio das Dunas finally able to focus on football matters.
Volker Finke's squad threatened to refuse to board the plane to Brazil due to a row over bonuses before a deal was finally reached.
The African side beat Moldova 1-0 last week in a friendly after previously drawing 2-2 with Germany in Monchengladbach.
"We know that (Mexico) had a lot of problems in qualifying and that it was difficult," Finke said. "However, they are a very dangerous team, with an intense spirit.
"I can see that it is a difficult team but one that can be beaten."
Samuel Eto'o, who will compete in his fourth World Cup, is the Cameroon captain.