Ireland's World Cup opponents Cameroon will be keeping faith with the bulk of the squad that recently claimed the African Nations Cup for their remaining warm-up matches. Coach Winfried Schafer intends to bring in only two players who were not in the 22-man squad that won the Nations Cup in Mali earlier this month.
German Schafer, in Tokyo to attend a pre-tournament workshop for the 32 World Cup participants, confirmed today: "I have the core of my team now and I'm happy with them. I won't be experimenting much at all in the upcoming games. We are looking now for consistency."
Schafer, who took over as Cameroon coach last October, said the two new players would be defender Pierre Njanka and striker Joseph-Desire Job, who recently moved on loan to French club Metz from English Premiership side Middlesbrough. Njanka was injured just after being loaned to English First Division side Portsmouth by French club Strasbourg last year, but was a regular at the last World Cup finals in France and also a member of the Cameroon side that won the 2000 African Nations Cup finals in Nigeria.
Schafer said Cameroon's next match against Argentina, scheduled for Marseille on March 27, was in jeopardy because it clashed with France's friendly against Scotland in Paris the same day. He revealed: "We want to play in Marseille because we have a lot of fans in the area, but it looks like we cannot play the same night as the French team for reasons of marketing and television coverage."
Cameroon have further World Cup warm-up matches planned against Austria in Vienna in April and Denmark in Copenhagen on May 17. They will also play England in Kobe, Japan on May 26, five days before the start of the World Cup finals, which offers Irish boss Mick McCarthy the ideal opportunity to check their form. Schafer has an unbeaten record as Cameroon's coach with seven wins and two draws in nine games in charge.
Filed by Shane Murray
