Not quite Italy 1990, but it’s only a matter of time
Following up on my thoughts on the Indomitable Lionesses’ FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 campaign
When I saw China score on this easy cross early in Cameroon’s second round match, I was instantly reminded of Japan’s two goals scored on easy crosses early in their group stage match. For that reason, I was hopeful that Cameroon would eventually score an equalizer, since they’d responded so admirably against the defending world champions with a never-ending attack that was rewarded with one goal and almost a second for the draw. They’d scored that one goal against Japan in extra time, along with one of their six goals against Ecuador in extra time, and so even as the game clock reached 90 minutes and the stoppage time was revealed, I held onto a shred of faith that the Indomitable Lionesses’ positive style would prevail. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.
Truthfully, Cameroon looked outmatched. They really didn’t correct any of the problems that caused that lone goal of the match for the rest of those 90+ minutes. Their back four didn’t look too sure of themselves with the ball or without it. They also seemed slower than China’s attackers, or at least slower to react. None of the team seemed that good at headers, during both clearances and attempts on goal.
There were plenty of other issues that held them back too. The midfield was really lacking in crisp passes, often giving away the ball far too easily — though part of this may be blamed on their lack of familiarity with slippery, rain-slicked surfaces, as stated by head coach Enow Ngachu. There wasn’t much creativity in the final third either, whereas China — much like Japan — seemed dangerous whenever they crossed a ball in there.
I would have really enjoyed having to watch Cameroon play the USWNT in the quarter finals. I’d be faced with the choice of cheering for either the team representing my nationality, who may be one of the perennial Women’s World Cup favorites but who’d failed to impress me during the group stage, or the team who I’d fallen in love with during the group stage, thanks to the fun they seemed to be having with this Women’s World Cup, not to mention their fun style of play or their budding star, Gaëlle Enganamouit. For better or worse, I’ll have to watch a rematch of the last time the USWNT won the Women’s World Cup, back in 1999, before any of the current players were even on the team, and since which China has only recently exhibited any similar formidability.
However, the one thing that struck me the most from the Cameroon-China match was when, towards the end of the match, the broadcasters started talking about how they wished the Cameroon women’s national team would’ve been better supported and able to play in more international friendlies together leading up to this Women’s World Cup. They repeated the oft-heard phrase from any Women’s World Cup that “these women deserve better”, and suggested that FIFA should increase funding to not only the Fédération Camerounaise de Football (FECAFOOT) but all of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) women’s national team programs. Such a suggestion seems to ignore the core of the entire recent FIFA scandal: FIFA’s powers that be are buying the votes of CAF (as well as other developing markets, such as CONCACAF and CONMEBOL) in order to remain in power, which means CAF has been receiving millions of dollars that will never contribute to any improvement in men’s or women’s soccer there, instead only serving to line the pockets of CAF’s representatives. Nonetheless, I was — for whatever reason(s) — unaware that the Cameroon women’s national team had to overcome such a lack of institutional support to make it as far as they did (becoming only the 2nd African women’s team to make it out of the group stage, and the 1st from Cameroon). I didn’t even find out until last week that this Cameroon team almost went on strike during their opening match against Ecuador over a lack of financial security for the work they’d be performing during this Women’s World Cup. In fact, all these revelations about poor support of the Cameroon’s women national team seem to have mostly emerged after they started enjoying so much success. When rhetorically posed as such, they almost come off as excuses for the Indomitable Lionesses not progressing farther, especially when their head coach, Enow Ngachu, finally starts talking about all these issues following the loss to China:
We need to develop women’s football in Africa. We need good organisation, we also need to create as many clubs as possible. If we could have sponsorship it would be good […]
We have the talented players. The problem African nations face is preparation.
The day we are prepared well an African nation will be able to win the World Cup.
We hope that with this performance many things will change not just in Cameroon but in Africa.
Note how Ngachu speaks not just for Cameroon but for Africa as a whole (as does Ivory Coast coach Clementine Toure in that same article). I ultimately believe his statements are less excuses for a particular nation’s shortcomings than calls to action for an entire confederation’s failings. Nigeria has long been a champion of Africa representing the continent in the Women’s World Cup, and yet they’ve only advanced beyond the group stage once. This year, thanks to FIFA expanding the competition, two additional African nations have been represented (Cameroon and Ivory Coast) with Cameroon equaling Nigeria’s best finish in their first appearance. And yet, there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough growth spurned by CAF.
Nigeria and Cameroon have even benefited this year from facing the two finalists of the last Women’s World Cup, USWNT and Japan, in their respective groups. Those two matchups led to record-breaking TV figures for the previous Women’s World Cup finalists’ respective markets:
5.0 million fans enjoy[ed] Fox’s coverage of the Nigeria v USA match. This was the most-watched Women’s World Cup group stage match and a record football match figure for Fox.
Japan’s clash with Cameroon drew an audience of 6.1 million viewers to FUJI TV, beating all figures from the 2007 and 2011 editions of the Women’s World Cup, apart from the 2011 final.
As African nations face more and more major-market competition in the biggest stage of women’s soccer, they’re bound to attract more and more attention and prestige — Cameroon making a fan of me, an American, during this Women’s World Cup is just one example of that. Through such exposure, these nations may secure those sponsorships that Ngachu believes will help soccer in Cameroon and and the rest of Africa grow.
Even in the nations that have enjoyed the most success in the Women’s World Cup, women’s soccer at the club level has a lot of work to do, particularly when it comes to financial viability. African nations, then, have even more of an uphill climb.
And yet, even if they don’t have the full financial support of their confederation, Cameroon definitely has the support of their nation. In both their group stage match against Switzerland and their second round match against China, an entire corner of the respective stadiums was filled with Cameroonian supporters who had travelled to Edmonton. Hearing Ajara Nchout describe it, I’m almost brought to tears at the similarity to Bob Bradley’s description of the American Outlaws-led crowd that surrounded the USMNT bus to cheer them on en route to their South Africa 2010 opening match against England:
We have had fans everywhere we have played, but nothing like in Edmonton […] We talked in the dressing room about how many supporters we had. We were really surprised there was so many of them, they seemed to take up a massive area. It was really joyful for us to find so many fans waiting for us at the hotel too. This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this for a match outside Cameroon.
The next Women’s World Cup will be held in France in 2019, which will provide Cameroon a host nation that both shares the language of their always proudly sung national anthem — although Canada actually shares both of Cameroon’s official languages, French and English — as well as giving Les Lionesses Indomptables a chance to prove their own strength in the face of their former colonial empire. I’m looking forward to this next chance at watching the beautiful soccer of Gabrielle Onguene, Raissa Feudjio, Gaëlle Enganamouit, et al. And in France 2019 they may just equal — or surpass — those legendary Indomitable Lions of Italy 1990.
