Eto'o named African player of the year

Fours must have been lucky today for players of the year as Samuel Eto'o picked up his fourth African player of the year award.

The forward for Inter Milan and Cameroon finished ahead of Ghana forward Asamoah Gyan and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba in votes cast by the coaches of African's 53 national teams.

Eto'o, who also won the award in 2003, 2004 and 2005, helped Inter Milan win an unprecedented treble of Serie A, Italian Cup and Champions League titles last season.
Abedi Pele and George Weah each won the award three times.

Ghana won the team of the year award and Serbian Milovan Rajevac, who quit as Ghana coach's in September, was voted coach of the year.

Ahmed Hassan won the African-based player of the year award after leading Egypt to the African Cup of Nations title.

Cameroon names Clemente as its new head coach

There were few teams at the 2010 World Cup that were a bigger disappointment than Cameroon. The Indomitable Lions lost all three games and today they tried to wipe the slate clean from that debacle by hiring former Spain coach Javier Clemente.

Clemente succeeds Paul Le Guen, who resigned in June. Clemente was Spain's coach from 1992 to 1998 and guided the country on a 31-game unbeaten run. He also coached Serbia's national team.

The Cameroon soccer federation said Clemente agreed to a two-year contract that he will sign in the nation's capital no later than Sept. 28.

Clemente's first test with Cameroon will be to qualify the four-time African champion for the 2012 African Cup of Nations. The country's next international game is a Sept. 4 qualifier in Mauritius.

Former Cameroon players Francois Omam Biyik and Jacques Songo'o will be part of Clemente's coaching staff.

Clemente played for Athletic Bilbao and coached the team to Spanish league titles in 1983 and 1984 -- the first of three stints in charge of the club.

He has been a coach for 15 years and most recently coached Real Valladolid, where he replaced Onesimo Sanchez in April. He was unable in eight games to prevent the team from relegation from Spain's top division.

It was pointed out numerous times in South Africa that African teams are best served when they're coached by a fellow African. Clemente is most certainly an outsider but you can't argue with his coaching credentials. No doubt, his first order of business will be to kiss up to mercurial Cameroon star striker Samuel Eto'o.

What happened to the African nations?

It's not official yet since Ivory Coast is still technically alive (although they have to make up a 9 goal differential) going into tomorrow's last group match vs. North Korea but let's assume that only one out of six African teams (Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa) advances out of the group stage.

So what happened? I forget which ESPN commentator it was, I think it was Shaun Bartlett, but somebody suggested the other day that one of the main reasons the African teams struggled in the 2010 World Cup on their home continent is because of the lack of native coaches. Five of the six coaches were from other countries, Algeria was the only one led by a native. Just something to think about as you hope that the U.S. can knock out the only one left (Ghana).

Cameroon

Best Moment: Qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. It's hard to fit the 20 pounds of shit from their three games into a 10 pound bag.

Worst Moment: Finishing with zero points. They will likely be joined by Honduras and North Korea tomorrow with a goose egg but a team with Cameroon's talent level should never be grouped with those happy-to-be-here teams in anything.

Best Result: Another one that's tough to answer; sadly I'd go with today's 2-1 loss to Netherlands. They hung with one of the best teams in the tournament but their lack of creativity all over the field and touch in the attacking zone was a fatal flaw.

Worst Result: Losing 2-1 to Denmark. The Danes are not particularly good and although I didn't see one second of the match, I'm sure that Cameroon deserved what they got.

Final Tally: three losses. two goals scored, five goals conceded.

Best Player: Striker Samuel Eto'o. Not much of a contest since he scored both of his country's goals.

Worst Player: Eto'o. No I'm not drunk or on drugs but hear me out: Eto'o is a world-class player but before the tournament started he threatened to leave and that terrible attitude didn't seem to help his team's cause. Even though he had both goals, one was on a penalty kick. Eto'o didn't make his teammates better and he was mostly invisible in the two matches I saw.

Group E final matches: time to jump aboard the Honda bandwagon

In the final matches of Group E earlier today, Netherlands beat Cameroon 2-1 and Japan knocked off Denmark 3-1.

With those results, the Dutch (first place) and Japanese (second place) move on to the round-of-16. Netherlands meet Slovakia on Monday at 10:00 a.m. and Paraguay will play Japan at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Clearly the biggest news of the day and the tournament so far is the elimination of Italy, in such pathetic fashion. Still, there are some important things you can take away from these two games.

1) The Dutch are very, very good. Total football was at its best as Robin Van Persie scored in the first half (1-0) for Netherlands. Even more promising for Clockwork Orange is that Arjen Robben made his first appearance (since injuring his hamstring pre-World Cup) and pulled a Messi: his patented cut across the top of the box was perfect except that his shot rattled off the post. Teammate Klaas Jan Huntelaar was able to tap it in for the game-winner and the Dutch finished with nine points in the group stage. Slovakia is a great story and I'll canonize anybody that knocks the Italians out but I don't think Netherlands should have too much trouble with them, granted they're known to disappear at about that time.

2) I don't want to influence Shimer's power rankings too much but Japan is way better than I think anybody knew. Striker Keisuke Honda has been one of the most impressive players of the tournament and he proved why today with two incredible highlights: a free kick goal and a sick move where he brokedown his defender then passed to Shinji Okazaki for an easy tap-in (3-1). I'm calling it now, Japan will beat Paraguay. There was a lot to like about Japan's performance today: 2 goals off ridiculous free kicks, attacking, aggressive soccer and Honda-the best player you've never heard of before now.

Japan wins

Kawashima just stopped Eto'o who deflected a juicy cross from Geremi.

Apparently it wouldn't have counted anyway since Eto'o committed a foul but huge stop regardless by Kawashima.

1-0 Japan, game over.

It's taken four days but we have our first certified upset of the 2010 World Cup. This was a game that Cameroon had to win and they didn't wake up until there were about five minutes left and that wasn't enough time to salvage a point.

As predicted, Japan got its goal then defended like crazy in the second half. Not the most pleasing style but it worked, plus that's what you have to do when a team is better than you.

In Group E action, Japan meets Netherlands on Saturday (7:30 a.m.) and Cameroon will meet Denmark (2:30 p.m.).

As for me, I've gotta get out of the house for a little while, I've been sitting here for 4.5 hours!

Haha, I'll be back for Italy-Paraguay at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. Gotta see what the defending champions can do, nobody is paying any attention to them.

Abe booked for wasting time

Japan midfielder Yuko Abe received a yellow card for wasting time.

93rd minute, 1-0 Japan.

4 minutes of added time

This could be Cameroon's 2010 World Cup right here, they need at least a point.

M'Bia rattles post

Cameroon midfielder Stephane M'Bia just unleashed a rocket from well outside the box but it hit the post. It would have been a highlight reel goal of the World Cup.

Cameroon had another opportunity after the rebound as their shot was deflected by a Japanese defender but smothered by Kawashima.

Last sub: midfielder Makoto Hasebe out for midfielder Junichi Inamoto.

1-0 Japan in the 89th minute.

Okubo out, Yano in

Japan makes its second substitution: forward Yoshito Okubo out for forward Kisho Yano.

Japan just had a fine chance as midfielder Makoto Hasebe takes a tricky bouncing shot saved by Hamidou. Okazaki's followup hits the post but apparently he was offsides.

1-0 Japan in the 85th minute.

Idrissou sums up Cameroon's night so far

The tall forward that just came on was sprung for a partial breakaway but his terrible first touch went too far and he made matters worse by fouling the Japanese defender.

1-0 Japan in the 80th minute.

N'Koulou wakes me (slightly) from my slumber

I was looking up pictures of people sleeping to post a snarky comment or two but at least something just happened.

Cameroon defender Nicolas N'Koulou was booked for tripping Shinju Okazaki (woh came on for Daisuke Matsui).

Geremi is on for Cameroon along with Mohamadou Idrissou. Jean Makoun and Maxim Choupo-Moting are out. The indomitable lions' first sub was Achille Emana for Joel Matip. As I said, this game has been extremely boring so my mind has been wandering.

1-0 Japan in the 77th minute.

Another bad stat for Japan

Japan is 0-5-1 all-time in the World Cup in games outside Asia.

1-0 Japan in the 54th minute.

Eto'o decides to stop by

After being on a milk carton for the first 45 minutes, Samuel Eto'o beat a couple Japanese defenders along the goal-line then pulled back for teammate Maxim Choupo-Moting, who curled it high and a little wide.

1-0 Japan in the 52nd minute.

Underway in the second half

Time for Cameroon to show why they've been a trendy sleeper pick.

1-0 at halftime

Sadly looking up this picture was the second most exciting part of the last 45 minutes.

Japan leads 1-0 at the half so you know they'll be rarely going over midfield in the second half as they try to stel these three points.

I'm going to guess that the volatile Samuel Eto'o is not happy with his team and he'll let them now in the dressing room at halftime.

The indominatable lions need to step up or this will be a short stay in South Africa.

Halftime stats:
Japan Cameroon
1(1) Shots (on Goal) 2(1)
10 Fouls 12
0 Corner Kicks 0
2 Offsides 1
49% Time of Possession 51%
0 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
1 Saves 0

Japan takes surprise 1-0 lead

Japan forward Keisuke Honda scores in the 39th minute off a cross from forward (and All-Name team member) Daisuke Matusi.

It was a perfect ball that found its way through multiple Cameroon defenders. Honda took his time, receiving it and then poking it in rather than trying to one-time it.

This came right after Cameroon had its best chance so far: midfielder Eyong Enoh shot hard but low and right at Kawashima.

Kawashima takes hard fall

Strange sequence as Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima takes a nasty spill on his back after going up for a long, lofted ball by Cameroon.

He grabbed it then lost it as he came down in the air and finally fell on his back. He seems to be ok though which is good to see.

Scoreless in the 33rd minute, Cameroon needs to wake up. As Adrian Healey and Robbie Mustoe pointed out, if you lose this game, you're probably going home since the Dutch are also in this group.

Somewhere Robert Green weeps

The first real chance of the game went to Japan as a cross was nearly misplayed by Cameroon goalkeeper Soleymanou Hamidou.

He got stuck in no man's land and fumbled it with a Japanese player closeby. He was able to recover though and got the whistle since the Japanese player jumped all over his back.

0-0 in the 24 minute.

Not a good stat for Japan

In 10 previous World Cup games, they've scored a total of eight goals. Ugh. And I thought Greece was hard to watch.

Japan-Cameroon live blog

Japan and Cameroon just kicked off, the second match in Group E.

0-0 in the 7th minute, here are the starting 11's:

Japan Lineup
G
21Eiji Kawashima
CD-L
4Marcus Tulio Tanaka
CD-R
22Yuji Nakazawa
LB
5Yuto Nagatomo
RB
3Yuichi Komano
CM
2Yuki Abe
LM
7Yasuhito Endo
RM
17Makoto Hasebe
F
8Daisuke Matsui
LF
16Yoshito Okubo
RF
18Keisuke Honda
G

Cameroon Lineup
G
16Souleymanou Hamidou
CD-L
5Sebastien Bassong
CD-R
3Nicolas N'Koulou
LB
2Benoit Assou-Ekotto
RB
19Stéphane M'Bia
CM
21Joel Matip
LM
18Eyong Enoh
RM
11Jean Makoun
F
13Maxim Choupo-Moting
LF
15Pierre Webo
RF
9Samuel Eto'o