Coaches issue appeal as Africa’s last hope bows out of the Women’s World Cup
Cameroon coach Enow Ngachu has cited lack of finances as the main reason Cameroon failed to progress beyond the last 16 of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Following an heroic performance to defeat Switzerland to qualify for the last 16, the ‘Indomitable Lionesses’ exited the tournament due to a 12th-minute Wang Shanshan goal, which put 1999 runners-up China into the quarter-finals.
“It’s a bad day for the Cameroon national side. We came up against a very good team,” said Lionesses’ coach Ngachu after Saturday’s game in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.
The central African side had been just the second nation from the continent to make it out of the group stages at the World Cup after Nigeria in 1999.
Cameroon lost to reigning champions Japan 1-0 in their first group match, but then achieved their first wins against Ecuador (6-0) and a come-from-behind defeat of Switzerland (2-1).
Despite two great wins and the unexpected emergence of Gabrielle Onguene, surely the fastest player in the tournament, world 53rd-ranked Cameroon wound up joining already-eliminated African champions Nigeria, ranked 33, and 67th-ranked Ivory Coast on their way home.
“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,” said Ngachu.
“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.”
Cameroon, who qualified behind Nigeria in the African championship, were also struggling in the weather conditions in Edmonton.
“We didn’t expect cold weather and rain, it was a handicap for our team (..) It’s unfortunate we haven’t been training on surfaces that are very slippery,” said Ngachu.
Nigeria, who have won nine of the eleven African championships so far, have competed in every World Cup since 1991 but only advanced once out of the group stage.
Despite Nigeria’s Super Falcons impressing in a 3-3 comeback draw against Sweden, they subsequently fell short to Australia 2-0 and the United States 1-0.
Ivory Coast, Africa’s other qualifiers, were thrashed 10-0 by Germany on their World Cup debut, but suffered a narrow 3-2 loss to Thailand before falling 3-1 to Norway in the final group match.
Ngachu’s comments echoed those made by Ivorian coach Clementine Toure after their exit.
“We wanted to do well in important matches like the one against Germany,” Toure said after their defeat to Norway.
“We arrived 72 hours before the game, and were very tired from a long journey of 15 hours and with jet lag. Those are things that we would like to correct, to arrive earlier, and to play preparation games. We haven’t been able to play friendly games, and this has hurt us.
“I want to make an appeal to not only our federation, but to all of Africa, that women’s football has arrived.
“We believe in our women. We have a good team. Ivory Coast showed it deserves a place in the World Cup. But we also deserved to be better prepared. We didn’t deserve to be humiliated.”
