On the way to the playoffs, the Africans managed to defeat even the Argentine masters.
In 1988 the famous Valery Nepomniachtchi conducted unexpectedly Cameroon national team. At first, the specialist did not live up to expectations, so shortly before the 1990 World Cup in Italy they even wanted to expel the Soviet coach from the team, but at a critical moment he was lucky: the Minister of Sports of the country stood up for Russian.
Africans have certainly not regretted their decision. Nepomniachtchi created an absolute sensation at his first World Cup. A team with a 38-year-old commentator in training has already won in the first match … Argentina with Diego Maradona in training.
The wonders of Cameroon are by no means finished here.
Iconic randomness
The joint history of the Cameroon and Nepomniachtchi national team began largely by accident. The Soviet specialist, having completed his playing career, retrained as a coach. In this role he worked for almost 20 years, mainly teaching children and youth teams.
At that time, foreign coaches were very interested in the domestic coaching staff. A system was debugged, according to which Soviet specialists were sent, among other things, to other continents to raise local football there. Nepomniachtchi, as an experienced specialist in working with young players, was also included in the list of candidates for a business trip. His queue was so long that he had to wait almost 4.5 years to get a call in Suriname.
While Nepomniachtchi was packing, the decision on his business trip was reversed. Or rather, the destination has changed. Instead of Suriname – Cameroon, the Soviet coach led the country’s youth team there. But he quickly went to promotion due to the unexpected departure of the coach of the main team, Claude Le Roy. The proposal to accept the adult team immediately came to the Soviet specialist.
Nepomniachtchi accepted and led the “indomitable lions” in 1988. However, this appointment in Cameroon was perceived negatively. After the federation failed to agree a new contract with Rua, football officials have been scrambling to find a manager who knows French. But there were no such candidates. Nepomniachtchi could not learn this language and communicated with the team with the help of a pilot who acted as an interpreter. This even gave rise to the myth that the driver imagined himself a tactical genius and conveyed his instructions to the players, and not what the Soviet specialist said.
Besides the language barrier, another problem was the bad form of the team. Cameroon, under a Soviet coach, performed poorly at the Africa Cup of Nations. And he qualified for the 1990 World Cup only at the last moment: in the last qualifying match, the “indomitable lions” beat Nigeria. Such a performance by Cameroon called into question the further work of Nepomniachtchi. They even wanted to remove him from his post, but the local sports minister forbade touching the Soviet coach. And he didn’t lose!
Cameroon cult team
Nepomniachtchi began to surprise even before the start of the World Cup, inviting 38-year-old Roger Mill to the team. The footballer generally planned to go to Italy as a commentator and cover the tournament for Cameroon. However, Nepomniachtchi wanted to see a football player in the team. The president of Cameroon himself listened to the wish of the coach, who personally invited Mill to the national team.
The Cameroonian team arrived at the World Cup as outsiders. There were few stars in the team and the team was led by a coach without a big name. However, it turned out that Africans could not be underestimated.
In the first match against the “indomitable lions” the Argentine national team with the legendary Diego Maradona planned to start the tournament with an easy victory, but unexpectedly met serious resistance. The current world champions could not oppose anything to the African team and were shocked by the sporting arrogance of the Cameroonians. As a result, Cameroon’s very first match caused a sensation at the 1990 World Cup – the “indomitable lions” beat the favorites with a minimum score.
For the Cameroonians, this victory was not an accident or a flash of light, it was the beginning of a long journey. After the sensation “indomitable lions” beat the Romanian national team – 2:1. Victory went to the Africans thanks to Mill’s brace. In general, the 38-year-old footballer turned out to be in this championship, as if a second youth had awakened in him. The player could not be on the pitch for the full 90 minutes due to his age. Nepomniachtchi understood this very well, so he gave him measured loads. The Soviet coach released Mill as a substitute and asked him to burn down the entire field in a short period of play. And the African did it.
The final round for Cameroon ended in failure: the “indomitable lions” lost to the USSR – 0:4. However, that didn’t stop the Africans from leaving the group from the front line. In the playoffs Nepomniachtchi’s team didn’t think to stop and created a stir again. The Indomitable Lions defeated Colombia 2-1 after extra time in the round of 16, becoming the first African team to reach the quarterfinals. A brace in this game was scored by Milla. Interestingly, although the 38-year-old played moderately in the tournament, he managed to score four goals. For a brilliant performance he even received the nickname “old shaman”.
In the quarterfinals, the Cameroonians met with the British, showing decent football. But they lost in extra time. As Milla himself recalls, the team lacked pragmatism. Nepomniachtchi actively cultivated bright, attacking football at any score. The players liked it, they were imbued with the ideas of the Soviet coach and acted as a single mechanism. However, at some point this mechanism was supposed to fail, and this happened much later than experts predicted.
Nepomniachtchi’s result with Cameroon was the best in the history of the national team – before that the team had only played once in the final tournament, but failed to qualify from the group. After the departure of the Russian specialist from the team in 1990, the Africans were also unable to repeat the legendary achievement. The Cameroonians have reached the World Cup five times, but failed to make it to the playoff stage. The team is making another, already sixth attempt this winter at a tournament in Qatar.
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