This shouldn’t be a mouth-watering game for a football fan, unless you’re a sworn supporter of Croatia.
I just don’t know how to find any good words for Cameroon. The Indomitable Lions just are not going to roar over the Brazilian jungle and they don’t seem to cause much fear for the talented and well-coached Croatians. Cameroon always relies on Eto’o way too much and it’s very possible the leader and the captain of this team will be missing tonight’s action by being only a spectator on the bench. Him aside, Cameroon have got no other person to unite and inspire the team which seemed to be very lazy and unconcentrated during their opening fixture versus Mexico. El Tricolor scored three goals and it was all about bad refereeing that only one of them got on the scoresheet. Cameroon also have many inner conflicts with their country’s football authorities over bonus payments and when players start thinking of money before the kick-off ball it usually leads to bad results. In all honesty, I just can’t bring myself to imagine a scenario that would lead to Croatia not winning this Group A match.
As for Croatia, they’re entirely a different story from Cameroon. They’re nicely balanced, well-coached by former famous Croatian footballer Kovac, and full of desire to perform well on the big stage. Perisic, Modric, Pranjic, Rakitic, and Kovacic are all good enough to fully dominate the midfield area against the African rivals, thus creating good scoring chances for the striker duo of Jelavic, Olic, or Mandzukic. Mandzukic had to miss the World Cup opener versus Brazil due to suspension but his presence in today’s game will add his team lots of extra power in the final third. Vatreni have no other options but to win this game in their attempt to keep progression hopes alive, and a good goal ratio would help their task. This fact makes me think the Balkan side will try to trash Cameroon and if the latter drop their heads and lose motivation in early, as it’s common for Cameroon, Croatia are very able to simply seal past them.
I just don’t know how to find any good words for Cameroon. The Indomitable Lions just are not going to roar over the Brazilian jungle and they don’t seem to cause much fear for the talented and well-coached Croatians. Cameroon always relies on Eto’o way too much and it’s very possible the leader and the captain of this team will be missing tonight’s action by being only a spectator on the bench. Him aside, Cameroon have got no other person to unite and inspire the team which seemed to be very lazy and unconcentrated during their opening fixture versus Mexico. El Tricolor scored three goals and it was all about bad refereeing that only one of them got on the scoresheet. Cameroon also have many inner conflicts with their country’s football authorities over bonus payments and when players start thinking of money before the kick-off ball it usually leads to bad results. In all honesty, I just can’t bring myself to imagine a scenario that would lead to Croatia not winning this Group A match.
As for Croatia, they’re entirely a different story from Cameroon. They’re nicely balanced, well-coached by former famous Croatian footballer Kovac, and full of desire to perform well on the big stage. Perisic, Modric, Pranjic, Rakitic, and Kovacic are all good enough to fully dominate the midfield area against the African rivals, thus creating good scoring chances for the striker duo of Jelavic, Olic, or Mandzukic. Mandzukic had to miss the World Cup opener versus Brazil due to suspension but his presence in today’s game will add his team lots of extra power in the final third. Vatreni have no other options but to win this game in their attempt to keep progression hopes alive, and a good goal ratio would help their task. This fact makes me think the Balkan side will try to trash Cameroon and if the latter drop their heads and lose motivation in early, as it’s common for Cameroon, Croatia are very able to simply seal past them.
