Cameroon Loses in Translation and on the Field Against Italy
MONTPELLIER, France — A bad call that left Cameroon short a man for more than half of its game against Italy was insult enough. It was asking too much of Cameroon Coach Claude LeRoy to stand for an equally bad translation of his comments after Italy had worn down his team here Wednesday, 3-0.
As LeRoy’s words were translated from his native French to English, he listened intently, his eyes downcast. When the translator said he had called Italy “brilliant,” he looked up quickly, surprised.
“I said I thought it was a good team,” LeRoy said in English, “not a great team. Italy is a quality team.”
With that, LeRoy aptly summed up Italy’s performance.
The Italians were good but not brilliant. Effective but not perfect. They’re in good shape atop Group B, with four points and the first victory recorded by any of the group’s four teams, but still need at least a tie against Austria next Tuesday at Saint-Denis to be sure of advancing to the second round.
Sharp at times but occasionally vulnerable on defense, Italy, for the second successive game, built momentum off a debatable decision by the referee.
In its first game, Italy got a penalty kick on a hand-ball call against Chilean defender Ronaldo Fuentes, whose touch appeared to be accidental, and Roberto Baggio converted the opportunity to tie the score.
Wednesday, referee Edward Lennie of Australia ejected Cameroon defender Raymond Kalla Nkongo in the 43rd minute for a tackle that gouged the right thigh of Italy’s Luigi Di Biagio, even though it appeared that Kalla Nkongo couldn’t avoid running into Di Biagio as the Italian midfielder tried to tackle the ball away.
“It wasn’t easy to get our game going with only 10 men,” LeRoy said.
Italy was leading, 1-0, on Di Biagio’s seventh-minute header when Cameroon lost Kalla Nkongo. And although Cameroon applied some pressure early in the second half, particularly after LeRoy substituted the tricky Joseph-Desire Job for Samuel Ipoua, Cameroon ran itself into exhaustion and gave up two goals by Christian Vieri in the final 15 minutes.
Vieri, who plays for the Spanish club Atletico Madrid, is tied with Chilean striker Marcelo Salas for the tournament lead with three goals.
“It was a photocopy of our previous match against Chile,” said Italy’s coach, Cesare Maldini.
It was similar to the game against Chile in that Baggio again started up front, instead of Alessandro Del Piero, who sat out the opener because of a strained thigh muscle but was fit Wednesday.
Baggio, who had been left off the national team by Maldini’s predecessor, Arrigo Sacchi, continued his remarkable comeback by setting up Di Biagio’s goal with a cross that Di Biagio had only to nod into the net past Jacques Songo’o for his first international goal.
Del Piero replaced Baggio in the 65th minute, not long after Job had tested Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca with a left-footed rocket that Pagliuca tipped away with his right hand. Cameroon had been making some quick counterattacks, but Del Piero’s entrance seemed to revive Italy’s spirits.
“It was good to play 30 minutes,” Del Piero said. “I hope I will be back up to 90 minutes soon. I was pleased to play at last, but most of all I’m pleased Italy won.”
Vieri extended Italy’s lead to 2-0 in the 75th minute, after Cameroon had lost the ball at midfield and Italy’s Francesco Moriero gained possession. Moriero passed ahead to Vieri, who dodged Cameroon defender Rigobert Song and chipped a well-placed shot over Songo’o.
With Cameroon wilting, Italy pressed and produced its third goal. Vieri completed a give-and-go with Del Piero by pushing Cameroon defender Pierre Wome off the ball and barging his way toward the net for a left-footed shot in the 89th minute.
“Cameroon was hurt by the expulsion of Kalla Nkongo, but that didn’t stop them from attacking,” Italian defender Paolo Maldini said. “We’re happy with this game. We floated for about 15 minutes [in the second half], but we finished the match well.”
Said Moriero, “We had to win this game at any cost, and we did it, that’s what matters.”
GROUP B at Montpellier
Italy 3,
Cameroon 0
SCORING SUMMARY
Italy1 2--3
Cameroon0 0--0
First-half scoring--1, Italy, Di Biagio 1, 7th minute.
Second-half scoring--2, Italy, Vieri 2, 75th. 3, Italy, Vieri 3, 89th.
Shots--Italy 12, Cameroon 14.
Shots on goal--Italy 9, Cameroon 10.
Offsides--Italy 11, Cameroon 1.
Fouls--Italy 21, Cameroon 10.
Yellow cards--Italy, Costacurta, 26th; Di Biagio, 63rd. Cameroon, Wome, 7th; Njanka, 17th; Angibeau, 79th; Song, 85th.
Red cards--Kalla Nkongo, 43rd.
Referee--Lennie, Australia. Linesmen--Rossi, Argentina; Fred, Vanuatu.
Attendance--Not available.
LINEUPS
Italy--Gianluca Pagliuca; Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Costacurta; Dino Baggio, Francesco Moriero (Angelo Di Livio, 84th), Luigi Di Biagio, Demetrio Albertini (Roberto Di Matteo, 62nd); Christian Vieri, Roberto Baggio (Alessandro Del Piero, 65th).
Cameroon--Jacques Songo’o; Pierre Wome, Rigobert Song, Raymond Kalla Nkongo, Pierre Njanka; Joseph Ndo; Salomon Olembe, Patrick Mboma (Samuel Eto’o, 66th), Didier Angibeau, Samuel Ipoua (Joseph-Desire Job, 46th), Francois Omam Biyick (Alphonse Tchami, 66th).
