The Hindu : Eto'o stuns starless Brazil

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 21, 2003

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Sport - Football

Eto'o stuns starless Brazil

Reuters

Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon scoring the winner against Brazil in their Group B match of the Confederations Cup in Saint Denis near Paris. Cameroon beat Brazil 1-0.

SAINT-ETIENNE, France, JUNE 20. Samuel Eto'o may not be on the same level as Ronaldo, Rivaldo or Roberto Carlos, but the goal he scored in Cameroon's upset of Brazil was world-class.

The 1-0 victory was also essential for the African champion to show it can still perform on the world stage.

A year ago, Cameroon was blaming its group-phase exit from the World Cup on a 60-hour journey to Asia that brought the team to Japan five days late and full of fatigue and jet-lag.

Brazil, of course, captured a record fifth World Cup. But without Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos on Thursday, the South Americans were not the same team.

Turkey was also missing a bevy of its stars from a third-place finish at the World Cup. Yet coach Senol Gunes' squad still managed a 2-1 win against the United States in Thursday's other match in Saint-Etienne.

Turkey and Cameroon share first place in Group B. The two Group A leaders — France and Japan — meet in Friday's featured match.

Eto'o had to wait until the 82nd minute at the Stade de France just outside Paris to feature the skills that have made him the subject of rich transfer rumors from Spain's Mallorca.

Sneaking between two Brazilian defenders hesitating over the ball, the 23-year-old striker blasted a rising, first-time volley over goalkeeper Dida from well beyond the penalty area.

``I saw the ball fall and as soon as it happened I thought to myself 'what do I do?''' Eto'o said. ``Then I thought, there is just one solution. I hit it. So I struck a volley and it went in. I felt for a long time that this would be our match.''

Cameroon's German coach Winfried Schaefer said the fact that he was training his team for 10 days before the match — with no interruptions — paid off.

``We arrived well prepared,'' he said. ``Brazil is a very great team and we admire them, but we enjoy beating them even more.''

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira agreed that Cameroon's victory was well-earned.

``I don't doubt they deserved the win because they had a good defence and they held Brazil well,'' Parreira said. ``We've got to look at what went wrong and change it.''

Ronaldinho, the remaining R of the World Cup's famed ``triple R'' attack, was mostly a non-factor.

Turkey came from behind to beat the United States with Tuncay Sanli earning a penalty and scoring the match-winner.

The Americans went ahead after 36 minutes on striker DaMarcus Beasley's leaping header.

Only about 30 American fans showed up and even the large Turkish population in Saint-Etienne could not fill Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was joined by just 16,944 fans in the 36,000-seat facility.

For Wednesday's opening match, the Stade de France was only half full for Japan-New Zealand. Brazil-Cameroon drew only two-thirds capacity. Organizers did not even attempt to sell tickets for the upper tier of the stadium, where Brazil lost the 1998 World Cup final to France.

The tournament has come under sharp criticism from players and clubs as an unnecessary addition at the end of a long season, and fans are also showing their apathy.

Only host France is drawing capacity crowds.

Fans of ``Les Bleus'' won't necessarily see their best players on Friday, however.

With only two days between games, coach Jacques Santini promised that his lineup would be ``between 80 and 100 percent'' different from the one that beat Colombia on Wednesday.

Colombia plays New Zealand in the other Group A game Friday, with both teams fighting to stay alive in the competition.

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