FIFA World Cup Preview: Mexico v Cameroon

Cameroon and Mexico will hope to put their pre-tournament issues to one side when they get their FIFA World Cup campaigns under way.

All attention on Group A is focused on the tournament’s curtain-raiser between Brazil and Croatia in Sao Paulo on Thursday.

Hosts Brazil are hot favourites to win the pool, with the other three teams expected to battle it out for second spot.

Therefore both Cameroon and Mexico can use Friday’s clash in Natal as an opportunity to lay down their claim for progression to the last 16.

Both teams endured different kinds of problems in the lead up to the World Cup, with Mexico only just scraping through their qualifying section.

Under the stewardship of Jose Manuel de la Torre, the Mexicans cruised through the first stage of the CONCACAF qualification phase, winning all six of their matches.

But their campaign was in severe danger of unravelling in the final group stage.

Mexico won just twice in 10 fixtures in that round, with De la Torre losing his job after a 2-1 home loss to Honduras in September last year.

His successor Miguel Herrera eventually guided Mexico to a resounding 9-3 aggregate win over New Zealand in the intercontinental play-off and a sixth consecutive World Cup finals.

However, despite Mexico’s underwhelming qualification performance, Cameroon coach Volker Finke is refusing to underestimate Herrera’s side.

“I know that (Mexico) had a lot of problems in qualifying and that it was difficult, but it is a very dangerous team, with an intense spirit,” he said.

“We’ve seen the videos of their friendly games and I can see that it is a difficult team, but one that can be beaten.”

Unlike their opponents, Cameroon strolled through qualifying, topping the potentially tricky Group I ahead of Libya, Congo DR and Togo, before dispatching Tunisia 4-1 on aggregate in the play-off round.

However, the team have since been beset with issues relating to bonus payments, with Cameroon’s players reportedly refusing to board the plane to Brazil due to the row.

The situation was eventually resolved, although it remains to be seen whether the disagreement has affected their pre
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parations – despite Finke’s assertions that it has not.

Finke looks set to have a full-strength squad to choose from, with his side to be spearheaded by talismanic captain Samuel Eto’o.

Herrera, on the other hand, has had numerous injury problems in recent weeks, with Luis Montes sustaining a broken leg in their pre-tournament friendly against Ecuador.

Skipper Rafael Marquez will be fit, though, despite suffering a foot injury in the same match.