Cameroon vs Germany - 2002 World Cup Group Match

Home: World Cup 2002: Korea-Japan Finals: 1st Round: Match Report

Tuesday June 11th, 2002

Ten Man Germany Pull Through

Germany started slowly, letting everyone get a touch of the ball.... then Christian Ziege pounced down the left to get an early cross in.

The first real chance for Germany flew over the bar, from the foot of Michael Ballack on 10 minutes.

Two minutes later Oliver Kahn closed down a break from Salomon Olembe and changed his angle to save the second attempt as well.

Rigobert Song needed some treatment after Miroslav Klose caught him in the face on the 20th minute then returned to the pitch to block a shot from Klose a couple of minutes later.

Jancker had left the ball for Klose then ran out into space on the right.

After 20 minutes, the tide changed and Cameroon started to come forward more. Pierrre Wome's free-kick was punched away by Kahn only to thunder off his defender's chest for a corner.

And, with Germany's offside trap slow to react, Rigobert Song sprinted through the defence to power his header into the advertising boards.

Then for the last five minutes the game started to get nasty.

Germany were reduced to ten men when Carsten Ramelow earned his second yellow card for tripping Samuel Eto'o.

Ollie Kahn and Rigobert Song both entered the book for coming close to blows, a couple of minutes later, then Bill Tchato was added to the list to bring the first-half total to nine yellow cards and one red..... but sadly no goals.

Half-time: Cameroon 0 - Germany 0

Marco Bode came on for Carsten Jancker at half-time as Germany tried to rethink their strategy.

0:1
The substitution paid off as Miroslav Klose held the ball up, with four Cameroon players around him, then slipped the ball through two of them for Marco Bode to stroke home without breaking his stride - 50 mins.

Ziege and Lauren - of Tottenham and Arsenal - tussled along the sidelines as frustration entered into the game again. Lauren was lucky not to join Christian Ziege in the book.

Lauren headed on to the German post, from the next free-kick; with Oliver Kahn clearly beaten.

Patrick Suffo was only on the pitch for less than 25 minutes when his second yellow card saw the game tip in Germany's favour.

0:2
Ballack has made a habit of crossing for Miroslav Klose to head in for Germany and this crucial combination made sure of Germany's place in the Second Round - 79 mins.

With 16 bookings and two sending-offs we were lucky that this game still had two teams on the pitch at the final whistle.

Final Score:
Cameroon 0 - Germany 2

Other Group E Match:
Saudi Arabia vs Ireland

Man of the Match:
Miroslav Klose - Set up the first goal and scored the second.... and was one of the few players who didn't get booked.

Red Cards:
Carsten Ramelow (40 mins)
Patrick Suffo (77 mins)

Yellow Cards:
Marc-Vivien Foe (8 mins)
Carsten Jancker (9 mins)
Dietmar Hamann (29 mins)
Michael Ballack (31 mins)
Carsten Ramelow (38 mins)
Carsten Ramelow (40 mins)
Oliver Kahn (42 mins)
Rigobert Song (42 mins)
Bill Tchato (44 mins)
Geremi Njitap (56 mins)
Salomon Olembe (58 mins)
Patrick Suffo (60 mins)
Christian Ziege (72 mins)
Torsten Frings (74 mins)
Patrick Suffo (77 mins)
Lauren (81 mins)

The Teams

Cameroon:
1 Boukar Alioum; 5 Raymond Kalla Kongo, 8 Geremi Njitap, 4 Rigobert Song, 2 Bill Tchato (18 Patrick Suffo - 53 mins), 3 Pierrre Wome; 12 Lauren, 17 Marc-Vivien Foe, 20 Salomon Olembe (23 Daniel Ngom Kome - 64 mins); 9 Samuel Eto'o, 10 Patrick Mboma (21 Joseph Desire Job - 80 mins).

Germany:
1 Oliver Kahn; 2 Thomas Linke, 21 Christoph Metzelder, 6 Christian Ziege; 13 Michael Ballack, 22 Torsten Frings, 8 Dietmar Hamann, 5 Carsten Ramelow, 19 Bernd Schneider (16 Jens Jeremies - 80 mins); 9 Carsten Jancker (17 Marco Bode - 46 mins), 11 Miroslav Klose (7 Oliver Neuville - 84 mins).

Referee: Antonio Lopez