And that’s the lot. It’s Japan’s first ever World Cup finals win outside of their own country. It wasn’t pretty, it was uglier than a Carlos Tevez Mary Harney love child in fact, but Japan got the result they needed.
Great ball in from Geremi! Eto’o flings himself at it but fails to connect. The strike came in at the back post but the whistle goes in for an infringement inside the box.
Shot from 25-yards out from Mbia! Hits it sweet! Oh, bounces out off the crossbar. What a strike. Unlucky not to get something out of that.
Inamoto comes on for Hasebe. Inamoto has returned to Japan recently, after a stint in France. He will be known for his long spell in the UK.
Great shot from distance by Hasebe! Souleymanou gets down well to palm it away! There was a follow-up shot which hit the post, but the flag was already up for offside.
Kisho Yano coming on for Okubo. At 6 foot 1 he’s the tallest man in Japan. That might be made up.
10 minutes left to play here. Cameroon deserve nothing from this game.
Cameroon with a free in a good position. Geremi takes but the keeper punches away in convincing fashion.
Mohamadou Idrissou has come on for Choupo-Moting. He’s a big whopper of a striker. By rights he should eat his Japanese marker alive. Probably won’t though.
Makoun comes on for one we’re all familar with – former Chelsea star Geremi.
More terrible passing in the centre of the park. You really have to wonder if the ball itself is the problem. It’s popping around all over the shop!
Endo over hits it by a mile and it bounces out for a kick-out without coming within six foot of any of the players in the box. That’s a joke at this level.
Okazaki bursts forward but his heel is clipped and he wins a free on the left-hand side of the box.
Don’t forget we’ve got Italy v Paraguay right here on JOE.ie’s World Cup match tracker from 7.30pm.
16 goals in 28 internationals in case you’re wondering exactly how many he has clocked up.
Matsui off for Okazaki. Okazaki has scored his fair share of goals at international level. Knows where the net is.
Choupo-Moting in space! Plays it wide – shocking ball. Badly over-hit and it runs out of play. It’s turning into a bit of a comedy of errors here.
Achille Emana has come on for holding midfielder Joel Matip. Please God let this mean some more attacking football.
Kawashima fists away – Tulio got a belt in the head there, but he’s up and about again.
Cameroon win a free in a decent position. Assou-Ekotto whips it in but Nakazawa rises first and puts it behind for a corner.
Eto’o way back in his own half. Bit of resource misplacement going on here.
You have to wonder about the selection process for the World Cup. At the risk of sounding biased, Ireland would slaughter either of these two teams. Add these to the pair of qualified teams we beat in the pre-World Cup friendlies.
Good running down the wing from Choupo-Moting – he lets one go from range! Pulls it wide. Worth a shot though.
Matsui and Endo with some tidy short passing in the centre of the park, but the final ball forward is poor.
Japan have also been brighter in this second half. Game is definitely picking up.
Great running from Eto’o who goes through three defenders and gets a great cross in. Hasebe meets it! He tried to place it in the far corner but it goes wide. Should have done better. A rare bright moment from Eto’o all the same.
Okubo battling to get onto the end of a long ball – wins a free between the corner flag and the box but it’s blasted straight into the wall.
These two have played each other three times – Japan won two and drew another. Interestingly, Japan have yet to ship a goal to the Cameroon.
Pushing in the box – free out.
Cameroonwill be looking to up the pace in this second half, they’ve been tame so far. They put together an early attack, the cross is too high for Eto’o but pressure is enough to win a corner.
The second half is about to get underway again. That’s the good thing about following a game on a match tracker rather than the tv or radio – you don’t have to suffer those jaysus vu vus.
After that 45 minutes, I’m off to jazz up by day by watching the grass grow.
I’ll be handing over to Robert Carry. He’ll take you through the rest of the evening, including the second half of this snooze and the holders’ first game later on – Italy v Paraguay.
Half-time here. Bore the pants off you this would. If you’re at work, out and about or manacled by the ankles in a dank cave, you can count yourself lucky.
Sammy Eto’o gets on the ball down the right wing. Forgot he was playing – hasn’t been sighted so far.
Cameroon have been desperately disappointing.
GOAL JAPAN!
Seconds after Cameroon get the first shot on target, Japan are in front at the other end.
Keisuke Honda controlled a cross at the far post and finished past Souleymanou.
These Cameroon defenders are as sticky as lube.
Two of the worst defences, goalkeepers included, that I’ve seen so far.
The Dutch could go to town on these over the next week or so. The Duracell Donkey for top scorer?
What’s worse than sixes and sevens? Dozens and scores? Cameroon’s defending has been grossly inept.
See what I did there?
Oh.
Good old Sepp Blatter. A few minutes ago he tweeted: “At Soccer City for Netherlands-Denmark”.
Someone should tell him that one was the early kick-off. Picture him in the stadium on his own, looking at his watch.
A real bit of love going on between Samuel Eto’o and Keisuke Honda. That one is up there with this:
The Mexican wave has started but its impact is lessened by the fact that there’s virtually no-one in large tracts of the stadium. This one’s as poor as, eh, most of the games so far.
Worst World Cup in memory? Let us know at shout@joe.ie.
If the Cameroon defenders are dodgy, the keeper is shocking. Came out waving at that one like traffic cop. Nowhere near it but was saved by the linesman’s flag. Not up to much, these two.
Cameroon look right dodgy at the back. Assou-Ekotto is a Premier League player but defending is not one of his strong suits. Which isn’t good for a left back.
Kamikaze stuff from Kawashima, the Japan goalkeeper. Japan escape. This is not an easy one match-tracking purposes. You’d need a right bit of study to familiarise yourself with the names of these lads.
I’ve been spoilt by ITV HD earlier. The usual old pictures are a bundle of blurs. Cameroon are wearing green shorts and socks. Only for their yolk-yellow shirts I wouldn’t be able to make them out from the pitch.
Nothing much happening so far. That’ll suit anyone who’s backed JOE’s Daily Double. Cameroon have had the better of it.
Someone said somewhere that Fifa had sold 97 per cent of tickets for the tournament. There are hundreds of empty seats down at pitchside for this one.
Two Songs on the Cameroon bench. Party.
That’ll go down like a lead balloon.
Some emails.
Alan Sheehan is unimpressed by Gilesy. “I can’t really remember much about them … BUT ANYWAY, going back these teams – South Korea, people like these, are very honest and won’t be a pushover bla bla bla…â€
God forbid he actually did some research for matches he KNOWS he’s going to cover.
Hugh Ledwith has also been onto us at shout@joe.ie. “I was very impressed by the Koreans on Saturday. If that’s a pointer to the standard of Asian football I think Japan could be a good bet here.”
What do you think? Drop us an email or get in touch at Twitter to have your say.
“I haven’t seem them for four years so I don’t know much about them.” – Gilesy.
T’internet has clearly not been hooked up round Johnny’s gaff so far. It’s his only flaw. At least Dunphy tries to do some research.
Some on the money analysis from Johnny Giles here. He’s clearly been doing his homework on the Japanese team.
The sum total of it is: “Honda – he’ll be motoring about the place.”
Team news:
A few surprises, which were reported yesterday, have seen Cameroon manager Paul Le Guen drop goalkeeper Carlos Kameni and Arsenal midfielder Alex Song from his starting line-up.
Japan: Kawashima, Nagatomo, Nakazawa, Tulio, Komano, Abe, Matsui, Endo, Honda, Hasebe, Okubo.
Cameroon: Souleymanou, Mbia, Nkoulou, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Matip, Makoun, Enoh Eyong, Webo, Eto’o, Choupo-Moting.
