It’s been a good tournament for the African sides so far: but Cameroon’s Weston Debevec has a very tough opening game against pop sleeping giant Japan, managed by Dasal Abayaratne.
You have until midnight on the 1st March to vote in this one.
CAMEROON: K-Tino – “La Queue De Ma Chatte” The manager says: “The first time I heard this song was during a fight I was having.This guy I was fighting had a knife to my throat. I’m certain he would have killed me there and then except that, just as the knife began to pierce my skin, a car drove past playing ‘La Queue de ma Chatte’. This guy dropped the knife and started smiling. I started smiling. We embraced like brothers, slapping each other heartily on the back and laughing raucously. We ran after the car and were able to easily run as fast as it. We ran alongside the car all night with that song playing repeatedly, hundreds of people joined us, all of our heads bigger with joy than all the great drug experiences of everyone in history combined. I was seven years old at the time. This song is the song Christ heard on the cross.”
Audio PlayerJAPAN: Andymori – “Follow Me” The manager says: “Japan have brought a large squad to this years World Cup with a range of styles ready to play at any time. For this first match I have chosen the young up and coming band Andymori. This hard working band have packed a huge amount of energy into this short youthful indiepop hit. With a catchy chorus, frenetic vocals and a driving rhythm section, who can resist but getting up, dancing and indeed following Andymori.”
Audio PlayerGroup E Match 2: Which track did you prefer? [ballot]
- Japan: Andymori 57%
- Cameroon: K-Tino 43%
Total Voters: 75
Poll closes: 1 Mar 2010 @ 23:59
Loading ...Commentary Box Analysis: “Delightful, unhurried play from the Camerounians against a Japanese side full of running and perhaps prone to the occasional stray tackle. Should be an intriguing game.”
RESULTS! Algeria 2 Slovenia 1 Defeat for the Slovenians – they played well but ran into an exceptional Algerian side. “The Algerian Pop Association appear to have made a canny decision here in appointing a manager with a deep-seated appreciation for the national game. It shows – this Algerian side are exquisite.” “Slovenia are the fist smallish European nation we have had so far, and this is not far off what I would expect. A solid little pop song with enough of a bonkers chorus to be lovable.” “Slovenia look like Rymans Leaguers at the start, with only that occasional synth flourish indicating there’s any spark to their play. But then they bring on an import from the prog league! The flute solo totally redeems the track.”
Coming Up! Group F brings us Italy v Paraguay, and Slovakia v New Zealand – hopefully in that order!
An easy win for Cameroon I think – the Japanese team may have plenty of energy but they’re using it to run about the park, jumpers for goalposts, school dog as 12th member of the team etc.
So in a match-up between Cameroon and Japan, Cameroon is the most sugary sweet. I’m not sure if that’s the right tactic from the Japan coach.
a solid backline for the Japanese can’t disguise the weediness of their front man and some careless playing midfield. The Cameroons are the team you can’t help but love although I’m not sure that they can sustain these energy levels for the whole tournament
Jumpers for goalposts? “Where’s Me Jumper” for goalposts: more like Japan.
Cameroon almost too laid back to get on the field, but it seems like the Japanese are running in circles without ever daring to make a decisive strike. Another win for Africa I fear.
Hurrah for my tactics in saving my strongest teams for the big games against USA and England!
Does the Cameroon title mean there is a queue for his cat? Anyway, I found that a bit meandering, and while the Japanese one started with a bang and looked promising, it continued in less purposeful style, so for sheer likeability, Cameroon FTW.
The Cameroonians contain whole physiognomies and landscapes of motion, from swaying trunks to falling water. The Japanese are left panting, but their breathlessness energizes them, somehow, are far more resilient than you’d expect from a band whose manager labels them “indiepop.” The motion is one-track in comparison to Cameroon’s, but has a similar beauty, and if the track takes them to the goal, what’s the complaint? I hear a much closer match than the other commenters do.
The question that must be asked. Does Tracer Hand hate Andymori?
Things the Pop World Cup teaches us: indiepop is just as rubbish and useless in Japanese as it is in English!
CMR is OK, a bit “incidental music on a visit-our-beautiful-country advert with added miaowing”, but OK.
Oh dear, this game is a bit awkward and embarassing to watch. Cameroon know they don’t even have to break a sweat to win this so instead they’re going for their full repertoire of flicks, tricks, stepovers, and that one guy running down the touchline bouncing the ball on his nose like a sea-lion.
I get the feeling that such cutesy play would be quickly swept aside in the knockout stage so good for Cameroon that they’re getting it out of their system early on. But the Japanese track is just a mess. With a snarling, growling frontman it might possibly work, but as it is it feels like two formations clumsily grafted onto one another. The players don’t know where they’re meant to be and seem to be running to one another more often than they’re getting the ball.
some lovely comments about cameroun, bless you all.
It irks me to see Cameroon play such an old-fashioned game, since the resources available are vast… As usual, the tactics that work at the African Cup of Nations, where the universal Congolese game is still effective against most smaller nations, doesn’t translate well to the world stage. In other words: where’s the coupe decale? :D
I’m going Japan, confident that Cameroon will win their last two games anyway.
Not listened to Cameroon yet but [combination rawk & foopball cliche alert!] a blistering start to the campaign from Japan here. A warped take on “Banana Splits” by The Dickies. And yes, this is pop, not indie or indie-pop. What Matt DC sees as weaknesses, I see as strengths. My only reservation is that the song may be too short, perhaps not fully formed?
japan have got life and vigour whilst keeping their eye on the ball. i like it.
Come on! Japan has the best pop music in the world, what happened to Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five! This Andymiri is really a disaster!
Bis week on Freaky Trigger seems to have fed into the Japanese manager’s thinking, but judging by comments so far the crowd aren’t appreciative of the effort at cross-continental musical-communication.
Cameroon for me. Mainly for la la la miaow at the beginning.
It’s hard to hate the Cameroon track, for sure. There’s a moment towards the end where it livens up a bit, but on the whole it seems the side are content to play “keep ball”.
After reading the comments I was expecting a poor entry from Japan, but this really is great stuff. Cameroon have novelty value, but not enough to win it here.
Are goalless draws possible? I thought England v USA was a cert, and neither team here comes close to a shot on target; both seem happy with a point as a basic foundation for progress to the knockout stage.
Yes they are! The scoring system is:
Yr team gets 58%+ – WIN
Yr team gets 43%-57% – DRAW
Yr team gets 42%- – LOSE
The arbitrary “result” – 2-0, 3-1, 1-1 etc -(which doesn’t make any difference to the final tables) is chosen by me on a combination of margin of victory and sentiments expressed by the commenters. So Eng-USA would definitely have been 0-0 had it been a draw.
For me this is the first duff side Africa’s fielded all tournament; while they bounce around on the pitch pleasantly enough, they never get within a mile of the goal, while Japan barrels straight through them and goes home. I’m not sure Cameroon even notices that the game’s over.
Style versus discipline and muscle. An enimgatic striker against a solid professional. Cameroon obviously enjoy their game, and play with a grace and enjoyment not often seen. There is a lot more to the Japanese game than the almost tough, unbreachable backline suggests; the midfield are quite subtle and tricky, but they are a bit weak up front. Ultimately Cameroon are one of the few sides so far with the natural tricks which can bypass the Japanese defense and score.
A few more hours to vote in this!
RESULT?
Japan 57%, Cameroon 43% so it’s a draw – Japan denied by the woodwork I’m guessing.
unbelievable! what a shocking performance.
i saw a man in a cameroun hat walking down the road just now, looking despondent. no wonder. a draw against this shower this early on doesn’t bode well.
as manager i’m going to instruct the team to start giving 120 rather than just the 110% they gave in this game.
After a tough opening match, shocking the crowd with a draw, i could easily be happy with the resut. However, both me and the squad know that they came close to a win. Just a little more effort for the full 90 minutes and they could of walked away from this match with 3 points. The squad are well aware of this, and as manager, i will be fielding a team with much better staying power.