Video and music related to Cameroon and their time at Italia 90.

Video and music related to Cameroon and their time at Italia 90.

I mentioned at the beginning about the 1990 World Cup tournament itself not being a vintage one, but there are moments that we remember. This post is about some of those being made by a team who nobody saw coming…

⇒ We’ll start with the opening game between the World Cup holders Argentina and the unfancied Cameroon.

In what has now become something of a tradition, the expected to be beaten opponents shocked everybody by winning. The even did it with ten nine men. Argentina were sluggish and complacent, thinking all they had to do was just turn up. Cameroon didn’t read the script.

They went a goal ahead after they had a man (harshly) sent off. It got worse for them when The Indomitable Lions had another player shown the red card. But they held on for a historic win.

Was this a fluke performance ? Could they do this again ? The answer was a very definite yes. In their next match against Romania. They went two goals up thanks to a veteran striker who had only agreed to be in the squad after a phone call from the President of Cameroon.

More amazingly is that Roger Milla came on as a sub in the 58th minute. Then he danced with the corner flag:

After that they rested some players against the Soviet Union, knowing that they were through to the next round.

In the Round of 16 they needed extra time to beat Columbia – and guess what, it was that man again.

This set them up with a Quarter Final match against… England.

In what was their biggest scare, I can remember this game vividly, England nearly went out. They were only 8 minutes away from the exit. The team nobody took seriously nearly knocked out one of the “big teams”.
(If you have nearly 3 hours to spare watch the entire thing here.)

It took another period of extra time and a penalty from a grateful Gary Lineker before Cameroon bowed out, but with their heads held high.

Roger Milla, one of the stars of tournament became a household name and a living legend in his own country.

Roger Milla

» Pepe Kalle – Roger Milla 1990

The man himself got in on the act too – after he hit the headlines, he hit the studios and released this:

Roger Milla - Sandy
» Roger Milla – Sandy

AUGUST 2020 UPDATE: Thank you to @WHS_Carpet on Twitter (yes the one and only WHSmith Carpet) who was asking what reggae/dancehall song was dedicated to Milla and the Cameroon team. I thought it was the above song from Pepe Kalle but it wasn’t. The artist known as Macka B recorded this track for one of his albums:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.