Cameroon seek to restore pride

But that performance was followed four years later by a limp showing in the United States, where the Cameroonians suffered an embarrassing 6-1 defeat by Russia and spent most of their time bickering over money.

The Central African country have also lost their pre-eminent position on the continent, having turned in a series of disappointing performances in the African Nations Cup finals.

There is still, however, an element of surprise about a team brimming with youthful talent and potential. Cameroon qualified surprisingly easily for France, winning four and drawing two of their six qualifiers against Zimbabwe, Angola and Togo.

The decisive 2-1 win over Zimbabwe in Hararelast August meant they became the first African nation to qualify for three successive World Cup finals, their fourth in all.

An ignominious exit from the Nations Cup in February after a shock 1-0 defeat by Congo, quickly put their hopes in perspective and cost coach Jean Manga Onguene his job.

It was hardly ideal preparation for France, but Cameroon hope they come up trumps with the April appointment of highly-rated Frenchman Claude le Roy in Onguene8217;s place. The experienced le Roy, who has been in charge of Cameroon before and won the African Nations Cup with them 10 years ago, has little time in which to fine-tune his team for their Group B matches against Austria, Chile and Italy.

Cameroon play just the Netherlands and Denmark in the weeks before the start of the World Cup. Cameroon8217;s hopes rest with some talented attackers, not least the Japanese-based Patrick Mboma, who was raised in France and played previously at Paris St Germain and Metz.

Mboma was the leading goal scorer in the African WorldCup qualifiers and also in the J-League last year. Le Roy has recalled Francois Omam Biyik, the 32-year-old striker who scored the famous winner against Argentina in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

There are three other French-born players in their squad, mid-fielders Jean-Jacques Etame, Samuel Ipoua and Fabrice Moreau.

Austria search for success
VIENNA: The relative ease with which Austria qualified for the World Cup surprised many last year as Herbert Prohaska8217;s team finally shook off years of under-achievement by winning their qualifying group in some style.

With eight wins, one draw and one defeat from their 10 matches, they clinched their place in the finals on October 11 with a 4-0 thrashing of Belarus. Now Prohaska believes Austria can have their most successful World Cup for many years and has even hinted, optimistically, that they can have their best World Cup since 1954 when they finished third in Switzerland.

However, Prohaska8217;s words did not look tooconvincing when Austria crashed to a 3-0 home defeat to the United States in a friendly on April 22.