CAN U-17: Cameroon Needs To Restructure Youth Football

The Cadets Lions’ premature exit from the U-17 AFCON in Gabon has been a cause for worry for many football lovers in the country.

The Cadet Lions of Cameroon failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the ongoing U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. Consequently, Cameroon has lost its chance of taking part in the U-17 World Cup in India. Cameroon went into the competition full of confidence that they have had enough training. Little did they know that even with their training much effort needed to be made to be more competitive given that they were to meet teams from other countries.  
Cameroon’s failure in the competition began with the poor showing in their first game against Ghana. They suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat before the Black Starlets of Ghana. The defeat came as a surprise for the Cadet Lions as most of them were participating in an international competition for the first time. That alone caused a lot of panic in the players. Also the Cadet Lions were playing with a team that is well organised and disciplined. The Black Starlets had a more technical and matured play style as a compared to the Cameroonians.
On the contrary the Cadet Lions team is poorly organised and lacked the vivacity and efficiency in organisation especially in the attack and the defence compartments. In most cases the ball possession was not good. The attack machinery lacked the swiftness it needed to break through any defence wall. Ghana, having studied the Cameroon team, focused on the weaknesses of the Cadet Lions and put in much speed in the execution of the game. Their weakness gave their adversaries an edge over them.
Cameroon lost to Ghana 4-0 in the first game, drew 1-1 in the second game and beat Gabon 1-0 in the third game. The result however was not eno...