Cameroon flop to 1-0 defeat

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP):

Keisuke Honda scored in the first half yesterday to lead Japan to a 1-0 win over an uninspired Cameroon in Group E of the World Cup. The win is Japan's first at the World Cup on foreign soil and puts the Japanese at the top of Group E along with the Netherlands, which beat Denmark 2-0 earlier yesterday.

After a sloppy opening 30 minutes at the Free State Stadium, Japan broke the deadlock in the 39th when Daisuke Matsui's curling cross from the right drifted over Cameroon defenders Nicolas Nkoulou and Stephane Mbia and fell to Honda at the back post. The striker neatly controlled the ball and slotted it past goalkeeper Hamidou Souleymanou.

"I found a good position and the ball was very good," Honda said of the cross from Matsui. "I just told myself to be calm to make it because recently we have missed good chances, so I wanted to make it absolute today."

Despite an attack led by Samuel Eto'o, Cameroon never really challenged Japan keeper Eiji Kawashima. The Africans struggled to control the ball and generate any rhythm up front and even when they managed to put a few passes together, the build-up was usually wasted by poor crosses.

"We were too nervous in the first half. We lost many, many balls because we were nervous and that is why I am disappointed tonight," Cameroon coach Paul Le Guen said. "They were not playing to the best of their ability and we were not able to release our potential this evening and that is really disappointing."

Line-ups

Japan: Eiji Kawashima, Yuki Abe, Yuichi Komano, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuto Nagatomo, Yusuhito Endo, Daisuke Matsui (Shinji Okazaki, 69), Yoshito Okubo, Makoto Hasebe (Junichi Inamoto, 88), Keisuke Honda, Yuji Nakazawa.

Cameroon: Hamidou Souleymanou, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Nicolas Nkoulou, Sebastien Bassong, Samuel Eto'o, Jean Makoun (Geremi, 75), Eric Choupo-Moting (Mohamadou Idrissou, 75), Achille Webo, Eyong Enoh, Stephane Mbia, Joel Matip (Achille Emana, 63).