By Boris Esono Nwenfor
BUEA, Cameroon – It was the Naomi Eto show as she struck twice to give Cameroon a 2-all draw against Mexico. The game counted for the ongoing FIFA Women’s Under 20 World Cup in Colombia. This was Cameroon’s first-ever U-20 Women’s World Cup match, while Mexico is now unbeaten in their last five opening matches of the U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Barely two minutes had ticked off the clock when Mexico found the opening goal, with Paola Garcia giving the lead to Mexico. Cameroon went right to work on finding an equaliser and hit the post twice in a span of four minutes with Atcha Toko Njoya and Eto each smacking the woodwork.
Garcia and Saldivar teamed up again later in the half to double the lead, with Garcia playing the role of supplier and Saldivar steering home the finish.
Cameroon responded impressively after the restart and reduced the deficit to 2-1 when Eto rounded Mexico goalkeeper Renatta Cota and dribbled the ball over the line. The momentum was with Cameroon and the African side took full advantage, as Eto thumped home a header in the 85th minute to secure a comeback 2-2 draw for her side.
Hassan Balla, U20 Lionesses coach said: “There’s a lot of satisfaction. It was complicated against this Mexican team. We came back quickly in the second half, but the start of the game was complicated. We conceded two goals, both of which we gave away, they were real gifts. Then we got going in the second half. The girls tried to put the ball on the ground to try and kill off the Mexican team. We’re not spitting on one point, it’s satisfying.”
“What I talked to my team after the game is that we won a point, the reality is that it is a very difficult group, and no one was going to give us anything. We have to continue like this, we have a great team, we did a great process and now we must ratify it,” Ana Galindo, Mexico coach said.
For star player Naomi Eto, she said they are going to stay focused, and that they are going to analyse their shortcomings so that they don’t repeat them in our next match. She said: “We didn’t really know how Mexico played, and we went 2-0 down… But God was with us in our game and we were able to get back on level terms. We’re going to stay focused; we’re going to prepare in training. We’re going to analyse our shortcomings so that we don’t repeat them in our next match.”
The next encounter for Cameroon comes on Wednesday against host nation Colombia before rounding off the group stage against Australia. So far, Cameroon sits on one point while Colombia is top of group A with 3 points.
