Rudi Voller's Germany progressed to the second round with a performance here in Shizuoka yesterday that had all the hallmarks of German football, from gamesmanship to rugged, well-drilled defending.
But despite their best efforts, and a fifth World Cup goal for Miroslav Klose, the limelight was stolen by the referee Antonio Lopez Nieto, who set a World Cup record by administering a total of 16 yellow cards in 90 minutes.
That this was a full-blooded encounter was beyond doubt, and there did appear to be determined attempts by the Germans to batter their opponents into submission, but that 14 players should be cautioned and two of those, Germany's Carsten Ramelow and Cameroon's Patrick Suffo, should receive a second yellow was ludicrous and smacked of desperation. Pierluigi Collina, the fourth official, must have had to stop himself from storming the pitch.
Lopez names one of his pastimes as netball and maybe he simply forgot that football is a contact sport. In the first 10 minutes he showed two yellow cards, one to Marc-Vivien Foe for a late tackle and one to Carsten Jancker for a high challenge on Rigobert Song - which in truth did not reach much higher than Song's waist. The tone was set, and every subsequent late challenge or infraction seemed to punished by a card.
In the view of both coaches the dismissal of Ramelow in the 40th minute was crucial. Until then Cameroon had had the better of the match, Salomon Olembe going one-on-one with Oliver Kahn only to lose his nerve, and Song heading wide from six yards.
A sparkling run from Samuel Eto'o shortly afterwards left Christian Ziege for dead and, as Eto'o advanced on goal, Ramelow was adjudged to have brought him down. Though replays suggested only minimal contact, the Bayer Leverkusen centre-half was summarily dismissed by Lopez.
The Germans were forced to restructure their defence but the changes worked in their favour because they simply closed the game down.
"When we went down to 10 men we shifted from a defensive line of three to a line of four," Voller said. "Up until that point Cameroon had had the best of the first half. But things got better and better for us in the second. After we opened the scoring Cameroon became nervous and we started to take control."
Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer agreed and admitted his team had only themselves to blame. "The decisive moment was Ramelow's dismissal, and I would have liked to see him stay on the pitch and Eto'o to have scored," he said. "I told my team we had to take advantage of having an extra man and that we should play the ball through the wings. But they didn't listen to my advice."
Germany's opening goal in the 50th minute came about in exactly that way, Klose stealing the ball in the middle of the field and tearing towards goal. Fending off four Cameroon defenders, he slipped a pass through to the half-time substitute Marco Bode, who finished coolly.
Klose added the second in the 79th minute, strengthening his challenge for the Golden Boot with a header at the far post from a Michael Ballack cross. Germany now face either Paraguay or South Africa.
Guardian Service
SUBSTITUTES
Cameroon: P Suffo for Tchato (53 mins), D Kome for Olembe (64 mins), Desire-Job for Mboma (82 mins). Germany: M Bode for Jancker (46 mins), J Jeremies for Schneider (80 mins), O Neuville for Klose (84 mins).
YELLOW CARDS
Cameroon: M-V Foe, R Song, P Suffo, B Tchato, Geremi, S Olembe, Lauren. Germany: C Jancker, D Hamann, M Ballack, C Ramelow, O Kahn, C Ziege, T Frings.
RED CARDS
Cameroon: P Suffo. Germany: C Ramelow.
