2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament : Cameroon Compromises Qualification Chances

The Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon have made a poor entrance into the qualifiers of the 2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. They were defeated by Uganda 0-2 in the first leg second round qualifiers. The game was played yesterday October 26, 2023 at the FUFA Technical Centre in Njeru, located a few hours drive away from Kampala, Uganda.
Before the Cameroonians could gain consciousness of the fact that play had begun, the Ugandan’s had already taken the lead thanks to an 11th minute goal from Catherine Nagadya. The goal was a wakeup call for the Lionesses who tried to step up play and pressurise their opponents despite lapses in the midfield. The pressure finally paid off at about the 30th minute of play when a foul on Cameroonian striker, Kevin Ossol was blown and a penalty awarded. The Cameroonians had already seen an equalizer but Nchout Ajara’s weak kick was pushed away by the ever-vigilant goalkeeper Vanessa Karungi of Uganda. The goalkeeper successfully read the intention of Ajara to make the save which got the Ugandan players as well as their fans jubilating.
The failure to concretize the penalty played down a little on the morale of the Cameroonian players but they evidently rapidly pushed it behind to continue play with much enthusiasm. Most of their efforts afterwards were foiled by goalkeeper Karungi, who from her actions, will do everything to avoid any desecration of her goalpost. The first half ended 1-0 in favour of the Ugandans.
Back from the lockers, Coach Jean Baptiste Bisseck of Cameroon made a few changes remarkably bringing in exper...