Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer has defended his decision to replace forward Patrick Mboma with Patrick Suffo in the second half of his side`s 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland on Saturday. "He was just the right back up for Samuel Eto`o," he said.
After a promising first half in which Cameroon took the lead through Mboma, the Irish pegged Cameroon back, and levelled through Matt Holland.
"Eto`o was so strong up front that I did not want to bring him back by throwing in somebody like Pius Ndiefi," Schafer went on.
Schafer praised Suffo for his good performances during the warm-up games, and
admitted that he had been hoping for something similar to what happened in the friendly against Argentina, when Suffo came off the bench to equalise.
"Suffo did well in the games against Argentina and England and he was the appropriate replacement for Mboma in that game. Our problems came from elsewhere."
The coach is sure that Cameroon`s late arrival in Japan was a prime cause of their sluggish second half.
"The travel disaster affected our training schedule," he said. "We did not have time to adjust to the climate. We needed about 11 days to acclimatise before the first game. That did not happen."
