Justice sometimes is done, despite terrible officiating. Wilmar Roldán and his crew cancelled two legal goals from Giovani Dos Santos but Mexico eventually got the goal they deserves as Oribe Peralta scored off of a rebound, giving them a 1-0 win over Cameroon get a huge advantage in group A to join the qualifiers.
Cameroon didn’t come to play, or couldn’t. Samuel Eto’o was too alone up front, hardly getting help from Benjamin Moukandjo and Maxim Choupo-Moting from the wings, although there were a couple of moments that Guillermo Ochoa had to pull off some impressive saves, including a nice aerial performance to stop a difficult header.
Mexico, as in every World Cup, showed some slick passing and movement, finding themselves in front of Charles Itandje. The Cameroonian defense couldn’t keep up with Giovani Dos Santos and Oribe Peralta, coming from different directions while the attacks from the wings, as Miguel Layun and Andre Guardado kept finding themselves free to deliver dangerous crosses.
So in the first half Dos Santos and his teammates had a lot of angry moments at the terrible officiating from the Colombian referee. In the second half? Mexico had more moments of being close to the Itandje goal, but only in the 61st minute, as another breakdown in the Cameroon defense allowed the dangerous striker to score and give Mexico a deserved lead.
Cameroon got all of their chances throught set pieces, using their height and strength to get a header or two in, while sometimes enjoying a confusing moment in the Mexican defense to make Ocho stretch his limbs. However, it was hard denying that Mexico were the dominant and better side for most of the 90 minutes.
So Mexico come out as the big winner of the first two matches in Group A. Brazil had the pressure on them and were more relieved. Cameroon and Croatia lost. Mexico have the advantage of being a bit calmer going into their next two matches, knowing their ability should be enough to qualify, and the 3 points from this win should be too.