World Cup Now: How Cameroon came back vs. Serbia
Cameroon escaped what looked like certain elimination by coming back from a 3-1 deficit and tying Serbia 3-3 Monday at Al Janoub Stadium.
FOX Sports soccer analysts Jimmy Conrad, DaMarcus Beasley and Melissa Ortiz break down how Cameroon did it on "World Cup Now."
Oritz: Cameroon woke up from its sleep
The first five minutes are key to any match you play in, and they were asleep in the first five minutes. The defensive midfielders were not pressing, and it was a wide-open midfield for Serbia. There's absolutely no room for error in a World Cup, and defensively, they were just weak, panicked and not composed. It seems like after some time, they scored a goal, which is a little bit of a wake-up call, and then they were able to really ignite that fire in them and come back.
Conrad: Dragan Stojković made the wrong call
There were so many great actions on the attacking side of the ball and defensively just a lot of naïveté. When you're on the field in these big games, at some point you get instruction from the coach, but they have enough experience — they've been around, they've played in a World Cup before — to just sit back and make sure you get the three points first before thinking about goal differential.
Beasley: Serbia thought it was over
I know we want to give credit to Cameroon because they were down 3-1, but that was bad from Serbia. That last 20-25 minutes was really bad from Serbia.
They're a team that wants to attack and play, as the coach said, an attractive style of football — which they do — but then they forgot how to defend. They were defending almost 10 years yard from the halfway point — that is crazy! You're up 3-1! Why are you holding the line that high when you've got fresh legs coming from Cameroon and a goalscorer in Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting?
I can't wait to hear what the postgame comments are.
Cameroon vs. Serbia Highlights
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