It is never good when on the day of an important match at the World Cup, news breaks that the first goalkeeper and one of the best players has been excluded from the squad due to disciplinary reasons. The case of Andre Onana caused a big ‘storm’ since it was announced that coach Rigobert Song no longer counts on the Cameroon’s number one keeper, even though they were playing for their lives against Serbia.The 🇨🇲 #Cameroon Football Association have backed head coach Rigobert Song after the decision to suspend Andre Onana from the squad.#FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/Agu059Ve1B— SONNIE NEWS SPORTS (@SonnieNews) November 28, 2022 The Indomitable Lions survived, although Onana’s substitute Devis Epassy had conceded three goals against Serbia. Of course, at the press conference after the match, one of the main topics was the reason for removing the Inter goalkeeper at such an important moment in the group stage. The Cameroon coach did not delve into why he made the controversial decision, only that everyone must be as one. The only thing Song really said on the subject was that Onana “wanted to step up,” which also didn’t give a clear insight into exactly what happened. But a few hours later, that was also clarified.Onana dropped for the Serbia clash for disciplinary reasonsThe Cameroonian media wrote, and the Athletic confirmed, that during the weekend there was a verbal conflict between Onana and Song due to – the way of shooting the ball! Inter’s keeper had a tendency, even from his Ajax days, to act like an additional stopper, to have the ball at his feet and to build actions with short passes, and not from long balls.“💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾”André Onana’s instagram post just after after reports came out that Cameroonian head coach Rigobert Song had removed him from the match squad against Serbia because of disciplinary reasons. #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/Dk7vMPBkrU— AfricanSportsNetwork (@asn_africa) November 28, 2022 The Athletic was even concerned with how long Onana had the ball, and his longest spell was 12 seconds while moving forward, towards the center of the field. His shots didn’t go very far, except when absolutely necessary. Like, for example, at the end of the game when he had no one to pass it to with a short pass, because all his teammates went forward in an attempt to burden the Swiss defense. After that game and the defeat, Song asked Onana to give up his methods and be more conventional, to which the goalkeeper objected and began to criticize the coach. Soon after, he was removed from the team.I firmly believe in the victory against Brazil, claims Song after the rollercoaster against SerbiaThe Cameroon website ‘Actu Cameroun’ writes that it heard from a source in the national team that “the expulsion of Onana complicated life for the team”, which is why Song was the target of criticism. More precisely, it is considered that the goalkeeper had to stay in the team until the end of the tournament due to the importance of the moment and the chances of Cameroon advancing to the next stage, and that the player should have been punished after the tournament, not during it. Cameroon still have a theoretical chance of going further, but that means they have to beat Brazil and have a better goal difference than Switzerland and Serbia.##NAJAVA_MECA_6843381##
