Courtesy: Cameroon Tribune

By: Joe Tiemuncho

Against Coton Sport Minor, the Yaounde club retained the crown of Cameroon Cup winners in a 2-1 victory.

For two years running, the Yaounde Futsal club dubbed Mfandena has won the coverted cup of Cameroon since the introduction of this discipline in the country a few years ago. Futsal, an American initiated mini football game is usually played by two teams with five players each. The inherent difference between Futsal and football resides in the fact that any body contact in Futsal, is a foul play. In Futsal five fouls play are tantamount to a penalty each time the defaulting team commits yet another foul. The game is played on a standard handball field with a 40 minute full time and a pause that varies between five and ten minutes.
This year's futsal finals for the Cup of Cameroon pitted maiden champions Mfandena of Yaounde against the Minor Futsal team of Coton Sport of Garoua. The swift players of Mfandena multiplied their mobility up front in the game that was fairly balanced with no team showing superiority over the other. The visitors from Garoua opened scores in the first half and the Yaounde club drew level during the last five minutes of the game. The 20 minutes of the first half ended with both team on a 1-1 tie. When the second half began, beautiful game void of goal came from both teams. The overwhelming spectators cheered the Yaounde team to greater spectacles with the Garoua club on the defensive for most part of the game. The support from the crowd seemed to have added freshness in Mfandena and certainly paid off in the 30th minute when they scored their second goal. This was to decide to fate of the match that ended on a 2-1 score in favour of Mfandena. Earlier, Mfandena trounced Mezam futsal team 11-1 to qualify for the finals. The adversaries from Garoua had beaten Douala University. The President of futsal league for the Centre Province, Ekani Menouga, asserted that, futsal, the breeding ground of players, is charting a professional course for most players in this part of the country. In his opinion futsal will greetly improve on the standard of football troughout the country.