Unlike Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, the Cameroon FA at least had the wisdom not to fire their manager in the wake of a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations, despite the fortune they were paying Paul le Guen. In return, Le Guen has overhauled an ageing side, although the weaknesses in defence were horribly shown up by Portugal and Serbia who scored seven times between them. However, Le Guen did see the 21-year-old Eric Choupo-Moting make a very good claim to start alongside Samuel Eto’o.

In one embarrassing moment, the midfielder, Keisuke Honda rounded on the Japanese media and asked if they really thought Japan would lose all three group games. There was a grim silence because nobody would be very surprised if they did. The last time Takeshi Okada led them to a World Cup, in 1998, they did precisely that. Having lost three of their four friendlies in Japan and two more to England and the Ivory Coast, they could claim, in terms of form, to be the worst side in South Africa.

Philippe Troussier, who took Japan to the last 16 in 2002, has little doubt that unless Okada takes a late, radical and totally unexpected change of direction, they face a very early elimination. Eto’o, now he has stopped sulking about criticism of him from Roger Milla, the hero of the 1990 campaign, is exuding confidence. Verdict: Cameroon to win.