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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
TWENTY-three years after the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo provided the stage for the beginning of the end of the Dream Team, the Indomitable Lions’ fortress in Yaounde on Tuesday night offered a grand setting where the Warriors showed that their 2017 Nations Cup adventure might not just be a ceremonial fulfilment of fixtures.

On October 10, 1993, the pillars that had held the Dream Team, and inspired a nation, began to crumble to the ground after Reinhard Fabisch’s gallant troops crashed to a 1-3 defeat in a final showdown against Cameroon for the right to one of the three tickets to represent Africa at the ’94 World Cup finals in the United States.

A double by Francois Omam-Biyik, including a 13th minute penalty, and another goal by Emmanuel Maboang Kessack dwarfed Adam Ndlovu’s 50th minute strike and sent 85 000 fans, packed in the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, into delirium as the Indomitable Lions celebrated a return to the World Cup finals.

The Dream Team, who had marched unbeaten in the six matches of their World Cup qualifying group, beating Egypt for a place in the final round of qualifiers, never recovered from their failure to conquer the last frontier in Yaounde, with Fabisch — the heart and soul of that team — being banned for a year by CAF for questionable conduct in the mayhem that followed the end of that match.

The German coach was found to have crossed the red line, by the CAF leaders, after he waved some United States dollar notes in the direction of Gambian referee Alhadji Faye accusing him of allegedly having been paid by the hosts to ensure his Dream Team would not win that fierce winner-take-all battle.

Even though the Dream Team project effectively collapsed, after that defeat in Yaounde, without qualifying for either the World Cup or Nations Cup finals, those who were part of the journey, and shared its sights and sounds, have refused to let the passage of time wash away the memories of that incredible adventure.

Those who have watched Denzel Washington’s blockbuster movie, ‘Remember The Titans,’ which immortalises the tale of how the success of a high school football team, T. C. Williams, affectionately known as ‘The Titans’ provided the unlikely vehicle for the people of the American town of Alexandria, Virginia, to shatter the racial barriers that had divided their community for years, can relate to the impact that the Dream Team had on this country.

The movie fittingly ends with the community, including the former players of that trailblazing high school football side, converging at the funeral of one of the stars of that team, who died in a car crash 10 years to the day the school’s sporting success united the town, with the daughter of one of the coaches who masterminded that success, providing a moving narration to the events of the day.

“The Titans danced their way into history . . . People say that it can’t work, black and white. Well here we make it work every day. We have our disagreements, of course, but before we reach for hate, always, always, we remember the Titans,” she says.

The current crop of Warriors are on a mission, just like The Dream Team and ‘The Titans’, to make a lasting impression in the hearts of their fans and, after ending the country’s 10-year wait for a dance at the Nations Cup finals, captain Willard Katsande and his men want to become the first group to make it beyond the group stages of the AFCON show.

They face what some analysts say is Mission Impossible, in a group that features the number one-ranked national team, Senegal, the talented Algeria and the gritty Tunisia, but the Warriors believe they can do it and on Tuesday night they chose the stage where the end of the Dream Team began, to put show — pregnant with both spirit and promise — to suggest they can compete in Gabon.

Some critics might just dismiss it as a mere friendly, but the fact that Pasuwa even could afford to leave out a number of his regulars — including talisman Khama Billiat and Knowledge Musona — only to throw them into the fray in the second half, showed that this team has the depth and player resources needed to compete.

A few days ago, the DRC, who some feel are good enough to win the 2017 Nations Cup finals, were in Yaounde for a similar friendly and lost 0-2 while the Warriors were unlucky not to win their match with both Musona and Nyasha Muchekwi missing good chances in the final few minutes of the showdown.

The Cameroon coach threw in six of the players who started the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Algiers, where the Indomitable Lions forced a 1-1 draw, with goalkeeper Fabrice Oudoa, who plays for Spanish side Sevilla after spending two years with the FC Barcelona B side, Nicolas Nikoulou, who has played for French giants Monaco and Marseille, Bitolo Onyono, Edgard Salliy, captain Benjamin Mokandjo and Ekambi Toko-Ekambi making the first team against the Warriors.

The other players who started the match are all based in Europe with only one based in the United States.

The skipper, Moukandjou, has turned into the team’s talisman and coolly converted the penalty in the 1-1 draw against the Warriors after having also scored against Algeria, whom the Warriors meet in their first match in Gabon, in a World Cup qualifier just a few months ago.

He plays for FC Lorient in France’s Ligue 1 and has in the past been linked with a move to English giants Liverpool.

Cameroon coach, Hugo Broos, said his team played better against Zimbabwe than when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Zambia in a World Cup qualifier recently and believes they are ready to impress in Gabon.

“For me, that means our team is ready and we have plenty of opportunities for Saturday,” he said.

“Compared to the team that played against Zambia, we have made great progress, there is much more rhythm and much more depth in our game. What we will do is try to win our first game because it is very important.”

But it is the Warriors who came out with a lot of credit and a number of analysts have been saying that if they can play as well as they did in Yaounde, having arrived just a day before the match with their preparations crippled by a fallout with their leadership over appearance fees and winning bonuses, Pasuwa’s men can surprise a number of teams in Gabon.