Talking points from Ethiopia’s disappointing defeat to Cameroon

Football is all about result, but always on pitch performances shall be measured and be given credit for. Ethiopia were thrashed by Cameron but the performance especially in the first half is the one the Ethiopians should be proud of but failed to sustain over the entirety of the match.

Wubetu Abate deployed the more familiar 4-3-3(4-1-4-1) as he made a big call to drop their skipper Getaneh Kebede replacing him with Dawa Hottesa, meaning Abubeker Nasser is moved to his preferred central striking role as opposed to playing from the wide left as he did in the last game.

Walia’s were positive with or without the ball from the get go and opened the scoring in the 4th minute through Dawa Hottesa from a well worked offensive transition after a possession turnover deep into their own half.

The first half witnessed a much improved build up play from Ethiopia this might be due to Cameron’s not willing to press Ethiopia high rather they were reluctant to create turnovers in the middle of the pitch and also in their defensive zone.

The Cameroonian had little interest to put pressure in the first 30 meters of the pitch, Cameron playing with two men up front were mainly focusing on restricting passes between Ethiopia’s CB. Ethiopia with so much space and time were not that effective in creating passing sequences and successfully building from the back frequently, but started to adjust deep into the first half with the left sided CB Mingote Debebe start to act as an alternative ball carrier to progress the ball smoothly.

Mingote Debebe was a player with the most touches (73) showing his improvement throughout the game, also Ethiopia lost possession in its own defensive third only 23 times which was a drastic decrease from the first game where they lost 48 times.

Further up the field, Abubeker Nasser who was operating as a “false 9” was seen maneuvering here and there to facilitate ball progression, of the 53 touches he had in the entire 90 minutes most of them were in the center of the pitch and also floating here and there.

Off the ball, they were utilizing a very high defensive line with a 4-1-4-1 pressing scheme to compress the pitch, the veteran Mesud Mohammed was acting as a pressing trigger to initiate Ethiopia’s press by joining high with Abubeker Nasser, but of the 43 total recoveries, the attacking third recoveries (4) and midfield recoveries (13) were very low proving that there was the intent but the execution was lacking.

Offensively Ethiopia’s overall play has improved, by a measure of the quality of chances created (XG) it has improved significantly from 0.26 against Cape Verde to 1.63 in Cameroon’s game. While Cameron outscored them with an XG of 2.25.

Ethiopia especially in the first half had much of their attacking play coming from the wings, with 44.4% & 42.6% coming from the left and right side respectively with only 13.0% of it coming through the middle, this was evident as Amanuel G/Micheal mainly & Dawa Hottesa were behind with a couple of chances were Ethiopia threatened.

Dawa Hottesa was also forced to do a lot of defensive work to help a seemingly offensively tasked left back Remedan Yesuf, as he was given more freedom to move higher up the pitch mainly in the first half while on the right side Suleiman Hamid was playing cautiously in line with the CB pairing.

Possession wise the game was evenly contested, Ethiopia had about 458 passes(86.46% accuracy) with 203 (79.8% accuracy) of them coming in opponent half and 99 progressing to the final third with 68.68% success and of all the passes 283(61.79%) of them were forward passed, which was a slight increase from the first game.

Also, Ethiopia entered the final third 54 times and entered the opponent penalty area 13 times also they had 12 shots with 5 of them hitting the target.

But the second half overall display was a testament that the Cameroon national team is away from ahead of its Ethiopian counterpart in tactical and physical aspects of the game, as they were the dominant side in the contest after Ethiopia’s first half domination.

Coming into the second half Toni Concensao’s men were very aggressive in those 1v1 midfield situations coming out on top in most of the contests, thus whenever there is turnover in possession they would transition quickly putting runners behind the higher defensive line of Ethiopia.

Once Cameron scored the second goal the home side backed by the galvanized crowd were all at it with a shift in momentum it was a matter of time before they grabbed each other.

All the four goals Cameron scored in the entirety of the had similarity in their manner as we mentioned above. Also, the goals were originated from Cameron’s lateral attack with ball watching defending a common defensive issue playing a part in the goals. Once again Ethiopia’s defensive players were caught napping as their only focus was on the ball instead if they have scanned the space and where the opponent player is the story might be different.

But the overall first half display has a lot of positives but Ethiopia failed to replicate that in the second half as their aggressive approach in the first half created a burnout in the second half, heads up this is not the end to the world so lesson should be learned and move on.

Ethiopian Premier League

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13
Round 1
20 Sep 2024 00:00
CBE
-
-
BUN
20 Sep 2024 16:00
MEK
0
1
HOS
20 Sep 2024 19:00
AMK
1
2
DIR
21 Sep 2024 19:00
WAU
0
1
BDR
22 Sep 2024 16:00
ELE
2
3
WOD
22 Sep 2024 19:00
KDG
1
2
FSK
23 Sep 2024 16:00
ADA
2
3
SHI
23 Sep 2024 19:00
SID
0
1
HAW
Round 2
25 Sep 2024 16:00
EIC
0
0
AMK
26 Sep 2024 16:00
FSK
1
1
MEK
26 Sep 2024 19:00
BUN
0
0
ELE
27 Sep 2024 09:30
HAW
1
1
SHI
27 Sep 2024 16:00
KDG
2
1
WAU
27 Sep 2024 19:00
BDR
0
1
ADA
28 Sep 2024 16:00
MEC
1
2
SID
28 Sep 2024 19:00
DIR
4
1
WOD
Round 3
30 Sep 2024 16:00
KDG
0
1
MEK
30 Sep 2024 19:00
EIC
0
0
ELE
1 Oct 2024 16:00
FSK
0
0
SHI
1 Oct 2024 19:00
BDR
2
0
HOS
2 Oct 2024 16:00
BUN
3
1
HAW
2 Oct 2024 19:00
MEC
3
1
WOD
3 Oct 2024 16:00
CBE
3
1
AMK
3 Oct 2024 19:00
WAU
0
1
SID
Round 4
19 Oct 2024 16:00
HOS
1
2
HAW
19 Oct 2024 19:00
MEK
1
1
MEC
20 Oct 2024 16:00
SHI
1
1
DIR
20 Oct 2024 19:00
CBE
2
3
KDG
21 Oct 2024 16:00
WOD
2
1
BUN
21 Oct 2024 19:00
ADA
1
1
FSK
22 Oct 2024 16:00
ELE
1
0
BDR
22 Oct 2024 19:00
SID
1
0
EIC
Round 5
24 Oct 2024 16:00
MEK
3
2
DIR
24 Oct 2024 19:00
CBE
1
1
FSK
25 Oct 2024 16:00
WAU
0
3
MEC
25 Oct 2024 19:00
ADA
2
0
HAW
26 Oct 2024 09:30
AMK
1
0
BDR
26 Oct 2024 16:00
KDG
0
0
EIC
26 Oct 2024 19:00
SID
2
0
BUN
27 Oct 2024 16:00
ELE
0
0
HOS
27 Oct 2024 21:09
WOD
1
0
SHI
Round 6
29 Oct 2024 16:00
EIC
1
0
WAU
29 Oct 2024 19:00
FSK
0
1
AMK
30 Oct 2024 16:00
BDR
2
0
SID
30 Oct 2024 19:00
HOS
0
1
WOD
31 Oct 2024 16:00
MEC
1
0
CBE
31 Oct 2024 19:00
BUN
2
0
MEK
1 Nov 2024 16:00
DIR
1
1
ADA
1 Nov 2024 19:00
HAW
1
2
ELE
Round 7
3 Nov 2024 16:00
BDR
0
0
WOD
3 Nov 2024 19:00
KDG
1
0
AMK
4 Nov 2024 16:00
MEC
2
0
ADA
4 Nov 2024 19:00
EIC
4
0
MEK
5 Nov 2024 16:00
FSK
-
-
ELE
5 Nov 2024 19:00
DIR
-
-
HOS
6 Nov 2024 16:00
BUN
-
-
SHI
6 Nov 2024 19:00
WAU
-
-
CBE
Round 8
23 Nov 2024 16:00
ADA
-
-
EIC
23 Nov 2024 19:00
AMK
-
-
WAU
24 Nov 2024 16:00
SID
-
-
KDG
25 Nov 2024 09:30
HAW
-
-
DIR
25 Nov 2024 16:00
ELE
-
-
MEC
26 Nov 2024 09:30
HOS
-
-
BUN
26 Nov 2024 16:00
WOD
-
-
FSK
26 Nov 2024 19:00
SHI
-
-
BDR
Round 9
28 Nov 2024 16:00
CBE
-
-
EIC
29 Nov 2024 16:00
SID
-
-
FSK
29 Nov 2024 19:00
AMK
-
-
MEC
30 Nov 2024 09:30
ELE
-
-
DIR
30 Nov 2024 16:00
ADA
-
-
BUN
30 Nov 2024 19:00
MEK
-
-
BDR
1 Dec 2024 16:00
WOD
-
-
HAW
1 Dec 2024 19:00
SHI
-
-
HOS
Round 10
3 Dec 2024 16:00
DIR
-
-
SID
3 Dec 2024 19:00
MEC
-
-
KDG
4 Dec 2024 16:00
BUN
-
-
AMK
4 Dec 2024 19:00
BDR
-
-
CBE
5 Dec 2024 09:30
SHI
-
-
ELE
5 Dec 2024 19:00
FSK
-
-
WAU
6 Dec 2024 16:00
HAW
-
-
MEK
6 Dec 2024 19:00
HOS
-
-
ADA
Round 11
8 Dec 2024 16:00
BDR
-
-
KDG
8 Dec 2024 19:00
DIR
-
-
CBE
9 Dec 2024 16:00
HAW
-
-
AMK
9 Dec 2024 19:00
HOS
-
-
SID
10 Dec 2024 16:00
WOD
-
-
ADA
10 Dec 2024 19:00
BUN
-
-
WAU
11 Dec 2024 16:00
MEC
-
-
EIC
11 Dec 2024 19:00
SHI
-
-
MEK
Round 12
13 Dec 2024 16:00
AMK
-
-
SID
13 Dec 2024 19:00
FSK
-
-
HAW
14 Dec 2024 16:00
WAU
-
-
ADA
14 Dec 2024 19:00
KDG
-
-
ELE
15 Dec 2024 09:30
MEC
-
-
HOS
15 Dec 2024 19:00
CBE
-
-
MEK
16 Dec 2024 16:00
BDR
-
-
DIR
16 Dec 2024 19:00
EIC
-
-
SHI
Round 13
18 Dec 2024 19:00
ADA
-
-
KDG
19 Dec 2024 16:00
MEK
-
-
WAU
19 Dec 2024 19:00
SID
-
-
CBE
20 Dec 2024 16:00
SHI
-
-
MEC
20 Dec 2024 19:00
HOS
-
-
FSK
21 Dec 2024 09:30
WOD
-
-
EIC
21 Dec 2024 16:00
HAW
-
-
BDR
21 Dec 2024 19:00
DIR
-
-
BUN

Standing Table

#
Club
P
W
D
L
Pt
1 â–²
6
4
1
1
13
2
7
4
1
2
13
3 â–¼
6
4
0
2
12
4
7
3
1
3
10
5 â–²
6
3
1
2
10
6 â–²
6
2
3
1
9
7 â–¼
6
2
3
1
9
8 â–¼
5
2
2
1
8
9 â–¼
6
2
2
2
8
10 â–¼
7
2
2
3
8
11 â–¼
5
2
1
2
7
12 â–¼
6
2
1
3
7
13 â–¼
6
2
1
3
7
14 â–¼
6
1
4
1
7
15 â–¼
5
1
3
1
6
16
4
1
1
2
4
17
5
1
1
3
4
18
5
0
0
5
0

Top scorers chart

#
Player
Played
Goals
1
Mekele 70 Enderta
6
5
2
Diredawa Ketema
5
5
3
Wolaitta Dicha
7
4
4
Diredawa Ketema
4
4
5
Sidama Bunna
6
3
6
Bahir Dar Ketema
7
3
7
Ethiopia Nigd Bank
4
3
8
Adama Ketema
6
3
9
Kidus Giorgis
6
3
10
Hawassa Ketema
6
3

2024/25 Competitions

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CAF Champions League
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CAF Confederation Cup
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Ethiopian Cup
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Ethiopian Higher League
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Ethiopian League 1
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Ethiopian Premier League
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Ethiopian U-20 Premier League
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Ethiopian Women's Higher League
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Ethiopian Womens Premier League
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