Why wily Pfister still wears the trousers

Published on Saturday 9 February 2008 20:06

IT MAY have recently become fashionable for trousers to be worn with the waistline hanging at mid-buttock, but the style was pioneered in Ghana 17 years ago by an unwitting German. That may have been more to do with Otto Pfister's haphazard approach to tailoring than any sartorial prescience, but even today Ghanaian teenagers refer to the style as "doing an Otto".

Pfister is remembered far more for that than for leading Ghana's Under-17 team to the World Youth Cup in 1991. This afternoon, as his Cameroon side face reigning champions Egypt in the final of the African Cup of Nations in Accra, he has the opportunity to secure a rather more meaningful legacy. For a coach whose extraordinary journey began in Rwanda in 1972 and took in Burkina Faso, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia before he led Togo at the World Cup, victory would come as a remarkable culmination.

He does not, in truth, look much like a tactical genius. He does not have the gimlet stare of a Lobanovskyi or the academic gauntness of a Menotti; rather he looks like an elderly German tourist wondering why on earth he ever agreed to come on this holiday in the first place. He is 70, a chain-smoker and a drinker, and he reacts to anything that angers him, which is a lot, by lurching from the bench, tottering two paces forward, and then dismissing the world as though he has given up on it with a truncated waft of his arms. And yet, the world of the tournament has come increasingly to be shaped to his will.

He speaks regularly of "Otto's winning formula", but there was little sign of that a month ago. He had been imposed on a reluctant football federation by the Sports Ministry just three weeks before the tournament, most of which he spent making his squad run through the desert in Burkina Faso. Or at least, those members of his squad who turned up. Samuel Eto'o, ludicrously, was allowed to remain with Barcelona to play a league match against Murcia, joining up with the squad only 48 hours before their first game.

Not surprisingly, Cameroon were disjointed in that opener against Egypt, shambolic at the back and limp in midfield. By half-time they were 3-0 down, but it was then Pfister's formula began to take effect. Having already lost Jean Makoun to injury, he made two further substitutions, so that Cameroon began the second half with only one of the four midfielders who had begun the game. Much improved, they rallied to lose 4-2.

Two years ago, Egypt beat Cote d'Ivoire in the groups and went on to beat them again in the final, but, although their coach Hassan Shehata has spoken of "history repeating itself", his side will meet a very different Cameroon in the final.

"We didn't play any friendlies before coming here," Pfister explained. "We didn't have any real tests, so that first game against Egypt was like my first trial with this team. It was a difficult situation, but I understand Africa. It's not like Bayern Munich or Arsenal."

Defeat in their second game, against Zambia, would have eliminated Cameroon, but they responded magnificently to the pressure, winning 5-1. Sudan and Tunisia were then despatched, before the epic semi-final against Ghana. Arsenal's Alexandre Song has been excellent at the back of the midfield, but there is no question that it is Pfister who has been central to their progress.

He insisted in the build-up to the semi that he would "tactically paralyse" Ghana – then did so. Pfister played with three forwards high up the field, and so penned back the Ghanaian full-backs, who had done so much to provide attacking width. For much of the first half all Cameroon did was hit long diagonal balls aimed less at creating chances than at unsettling Ghana and, once that had been achieved and the game stretched, he brought in Alain Nkong to operate in the space behind Samuel Eto'o. It was a one-two between that pair that produced the only goal.

Cameroon will be without the centre-back Andre Bikey – suspended after being sent off for shoving a medical official in the semi-final – which will probably mean a recall for the veteran Bill Tchato, but more interesting will be whether Pfister retains the 4-3-3 formation against the 3-4-1-2 of Egypt.

It is the three centre-backs who provide the platform for Shehata to deploy so many technically-gifted midfielders, but the system is one that has, broadly speaking, gone out of fashion in the world game, largely because so few teams these days play with two out-and-out forwards. "Imagine Team A is playing 3-5-2 (of which 3-4-1-2 is a variant] against Team B with a 4-5-1 that becomes 4-3-3," explained the experienced Brazilian coach Nelsinho Baptista, who has developed software to map one formation against another.

"So Team A has to commit the wing-backs to deal with Team B's wingers. That means Team A is using five men to deal with three forwards. In midfield Team A has three central midfielders against three, so the usual advantage of 3-5-2 against 4-4-2 is lost. Then at the front it is two forwards against four defenders, but the spare defenders are full-backs. One can push into midfield to create an extra man there, while still leaving three v two at the back. So Team B can dominate possession, and also has greater width."

So far in the tournament, Egypt have only faced teams deploying two strikers. Pfister's formula could confound them, and ensure that he is remembered, as he deserves to be, for his tactics rather than his trousers.