Referee: Olegário Benquerença (Portugal)
LINEUPS:
Japan (433): Kawahima, Komano, Nagatomo, Nakazawo, Tanaka, Abe, Endo (Inamoto 67'), Hasebe, Honda (Tamada 80'), Okubo, Matsui (Uchida 85')
Cameroon (442): Souleymanon, Mbia, Asson-Ekota, N'koulou, Bassong (Aboubaker 84'), Emana, Song (Matip 70'), Makoun, Eto'o, Webo (Idrissou 58'), Enoh
The draw was probably a fair result but it took a late wonder strike from Cameroon's Achille Emana to earn his side a point. Japan had taken an early lead when Hasabe won an aerial confrontation with Alex Song leading to Daisuke Matsui feeding Abe in. His shot was well saved but Matsui had followed up and calmly dispatched the rebound for a ninth minute Japanese lead. Keisuke Honda had a pair of chances late in the half but his first effort was well saved by Souleymanon and the later shot was easily for the keeper.
The best Cameroonian chance in the first half fell to Samuel Eto'o six minutes after they fell behind when he climbed highest for Assou-Ekotto's cross but Kawashima was on his toes to pull off a fine save. In the second half Cameroon looked more dangerous with Emana forcing the Japanese goalie to stop his free kick and Eto'o winning another cross but heading wide.
With twenty minutes to go the game slowed to a crawl with both teams making multiple substitutions and Japan looking to shut down the game and take all three points. So it was out of the blue when Emana first blocked a long feed from the Japanese defense and then performing an audacious lob that caught not only Kawashima out of position, but also the underside of the bar and in.
Japan 1 - 1 Cameroon
Goalscorers:
JPN Matsui 9'
CMR Emana 87'
Discipline:
JPN Honda 5'
JPN Komano 69'
Man of the Match:
CMR Achille Emana
| GROUP E | ||||||||
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 3 |
| Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Japan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
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