South Korea draw Jordan; Cameroon win

With a rabid home crowd and a two-goal lead, one would figure that the South Koreans would hold on for the win. Well, one would be wrong. Despite a 1-0 lead at the half and an insurance goal in the second, a two-goals-in-seven-minutes flurry from Jordanian substitute Abdel Fattah leveled the match and meant that the two sides would split the points. South Korea currently has five and Jordan possesses four in Group C. Jordan added four yellow cards to its two-goal haul. The two sides face off again in Jordan on June 7.

"We gave up goals too easily," said South Korean coach Huh Jung-Moo. "We should have scored more. We grew complacent after building the lead and some guys just tired toward the end." Jordan coach Nelo Vingada also spoke after the draw. "As I've said earlier, South Korea are a better team and I didn't expect we'd score two goals against them, but we wanted to show Korean fans that Jordan are an improving team. We never gave up after going down 2-0 and our efforts paid off."

Malawi hosted Djibouti in their opening match, and the game was close at the half; the two sides were tied at one goal apiece. Then, Malawi awoke in the second half and destroyed their opponents at home in Blantyre. A seven-goal half gave Malawi an 8-1 victory. Sadly, Djibouti took the yellow card tally 4-3, so it'll be interesting to see if Malawi get more physical next time.

Botswana may not feel too great about not taking advantage of a team that had to qualify for the first round by beating Comoros. Playing at home in Gaborone to Madagascar, Botswana twice believed that they had grabbed a lead off of Pontsho Moloi goals, only to see the offsides flag crush their home. The game ended in an unsatisfying scoreless draw.

The stars were shining at home in Yaounde for the Cameroon national side. Eto’o and Rigobert Song scored the two goals that sent their fans home happy and a message to the rest of their group. With three points, Cameroon have a two-point lead over Tanzania and Mauritius.

Rwanda held serve at home in Kigali with a 3-0 win over Mauritania. The one-goal halftime lead was padded by another pair, including a penalty kick conversion. The Rwandans will savor their three points while looking toward their next opponents.

Lowly-ranked Mauritius came in to Tanzania with low expectations but managed to pull out a goal and a lead at the half. Wesley Marquette had been the hero of the game up until minute fifty-nine due to his goal, but his red card put his team down a man. Tanzania struggled with the man-advantage and only managed to pull even. The 1-1 draw will cripple Tanzania’s hopes of making it to the final phase of African qualifying, and they have some points to make up in their upcoming matches.

The following two matches were postponed: Lesotho at Gabon and Chad at Sudan. Chad and Sudan have an ongoing border security issue. Lesotho could not fly to Gabon for the match because of an air traffic controllers' strike.

Goal scorers:
South Korea: Park J.S. 39; Park C.Y. 48

Jordan: Mahmoud 73, 81

Malawi: Kafoteka 3; Kanyeda 19, 46, 48; Kamwendo 66; Chavula 73; Ngambi 78; Mkandawire 83

Djibouti: Daher 23

Cameroon: R. Song 8; Eto'o 57 PK

Rwanda: Karekezi 15; Said 67 PK; Kamana Bokota 72

Mauritius: Marquette 39

Tanzania: Mrwanda 69