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A Time to Tinker: Tunisia vs. Ghana Preview

November 19th, 2008 | By: Rami | 25 Comments »

There’s a game tomorrow, which means the lull that followed the announcement of the CAF qualifying groups for South Africa 2010 has passed. We’ve had some time to reflect upon the quality of our opponents and our strategy moving forward. Tomorrow will serve as an opportunity for Humberto Coelho to experiment with different lineups and formations.

It’s not like he has much of a choice anyways as injuries (Haggui, Mikari, Chikhaoui, Ben Khalfallah, Chermiti, and Namouchi etc.), expulsions (Yahia and Ben Frej), withdrawals (Jaidi, Ben Saada, and Santos) and competing priorities (CSS and ESS players in Confed Cup Final) have necessitated the call ups of inexperienced players such as: Ifa, Thabet, Souissi, Derbali, Zairi, and Allagui. With only two games left before we face Kenya in Nairobi for our first qualifier, there’s no doubt that Coelho would love to have a full squad of healthy, fit, and enthusiastic men rearing to go since this would allow him to pick his ideal starting lineup and start to iron out the rotation but it will not be so.

In interviews leading upto this encounter with the Blackstars in Accra, Coelho has mentioned that he is going to employ a 4-4-2 formation to see how the players adapt to it. We’ve previously been playing with only one true center forward (either Selliti or Essifi in recent matches) but tomorrow we will likely opt for a Zitouni-Selliti or Zitouni-Allagui pairing up front. It would’ve been more informative to get Santos in there with Allagui to get a good read on where he is physically but unfortunately our Brazilians has not traveled with the team.

Mikari, our undisputed starter at left back, showed up injured in Tunis and will not partake either. If Coelho is adventurous he will throw a youngster like Ifa in from the very beginning to replace him. Infosfoot thinks this is precisely what will happen.

Besides Essien who has been out for a while, Ghana will also be without the services of Sulley Ali Muntari and Mensah. It’s nice to see Appiah back in the team though. Not only is he a rock in midfield but he is also an inspirational figure for the blackstars. Everyone respects him, everyone rallies around him. This is what I heard over and over again when I was in Ghana six weeks ago.

Possible Starting Lineup: Kasraoui, Boussaidi, Ifa, Ghezal, Ben Zekri, Ragued, Saihi, Ben Yahia, Belaid, Zitouni, Allagui

Match details: 6:30 PM Tunis Time (Koora Tounsia channel on Sopcast)

What are you most looking forward to in this match? Predictions?

I’ll go ahead and answer both of those for myself: I’m looking forward to Allagui strutting his stuff and choosing Tunisia over Germany for good. Prediction: 1-1

Tags: Ghana Footblal, Group H, Humberto Coelho, Tunisia Football, Tunisia Soccer

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Comments

By Rachid | November 19th, 2008 at 7:49 am

I hate to be negative so early on a bright Chicago morning, but I say this is not going to be something to write home about. With so many key players out, I really do not see the point of taking a private plane to Ghana with a bunch of players none of whom is likely to make it in a real game! With Kasraoui as the goal keeper, my prediction is 2-0 for Ghana, but I hope to be proven wrong. I assume TV 7 will show the game?

By Achraf | November 19th, 2008 at 10:33 am

TV7 WILL NOT SHOW THE GAME. And Ghana said they wont even give us the recorded casette. so will we not even see highlights?

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am

Achraf is right… TV7 could not get the rights (why do they wait till the last possible second?!) and Ghanaian TV has technical issues which are apparently preventing them from recording the match. We might not see anything at all until Sunday on Dimanche sport. Maybe the traveling Tunisian reports will record it. I hope so at least…

Posted from United States

By Achraf | November 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am

That is Unbelievable. If it was a game where we had chikha, Chermiti, Khallfallah, etc., so we wouldn’t watch it? I would have been really upset, but this wont be an entertaining game anyways, but I was looking forward to watching Sami Allagui and Jamel Saihi. TV7 need to learn from this mistake.

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am

If you want to listen to it on the radio I think you can stream it here:

http://www.radiotunis.com/

TV7 are amateurs when it comes to securing the tv rights for games. It’s not the first time and sadly it won’t be the last. The Ghanaian TV station doesn’t sound too on point either though (can’t even record the game and give us a cassette?). I wanted to see Ifa, Saihi, and Allagui most of all. It’s messed up.

Posted from United States

By skander | November 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

But aren’t they going to show it on Sopcast?

Posted from Sweden

By skander | November 19th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

GUYS THE MATCH IS UP AT MYP2P.eu (koora tounsia), but i can’t find it at sopcast but they updated it now, cuz it wasn’t there for 10 min ago

Posted from Sweden

By skander | November 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

normally i find it under Tunisia when i expand the list by countries / cahnnel groups

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | November 19th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

Radio link: http://www.radiomonastir.com/

It’s the second half and from what I hear we’re playing pretty well and have missed some good chances to score. Some wrong offside calls against us from what the announcer said. Appiah hit the crossbar and post in the first half. Allagui, Saihi played well and came off after the first half. Ifa is still in and doing his thing.

Posted from United States

By skander | November 19th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

How much did it end?

Posted from Sweden

By skander | November 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

0-0 ok

Posted from Sweden

By Abdullah | November 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

0-0

Posted from Netherlands

By Abdullah | November 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

hahaha lol!

Posted from Netherlands

By Rachid | November 19th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

It looks like we did not do badly!

http://www.kawarji.com/actu-2439-_eq_nationale_le_ghana_et_la_tunisie_se_quittent_sur_score_nul_et_vierge_en_amical.html

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 19th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

Yep, we held our own for sure. I was listening to the Ghainaian crowd in the background (radio) and you could hear that we were frustrating them and that we were not allowing their attackers to have their way with us. I’m really psyched about Ifa. He played a full match out of position and performed really well by all accounts. What a future he has. I can’t wait for the highlights when they emerge.

Posted from United States

By Rachid | November 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

It looks like Selliti missed AGAIN!!! That should be the last straw for him.

http://www.yallakora.com/arabic/news/details.aspx?id=64232&Catid=1

Posted from United States

By Tom | November 19th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Sounds like Chikhaoui is never going to be the same! He is having a huge lay-off and if it is bad enough to warrant this amount of time off I doubt very much he go without niggling injuries throughout his career.

By skander | November 20th, 2008 at 4:10 am

FROM GOAL. COM: “Both teams fielded mainly experimental teams due to the unavailability of their more established stars and it was the visiting Tunisians who ought to take some positives from this friendly as they dominated proceedings to the disappointment of the home fans”. SO WE PLAYED WELL

Posted from Sweden

By skander | November 20th, 2008 at 4:10 am

Link: http://www.goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2008/11/19/972617/ghana–tunisia-battle-to-goalless-draw

Posted from Sweden

By Achraf | November 20th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Hichem Essifi might be playing for Havre soon according to infosfoot. He looked good in his first start on the NT with 2 goals but still needs some experience playing with better defenders and this move might be a good one for him.

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 20th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Tom, that is everyone’s fear. It would majorly suck if he doesn’t come back to his previous level of play. He’s a hard worker though and will give himself every possible chance for success.

Posted from United States

By Yassine | November 20th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

I just caught up on the highlights of the match and I was really surprised, I only watched the 30 20 last mibutes of the game but it was enough to see that our NT played well, Nafkha and Darragi had an immediate impact on the match; Nafkha with their long and short precise passing. For those who won’t probably see the highlights heres the description of our chances that I remember:
Nafkha played a fantastic 60 meters long pass from the right to Jemaa who on side on the left, good chest control and a low cross to Selliti who missed an easy chance on goal.
Ragued interrupts a dangerous ghanian attack an passes to Darragi, Darragi plays a one two with Nafkha and makes a 25 meter rn before perfectly serving Jemma who was just onside, Jemaa controls the ball badly but manages to shoot it with his right foot despite the goalkeeper, the ball is going slowly to the goal but the Ghana right back saves it on the line. Our best chance.
In short, all the players performed well both offensively and defensively and it’s been a long time seeing our NT control a match against a good opposition, Ghana wasn’t dangerous at all except on some freekicks (this is based on the 30 minuts I saw)
From what I saw and heard on mosaique and TV7, Ifa, Ragued, Darragi, Nafkha, Allagui and Ben Yahia played their best match this season

By Rami | November 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

Thanks Yassine, I haven’t seen the highlights yet but probably will soon since someone on Tunisie Foot is going to upload them. I’ve been reading and listening to the radio about this match a lot and you summed up almost everything! My match report should be coming soon… So refreshing to have something positive to write about!

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | November 20th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

I just saw the match highlits on tv7 and i must say im impressed, players who i dont like after this match: Saihi, Selliti and Ragued.

Jemaa played very well and always knows how to create holes in the defence of the opponent, zitouni did okay from what i saw of him, allagui also did his best.

Ifa did a great job too especially for his first match with the nt, solid defending.

Posted from Netherlands

By Abdullah | November 20th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

I heard coelho wanted to call up Selim BenAchour, they should really do that i hear he is doing pretty good in Qadsia.

Posted from Netherlands

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