2010 African Cup of Nations Draw: Tunisia in Group D

November 20th, 2009 | by: Rami |

2010 can groupe1 So while the fallout from our World Cup exit continues back home, the African Cup of Nations draw was completed in Luanda today and our team is set to face Zambia, Gabon, and Cameroon (in that order). Our matches will be based in Lubango where a new stadium with a 25,000 capacity has been built just for the occasion.

I watched the draw live and was hoping to avoid Cote d’Ivoire and Angola so that our friendlies against them in the lead up to the tournament (Dec. 29th and Jan. 3rd) would not get canceled. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if it happened but I think the FTF has enough issues to deal with at the moment and adding another task to their plate might have yielded some poor results. Luckily when all was said and done, we were the last team left and automatically were placed in group D.

The Groups

Group A: Angola, Mali, Algeria, Malawi.

Group B: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso.

Group C: Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Mozambique.

Group D: Cameroon, Tunisia, Zambia, Gabon.

Fixtures Schedule

13 January, 2010: Zambia vs. Tunisia

17 January, 2010 Gabon vs. Tunisia

21 January, 2010 Cameroon vs. Tunisia

So what do we make of this? Clearly the group favorites are Cameroon considering their history and the fact that they are World Cup bound but it’s really not a simple group at all and might even be the second most difficult one out there after Cote d’Ivoire’s which is undoubtedly the Group of Death.

Mini Analysis of Our Opponents

100px-Cameroon_FA Cameroon: The Indomitable Lions hardly need an introduction. They stumbled in qualifying early but are roaring once more after assuring themselves of a place in South Africa 2010 and have Paul Le Guen to thank for it. He still hasn’t signed his contract extension with them but that should be happening soon.

Unlike our 2008 campaign where we started against our main group rival, Senegal, this time we have the benefit of facing Cameroon in our last one. Some would say that is an advantage because we could already be through to the second round by the time we face them but that is more than a little presumptuous considering the strength of both Zambia and Gabon who gave both Egypt and Morocco fits in qualifying.

Our 2008 quarter final exit against them was widely hailed as the match of the tournament as they went up 2-0 early only for us to battle back to 2-2 before conceding a lone goal in extra time that sent us packing. I don’t think we’ve ever beaten them in a tournament or qualifier (correct me if I’m wrong) so another shot at that is something we should embrace. Especially with Faouzi Benzarti at the helm.

100px-Gabon_FA Gabon: The Panthers would have shocked the world by qualifying for South Africa 2010 but two successive losses to Cameroon stopped them in their tracks. Beating Morocco on the first day in Casablanca was a signal that this team has come a long way. Alain Giresse has turned them into a much more organized side and they have the Aubemayang brothers and Daniel Cousin to supply the goals.

A very athletic team who can cause anyone serious problems. Morocco found that out the hard way losing to them 3-1 in their rematch in Libreville. The message has been heard loud and clear, underestimate this team at your own risk.

images_logos_caf_zambia Zambia: Besides for the Algerians, Zambia is the main reason six time African champions Egypt did not make it to next summer’s big show. In the first match they came out with a 1-1 draw from Cairo International Stadium and some experts even say that they could have won that match had their finishing been a little more on point. The Chipolopolo boys are not an unknown quantity to us (there are less and less of those in African football in our day and age anyways) since we have played them numerous times in friendlies and continental competitions.

One particular match that comes to mind is our first one against them in the 2006 African Cup when we were defending our 2004 title. It was our first group game and we went down 1-0 due to a defensive mistake but then came back and won convincingly (4-1). Won’t be as easy this time around, Herve Renard’s men are a tough nut to crack. Like Gabon, they also have some brothers on the team (Felix and Christopher Katongo).

angolamascot PS: Should we make it to the second round we will be facing the first or second team from Group C. While there’s a lot of football to be played between now and then. You can’t help but consider that there is potential for a Tunisia vs. Nigeria rematch or an Arab derby between us and Egypt. That’s not a slight against Benin or Mozambique who will have their say also but just something to look forward to because either one of those games would be hugely entertaining for obvious reasons.

Another shot at Mozambique would be welcome too though! I wanted us to land in their group so that we could hopefully see what a Tunisia team relying on its best elements and not being constricted by a conservative approach would fare against the Mambas. Maybe they’ll pull a surprise and I’ll get my wish anyways. So all in all, a good competitive group which will undoubtedly produce some quality matches.

Nice to know that there is still football on the horizon for our national team even after the disappointment of last Saturday. Hopefully the changes that are coming in Tunisian football will benefit our Carthage Eagles in the short term as well as far down the road. This tournament just took on a whole other level of importance now that we’re not going to South Africa but it’s yet to be seen if we’ll use it to develop our young talent or to attempt to win it with the majority of the squad we’ve already built or try to do a mixture of both. The days ahead will be revealing in that respect…

Tags: 2010 African Cup of Nations Draw, Alain Giresse, Angola 2010 Groups, Aubemayang, Cameroon, Carthage Eagles, Chris Katongo, Daniel Cousin, Faouzi Benzarti, Flexi Katongo, Gabon, Group D, Group H, Herve Renard, Paul Le Guen, Tunisian Football, Tunisian National Team, Zambia

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 69 comments.

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By tounsi | November 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Adam Talbi stop dreaming:D i will guarentee you that we wont win the Africa Cup. it will be Ghana or Algeria mark my words.

Posted from Netherlands

By Adam Talbi | November 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm

tounsi don’t be so negative………….we should win and thats it.
It is not so hard to win Africa cup……you just need to be very think about winning and say that i want africa cup and work hard too then you would maybe see your self as the african champion and inchallah we will win it………..but we should work very hard………….
Just see Egypt they have won it 6 times and 90 percent of there players plays in the egyptien league….still they have won the Africa cup 6 time wonder why.

Because they play like a team and they are so anxcious to win the africa cup………
We have many talented and incredeble players like Chikhaoui, Darragi…etc.
And if we play like a team and work hard togehter i’m sure that we can win the africa cup 2010 with a great coach like mr. Faouzi Benzarti.

By slah | November 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm

it is not a dream to win the can! it is realisable but on one condition, you need a team to have been playing together for a long period of time so they can have that automatism to adapat to diffrent systems of play through the game, so maybe not this time.
Tounsi,as for algeria not bad team but i can not see them going far,nor is ghana, for me anyone could win it.

Posted from United States

By Achraf | November 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm

My heart and prayers are with Aymen Mathlouthi who was involved in a serious collision today against CA and was taken out on a stretcher. I wish him a quick recovery and our prayers are with him!
Inchallah labess ya m3allam!
http://www.infosfoot.net/fr/articles/article.php?id_article=2749

By Bassem | November 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Rachid, great piece man on koora! Agree with it for the full hunderd percent! Spoke his heart out clearly. Our players are concerd by the fee they recieve and Zindane of Egypte says even if i have to walk to Egypt instead of taking a plane i would do it instead of making a fuz because your ticket is placed at another airport!

We see the difference also on the pitch Rachid. That has to stop and i sincerly hope Fouazi will put an end to this nonsens! I rather have some one from the Tunisian competition that realy wants to play his heart out then a 70% Isaam that has his mind on the fee he’s going to recive.

Realy don’t give rats ass about the fee start playing for el Maryoul wa el Alam!

Rami thanks man, i am getting a little bit crazy with the choice i have if you know what i mean, starting to switch between the games because you don’t wanna miss a thing .

What a crazy match Abdullah Achraf Rami, but we will settle with the draw after a 2-0 lead of ESS. Hope everything will be oke with Aymen, i think he will have a serious cuncosion from all this. Hope nothing serious. InshALLAH labess!

Posted from Netherlands

By Bassem | November 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm

Rami what a nonsens from Amr Zaki of his portsmouth transfer, on goal.com. Realy realy it gets my blood rushing when i read such a thing. He doesn’t want to play for them because there’s an Algerian on that team.

Its getting a little bit out of controle there even Hosni Moubaraka is getting mixed up, but realy the Egyptian people that get involved in the mess they start when we play in Egypte are sick and twisted people. They give us everytime we visit bottles spit, dirt and stones when we play against them, if its soccer, handball or volleyball its always the same shit over there. Can remember all of those matches.

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Bassem, I was disappointed with what Zaki said also. It’s just not the right attitude at all and it shows a lack of professionalism and respect. Even if he thinks things like that he’d be wise to keep them to himself because a lot of teams don’t want to be associated with that kind of mentality. It’s sad its come to this and the current situation between Algeria and Egypt has brought to light some of the worst aspects of sports.

Rachid, thanks for the link I didn’t know that stuff. If its all true, it confirms some of my suspicions about FBK.

Achraf, they said Balbouli was going to be ok on Dimanche sport but I saw that clash live and was worried about him also. I was impressed that the Etoile/CA match that had so much riding on it was played in a real fair play spirit. All the players were helping each other up and respecting the referees decisions (even when they complained they didn’t do it for long and it wasn’t anything vicious). I wish we could see more of that.

Adam, I think its better to focus on how we play in the next African Cup rather than the result. Focusing too much on results rather than how they are obtained is what got us into a lot of our problems. I know you’re talking about results and a good style of play but it could happen fast or it could happen slow. It depends on a lot of factors.

The favorites for me are Cote d’Ivoire without a doubt but they seem to struggle against arab teams so you never know what could happen. Us winning it is not out of the question but our chances are just not as high as teams like Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana, and Egypt because they have the luxury of having teams that, as Slah mentioned, have been playing together in a certain style for a good amount of time. Our team is a big question mark right now. No one knows what its going to look like. It’s possible that chemistry will be built quickly just based on the talent that we bring together intelligently but it would really be unfair to judge Benzarti on such a short period of preparation (the cup is practically tomorrow). With that said, I’m personally very optimistic (surprise! surprise! hehe) about how things will go under him (that’s a general statement and not just for this ACN).

Thamer, I’m really interested to see what European based players Benzarti decides to rely on. He has his own no nonsense style and I wonder what his interactions with our expats would be like. The guy can give you one look and make you straighten up. Not sure how some of our prima donnas would respond to that. I’m not saying Lassad belongs in that category because he seems like a good dude with his head on his shoulders but its just a general thought.

I think the best solution is to call up a really big list of players (30+) and put them to the test. Show them that a national team callup isn’t something some players are entitled to because of their names or where they play and that from now on its an honor only bestowed to those who are most deserving and they’ll need to show it on the field. I think that would be a great way of learning who’s truly dedicated and who isn’t because whoever is going to balk at that kind of open competition doesn’t deserve to be on the team. If anyone can impose that kind of discipline its Faouzi.

There are rumoros of Lotfi Rhim as his assistant according to La Presse. We’ll see. Tomorrow we should be hearing more. Benzarti said he hasn’t even thought about that yet on Dimanche Sport. It might take until after Esperance’s match in Libya for us to know how long his contract will run for but an FTF official who was on DS today said that there’s a preliminary agreement for an extended period and not just for only the African Cup. I hope that is confirmed in the coming days if not tomorrow.

I have to say, I’m with Rachid on the fact that Algeria qualifying and Benzarti getting the coaching spot have really helped in the recovery process after our World Cup exit. When you see the talent in the pipeline and you imagine it at the disposal of a tactician and motivator like Benzarti, you can’t help but believe that the future looks bright for Tunisian football. Now if we could only get the right people running the Federation…

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | November 22nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm

Lotfi Rhim would be a great choice he did well with USMO and there’s no doubt in my mind he would be of great value to the NT, and hopefully he’ll bring some good results home for al-najm al-najm too soon

Posted from Netherlands

By Abdullah | November 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 am

Btw what was that guy from greuter furth doing at the esperance match, he was looking at Darragi and Msakni apparantly?

I really hope they’re not thinking either of them would even contemplate going to play there cause that would be a big waste.

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 am

Yea, I actually laughed to myself a little when he said those were the players he was looking at. I thought maybe some guys on JSK but never two the of biggest stars on Esperance. When they move it’s not going to be for a second division team anywhere. They’re too good for that. If something like that happened I’d be shocked.

Btw, Lotfi Rhim isn’t the Etoile coach anymore bro He quit and Khaled Ben Sassi took over about a month or so ago. That’s why Rhim is a possibility for the NT, because he has no ties to anyone at the moment.

Posted from United States

By thamer | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:18 am

apparently esperance is going to be playing in libya without like 5 or six starters. i dont know exactly why, but i think its a combo of suspensions and sanctions. we’ll see what happens.

Posted from United States

By Fahd | November 23rd, 2009 at 6:48 am

Hi Guys,

Let’s be realistic just for once:

We need to reorganize the way we educate our youngsters.

We need players outside Tunisia only if they play in the 4 top leagues in Europe and participate 90% of the matches. Otherwise not worth it to be called up.

We need to have Tunisian foreign based players that love their country and know at least what their National anthem means.

We need to change the concept of our League dramatically:

8 Teams in the first League

Financially the need to be in top Shape (Minimum Budget of 2M dinar)

Maximum of 2 Foreign Players in the first team

32 Matches need to be played in one season

Need to play 32 Matches ( 2 matches per week each team!! )

1st and 2nd of league play champions leuague CAF

3rd and 4rth of league play Arab Champions leuague

5th and 6th of league play CAF conf cup

League should never be stopped more than one week for the national Squad to play

8 teams in the second league should compete:

Need to play 32 Matches ( 2 matches per week each team!! )

1st and 2nd of league move to league 1 ( need to ensure budget minimum of 2M dinar FTF should help here)

3rd and 4rth of league (advance to second round Tunisian CUP)

Each team in the first League need to have quality pitches such as the 3rd generation pitches at least.

In case teams want to get a foreign trainer the following:

He needs to have a diploma that is higher that of the Tunisan Bac 2
He needs to learn the language French Arab
He has at least 10 years experience of training first League European or Arab League.
etc
etc

Ofcource these are just ideas, but in case we believe that Benzarti by himself will achieve something well wake up he will not and I think that is what Benzarti knows by himself as well…

By Achraf | November 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am

This group is going to be a tough group for Tunisia. Yesterday Zambia beat North Korea 4-1 in an International friendly and a preparation match for North Korea for 2010 World Cup. We have to take every team seriously and attack so we will not regret it later. Inchallah Benzarti Raba7na, if not he still has more time to prepare later after the CAN.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/8373082.stm

I learned yesterday on Dimanche sport that there were other canidates that were in the running for the NT coaching job. They were Mrad Mahjoub, Youssef Zouaoui, and someone else who I cant remember. But Benzarti is the obvious one that will bring a winning mentality to the NT.

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 am

Fahd, reducing the amount of teams in the league is something that should definitely be considered to make it a stronger one. We’ll see what the committee of footballers that the Sports ministry is putting together will suggest (I’d like to know he’s on the committee too…)

Achraf, I’m pretty sure the other person was Souayah. Benzarti is officially our coach now so we don’t really need to worry about it. He’s going to lead us at the African Cup and then guide us through qualifying for the next African Cup and then the World Cup in 2014. As I understand it, it’s going to be a goal driven contract so to keep his job he’s going to have to get results, none of which are out of his capabilities. Pretty standard stuff. I’ll share more details when they become available but thats the little we know now. Also, he’s going to pick his assistant and no one else will impose any on him.

http://www.infosfoot.net/fr/articles/article.php?id_article=2750

- Faouzi Benzarti : Coach
- Mohamed Ameur Hizem: Physical trainer
- Boubaker Zitouni or Khaled Azaiez : Goalkeeper coach
- Assistant coach : Faouzi’s choice.

Posted from United States

By Sami | November 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 am

Off the topic but why did Ben Slimane career end a bit too early. And what was his record on NT? meaning how many matches did he play and how many goals did he score? i can’t find those stats

By Abdullah | November 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm

I know Rami but isnt Rhim still manager though?

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Sami, I’m not sure man. I’ll look into it if I find time though. Stats for our national team players are notoriously hard to come by and I wasn’t following our football team in the same way back when Ben Slimane was still around. If anyone else know please enlighten us

Abdullah, I don’t think so. Pretty sure he just quit and doesn’t have anything to do with Etoile right now. Etoile’s president Moez Driss just resigned also and they’re going to have new elections soon. Hamed Kammoun (former national team doctor) is the favorite to take over.

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | November 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm

lol, i heard an interview not too long ago with him talking about how they extended their faith in him despite the recent upsets.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1249157542158

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm

He was on Dimanche Sport a couple weeks ago explaining why he quit Khaled Ben Sassi took over since then… That Nigerian player Eric (i don’t know his last name) was really good yesterday. Scored a nice lob and should’ve been awarded a penalty kick on another play in the second half. Mghirbi wondered aloud why this player only began playing in the first team now. Kid started off his pro career in Tunisia with a bang. First callup from the youth team to the senior side and he puts in a match like that against fierce rivals at home. Hats off to him, if he keeps it up that starting place is his I think.

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm

LOL: http://www.mosaiquefm.net/assets/audio/mp3/SEYESKHOUK-BENZARTI-231109.mp3

Posted from United States

By Fahd | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Assistant Of Faouzi should be Zoubeir Beya!!!

By Abdullah | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Yea Rami he is promising can’t wait to see more of him, hehehh i cant get enough of that Benzarti impression lol, ” awel kaf 3atitou w ana 3am ou thletha shhor ” & ” LA met kollich maywafqouch, el kfouf 7aja 3alamia “

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Fahd, it should be whoever Faouzi chooses The guy has a peculiar way of working, you can’t just give him anyone but Zouba would definitely bring value.

Abdullah, I’ve listened to it like four times now. Can’t get enough. “aye aye aye gaddeshou bnin el kaf!” Out of all the character that kid does Hbib Migalo is my favorite but you’re right the impression is right on.

Posted from United States

By Rami | November 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Yo Sami, it looks like Mosaique heard you man, tomorrow in Mosaique’s Sport Show they’re going to have Mehdi Ben Slimane on. These interviews they do are super extensive and I’m sure you’ll get plenty of answers to your questions It’s in the same format as the one they did with Hatem Trabelsi recently and Faouzi Benzarti last year. They didn’t post a time yet but check back here tomorrow and there should be one. Otherwise they’ll post the interview after, once its done: http://www.mosaiquefm.net/index/a/ActuDetail/Element/8873-Une-soir%C3%A9e-avec-Mehdi-Ben-Slimane.html

Posted from United States

By Sami | November 24th, 2009 at 10:58 am

Thanks a lot Rami i guess they heard me alright I’ll try to be alert for the upcoming interview.