CAF Confederations Cup 1st Leg Previews

Thanks for the great post Rami, as usual. The Etoile Vs. Esperance tie is gonna be a very tight one..I don’t see why Esperance would commit any numbered attacks when they know their top striker Eneramo is out of it and possibly their playmaker Aboucherouane will be sidelined too..and add to that they still have a return game back home in Tunis. I think Etoile will switch an all out attack mode if they won’t be able to score within the first half. Now if that happen, they’ve got to watch their back when you know Esperance is throwing some speedy players such as Khlifa, Tayeb and Yousfi that can counter-attack very well. I personally see a tie written all over this game. And yes I also heard that this could be Chermiti’s last game with Etoile. Now they’re saying there are actually 3 German clubs interested: Hertha Berlin of course, Wolfsburg (which is spending tons of money they already got Zaccardo and Barzagli from Palermo in a 30M $ bundle), and Werder Bremen (He’s gonna have to compete with Rosenberg and Hugo Almeida over there..I doubt he’ll be able to impress the Bremen fans especially that they’ll be playing in the CL next season)..so if he’s leaving it will be either Berlin or Wolfsburg.

Now to the Akrout saga: I felt insincerity from Achab since he said Akrout is not for sale to Tunisian clubs. He was covering up his real intentions by saying that it’s not in the player’s interest to stay in Tunisia in order for him to develop his game. If he sells him to a Gulf club now, then it will be a huge blow to his credibility.

I really think that it was a very good move for Belaid to get out of Inter. Finally they sold his contract to Slavia Prague, and now he can really start his career. At least now he won’t be controlled by Inter whom we know they don’t usually play small names like Belaid. If he works hard enough then surely he will be a fan’s favorite in Prague (I think he already is) and will get interest from big clubs.

Chikhaoui needs to spend at least another half-season with Zurich and maybe then he can leave in January. If he plays well again his price will jack up and big clubs will try to get him. I would love to see him play for AS Roma. I heard they are interested in him, and I am pretty sure they’re keeping an eye on his development. Roma will be a great fit for him, especially after they sold Mancini, Chikhaoui can fill up his spot easily.

My hope is that Esperance gets some serious spanking from Etoile tomorrow for all the mischiefs of the Cup final! That is my hope! I hardly doubt Etoile players will settle for a tie, but we’ll see.

CA’s loss by 5-1 to the Nigerian team in Nigeria and their win by a mere 2-1 can hardly be qualified as “heads held high.” With all due respect, I fail to see the logic. My best guess, based on previous performances, CSS and ESS will make it to the group stage; EST and CA will not.

Do anyone know if they will show the amtch between etoile and esperance in Tv7 tunis?

Posted from  Sweden

It’s wrote that Gmamdia is playing for the romanian club FC Ceahlăul and has scored 3 gols in 7 matches, is it true? :O. Rami i would appreciate if you coould update me with some information.

Posted from  Sweden

Hi Rami

Gracias for the info, by the way you can get a lot of info on JAWHARA FM. Most probably you do this already, but I just wanted to point out that next to Berlin also Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg are interested in Chermiti.

I would really like to see Chermiti move to the German Liga. It would be good for him to develop. Good thing that Chikhaoui stays for another year at Zurich, he should get some more experience on his first pro adventure. It takes more than talent to grow in Europe. He needs to learn from his mistakes and get some Media training as well!! Mentality is now being tested and chikhaoui needs to proof he is also able to tackle that and come back even better than he started!!

PREDICTION CAF GAMES:

ESS-EST 1-0
CA-Djo 4-0
CSS-PLat 2-0

From all my Heart inshallah Marbouha fi Soussa without any nonsense problems outside the field!!! The best revenge is on the pith playing good convincing football. Let’s hope this time that the goals that are scored in the match are enough to win the game :0)

By the way, Wolfsburg has something big going on, they are spending big money in buying grat players, they finished 5th or 6th in the bundesliga. So a move to wolfsburg shouldn’t be bad

Posted from  Sweden

Hi everyone, I am in Japan and have no way of seeing the game. Could anybody please post the results as soon as possible?

On a side note check here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/7498008.stm
to see how Lemerre seems to have gotten his tongue back. Is this:
a- another demonstration of the notorious Moroccan black magic?
b- The somewhat less impressive magical powers of money?
c- Or just the initial excitement which any marriage goes through before boredom and disinterest and worse things set in?

Skander, Etoile Sahel won 2-0, ‘Chermiti, ‘Ogunbiyi scored and Etoile created many chances, Chermiti and Sassi had a big chance either with ben dhifallah’s headball in the bar… Esperance didn’t create dangerous chances, but rami will update with much more details

Posted from  Sweden

YES INDEED Elnejm played football and Esperance did not end of Story!!! The goals scored were not rejected this time. As I said before Elnejm should focus on the africain leagues only!!

i didnt get the chance to watch the game
even thought i cheer for taraji; i knew they were going to lose this one

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t been able to write about the game yet. I have family in town that I need to spend time with so inshallah tomorrow I’ll write up a full recap of all the weekends matches. I missed the first ten minutes of the match and watched it from there on. I have to admit I was really out of it as I had a really really really long night yesterday. I still saw the goals and saw that Etoile had the match under control and could have scored more. Chermiti said this was his last game in Sousse and confirmed the move to Hertha. I had heard about the possibilities of Wolfsburg and Werder but honestly didn’t believe them to be serious. Hertha has been waiting too long for them to suddenly pull a fast one on them. I should have mentioned it in the preview though, just forgot to add it. His injury isn’t severe I think according to what he said on infofoot but I’m pretty sure he can’t play the return due to suspension (yellow card accumulation).

Momo, thanks for the insights. Chikhaoui in Roma would be fantastic. I hope he comes back healthy soon. I really miss watching him, he leaves a serious void in my football viewing when he’s out of action. I hope he is in top form by the time that France game rolls around. I feel like he’d rise to the occasion in the Stade de France. Rabbi yeshfih, we need the guy badly.

Skander, what did you want to know about Guemamdia?

Fahd, you’re not far off with those predictions so far man. I hope the rest of them come true! As you said, the thing I like about Chikhaoui is that he’s not trying to leave to just any club at any cost. I really respect how seriously he takes these decisions. You can see its not a question of money with him. Refreshing since most Tunisians go to any team that offers them the most.

Rachid, in terms of my comments about CA, I said heads held high based on our performance in the return leg after that 5-1 aberration. We were missing our best player, our starting right back, starting central defender and had others suspended but still put in a wonderful match that we could really should have won by 4-0. It ended 2-1 but CA was cheered off the field because the fans knew the players gave it everything they had despite being severely handicapped by the referee in the 1st leg. It felt positive to me because of that. Doesn’t change that we lost though…

Anyways, please excuse the lack of activity today. I’ll try to not let life interfere as much as possible in the future hehe

Posted from  United States

Yo guyes, I talked about Chikhaoui maybe going to Roma, after all that might just be where he’s heading. Apparently Spaletti is interested in him, and he seems to be well known among Italian scouts and coaches. In fact he’s being dubbed the “Tunisian Ibrahimovich” over there..hopefully this can become true, I just have a feeling Roma will go for him..because they just sold Mancini to Inter who plays same position as Chikhaoui, behind Vucinic and next to Totti..they don’t seem to have anyone that can really fill up that spot so they’ll have to look outside, and Chikhaoui is a very likely candidate..inchallah

Results of Tunisian clubs are quite consistent with my earlier comments (see above). Esperance could have received a bigger blow from Etoile than 2-0! They were really lucky! Etoile very likely will proceed to the group stage. CS Sfaxien almost never disappoints, and especially away from home. They achieved a 2-2 game with a team that beat Ahly 2-1 in recent weeks and only lost to Ahly by 1-0 in Cairo! Even if they tie 1-1 in Sfax, CSS will proceed to the group phase. I wish them the very best of luck. Club Africain failed to beat their guests from Mali. I have not yet seen the game, but it appears the team from Mali was not as weak as expected. CA fans appear to have expected a walk in the park for their team!

Rami, the numbers mean something! I truly enjoy watching Etoile and Sfaxien because they have good fighting spirit. I still find EST and CA’s performances unstable, despite the false gandiose pictures some people mistakenly paint for them. As we say in Tunisian, we cannot “hide the sun with a screen.” For as long as we think Kasraoui is our best goal keeper both l’Esperance and our national team will continue to bleed. To learn from our mistakes, we should count on the best!

Kasraoui just bought himself a one way ticket off the national team after his horrible game against l’etoile. Coelho will defenitly not be looking at him as an option at goal.

Posted from  United States