Cape Verde 1-2 Tunisia: Two wins out of two!

June 11th, 2012 | by: Rami | Comments Off

Results-wise, you can’t really ask much more from our team after two matches played in 2014 World Cup qualifying. Alongside Egypt, we’re the only side to have started with six points on the trot and one of only three teams to have achieved away wins on the road to Brazil thus far.

Ours was difficultly earned during a trip to Praia where we faced a stubborn Cape Verde team that put a lot of pressure on our backline by using long balls over the top of our makeshift defence. The tactic succeeded once and earned them an equalizer but, in the end, we procured ourselves enough opportunities to win this match twice over, especially in the second half.

It wasn’t an exceptional performance by any means but you get the sense that this team is going places. Good places, that is! Unlike what we’ve seen in the past, when we conceded the equalizer, there was no fatalism on the part of our players. We fought back just like we had in the first match against Equatorial Guinea where we let in a soft goal against the run of play. While the players certainly deserve credit for this, it all trickles down from our coach who has given us a much more positive mentality since he took over.

Some doubt his selection choices when it comes to Aymen Mathlouthi and Issam Jemaa, amongst others, but he tends to be on point with his substitutions and tactical modifications. We consistently come out of halftime a more focused and motivated team. He inserted Hammemi and Harbaoui in the first game and both scored. He then inserted Ben Yahia in this game and the Mersin midfielder came extremely close to doing the same. Plus adding Bouazzi to the mix gave us more control of the midfield at a time where we needed that extra bit of ball conservation in the face of Cape Verde’s attempted comeback.

Regardless of how we achieved this valuable win, we can rest easy until March 2013. That is when 2014 World Cup qualifying picks up again. We’ll be facing Sierra Leone at home, with an opportunity to create some good distance between us and them ahead of our trip to Freetown. In the meantime we’ll have 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against a yet to be decided opponent (the draw for that is on the 4th of 5th of July) and friendlies. Speaking of which, Trabelsi may have lined up a test against Switzerland for November 1st. That would be some quality opposition.

If you missed the match, you can watch the entire thing below:

First Half

Second Half