Club Africain Manage Comeback Win on a Horrendous “Field”

Club Africain marked their return to the Champions League with a 2-1 win over ASC Saloum in Kaolack, Senegal. The result is extremely positive given the fact that no one in the technical staff knew anything about the opponents, the team was missing quite a few important players, and the so called pitch resembled anything but a field upon which one would venture to play football. Hell, just jogging on that stuff looked dangerous. If people thought the Accra grass was bad during the African cup, one look at the Koualak stadium’s state might have induced vomiting. I’m surprised CAF even allowed a Champions League match to be played on that…Still, the conditions were the same for both squads so I guess it was a level playing ummm field (sorry i couldn’t resist the stupid pun). As they say in arabic: “3lina ou 3lik!”

This situation forced the team from Tunis to play a timid first half in which they went down a goal. Things didn’t look so good but after having evaluated the opponent, Ben Chikha made the appropriate tactical changes that brought about a long distance Ghannem goal to level things up. The CA coach followed that up with some personnel changes (Sellami in for Ghannem and Poukong in for Mouihbi) which proved decisive as Sellami was clinical in front of goal. Needless to say, this was the perfect way to start the champions league campaign (click here if you want to get extensive footage of their trip courtesy of the offical CA website). The Club Africain players are back in Tunisia and in training after a days rest as they prepare to face Gafsa on Thursday to replace the game they missed over the weekend. The pressure is on as Etoile pulled out a 2-0 win in Bizerte which is never easy. Etoile is now at the top of the table.

Highlights

Akrout: The Good and the Bad

Amir Akrout has had quite the start to his career in Germany with Freibourg as he scored a goal on his first outing and followed that up with an assist in his second one two days ago. Unfortuantely, he also managed to get himself sent off for a second yellow booking. It’s too bad because it means he’ll miss the next game. Nevertheless, it’s good to see him making an instant impact with Zoubeir Beya’s old club. He’s struggling a little with the language and misses Tunisia a lot but he hasn’t lost any of his talent on the field. Next he has to work on avoiding those consecutive yellows (I trust his German will come along just fine)…

1st goal

Assist and Ejection

Chikhaoui Scores in the 92nd Minute

After that dismal showing in the UEFA Cup, Chikhaoui bounced back with an improved performance against FC Bale. Although still far from his best, Chikhaoui created chances and played a decisive role in securing a 1-1 draw at the very end of the game. I hadn’t seen Chi5a take many penalties before but if this one is anything to go by, the man has nerves of steel. It’s never easy to step up when the game is hanging in the balance Yassine dispatched it coolly and sent the keeper the wrong way for good measure. That’s more like it and that’s what we like to see!

Penalty