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Coelho’s Squad for Kenya Qualifier and Saudi Arabia Friendly

October 1st, 2009 | By: Rami | 142 Comments »

This morning Humberto Coelho revealed a 25 man roster who he will rely on versus Kenya on October 11th and Saudi Arabia three days after that.

Keep in mind that any Esperance players on the list won’t take part in the second fixture as they’ll have a UNAF Cup to play for and will be excused from national team duty.

Goalkeepers: Aymen Mathlouthi, Hamdi Kasraoui, Farrouk Ben Mustapha

Defenders: Aymen Abdennour, Sofiene Chahed, Zied Derbali, Radhouene Felhi, Seif Ghezal, Karim Haggui, Ammar Jemal, Yassine Mikari, Khaled Souissi

Midfielders: Tijani Belaid, Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Chaouki Ben Saada, Ousemma Darragi, Zouheir Dhaouadi, Khaled Korbi, Haythem Mrabet, Houcine Ragued, Jamel Saihi, Nabil Taider

Strikers: Issam Jemaa, Lassad Nouioui, Ali Zitouni

As for the list itself, it’s not devoid of surprises. The most notable absences are that of Amine Chermiti and Alaeddine Yahia who were both rumored to be on it. There are still no interviews from the press conference published yet so it is hard to know why he overlooked both of them, especially Chermiti who got his first goal in Asian Champions League yesterday… I’ll update the post with any more info when it becomes available.

Meanwhile, CAB get their just reward for a fine start to the Tunisian league season as they have a representative for the first time in a long time in Farrouk Ben Mustapha. Esperance’s Zied Derbali also gets his first callup. He’s likely in the squad because Haggui is suspended for this game (according to Mosaique FM). That just means Derbali is taking his roster place, not his starting place… Karim is still called up because he’s our captain and plays an important role off the field, also he’ll probably play against Saudi Arabia.

Two rumors that did turn out to be true were the returns of Lassad Nouioui and Jamel Saihi to the Carthage Eagle setup. The Depo striker still hasn’t hit full stride in La Liga but already has a goal to his name despite this and that is the kind of realism we’re going to need against Kenya where chances will be at a premium since they are likely going to pack it in and aim for a draw. Plus its finally an opportunity for the Marseille born forward to get some real time on the pitch in a Tunisia jersey without the hamstring problem holding him back.

As for Saihi, he just came back from a long time off where he was struggling with a severe ankle sprain but his last match at Montpellier must have been enough for Coelho to judge that the kid is ready to go. Few will forget his fantastic goal against Holland. The question will now be whether or not he will start in either match and if so then at who’s expense? Some real decisions to make in defensive midfield…

Sami Allagui, Chady Hammami, and Bilel Ifa are all out of the squad but for different reasons. The first two were replaced by players who are arguably more talented (Nouioui and Saihi) but the latter is injured. Ifa needs rest pure and simple. He’s hardly gotten any vacation in about 3 years and the patella tendon in one of his knees doesn’t seem to like that. Hopefully Club Africain don’t rush him back…

I’m pleased to see Zouheir Dhaouadi keep his place after the positive effect he had in the little time he was on the field in Abuja. Same goes for Haythem Mrabet. Those guys earned their spots by contributing in such a tough game. Finally, I had doubts about Ben Saada since he missed his last game for Nice but the injury must not be so severe if Coelho included him. Belaid is back too after some good performances for Slavia.

Before you freak out about our coach only calling up three true strikers, just remember that for our last match against Nigeria (which was the best one we’ve played under Coelho since he arrived), we did the same thing.

One can argue Kenya and Saudi Arabia are no Super Eagles but we’re staying faithful to our tendencies. It’s working thus far so I can’t have too many complaints. Only one I can really think of is why no Chermiti? I’ll wait for Humberto to explain that one himself…

Tags: Alaeddine Yahia, Amine Chermiti, Group H, Humberto Coelho, Jamel Saihi, Lassad Nouioui, Tunisia vs. Kenya, Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia, Tunisian National Team

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 142 comments.

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By Rami | October 6th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Yea, I don’t think he’ll play either. By the way, here’s a pic of our new jersey. the alternate (red) one is not available yet. It’s not a bad jersey, I’ll probably buy it when its available.

http://www.imagup.com/pics/1254893729.html

Posted from United States

By Achraf | October 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

Three Tunisians made the European Africans Team of the week. Ben Saada, Chahed, and Haggui. They had a great weekend and played very well for their clubs giving them victories. Ben Saada brought the first win for Nice this season. Hopefully their great play will carry on to Sunday against Kenya. Hopefully we will see a packed Rades Stadium. I heard on Mosaique that tickets are selling pretty well in Sousse. So many fans will be traveling.
http://www.footafrica365.fr/africains-de-l-etranger/article_352670_championnats-europeens-L-equipe-type-des-Africains-d-Europe-n5.shtml

By Abdullah | October 6th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

It’s not a bad kit but its not too thrilling to see either they should have made the eagle stand out more, Egypt and Angola have pretty nice kits though.

Hope the away jersey will be a bit better.

New pictures of the training today and some kind of conference and a few interviews.
http://www.jawharafm.com/sport/component/content/article/35/577.html

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | October 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

I agree with you Abdullah, I really hope they do something unique for the second kit. Everyone else got something different. We only have two colors to work with on our flag so it limits options a bit but I think Puma just needs to get creative on this next one!

Posted from United States

By bassem | October 6th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Source serveral newspapers from Tunisia today:

The Kenyans have a big big bonus waiting for them when they win against Tunisia. The Nigirian federation is willing to pay them each a redicoulus bonus.

Micheal Eramo about the last match against Tunisia quote: They should have let me play the whole match, the Tunsians are nothing on defence easy to crack down, i came in and scored so quickly the Kenyans have good strikers that can also crack this defense down.

Sounds like the propaganda war has started! Its heating up.

Posted from Netherlands

By tounsi | October 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

this really sounds like provocation, let them talk, let them give bonus or whatever.. as long as we play with are hearts and with our heads focussed then we have nothing to worry about. to be honest..i dont think nigeria wil win against mozambique..my feeling tells me that i dont know why ahaha

inshallah nrbhou hadi lmatch inshallah ya tounissss!!!!

Posted from Netherlands

By thamer | October 6th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

well, kenya’s two best players won’t be playing against us, so lets not start sweating just yet…besides, we havent given up a goal at home against nigeria or mozambique, i doubt we’ll start now.

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | October 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Even if its true i dont think a big bonus a is a bigger motivator than the pride and will to achieve something for your country, the Nigerians were also offered big bonuses if they would win against us and look how that turned out

Posted from Netherlands

By Achraf | October 6th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

I saw on Rami’s article on Goal.com and tha Malaga website that Nabil Baha will be out for 3-4 weeks and will miss Morocco’s Qualifier this weekend due to an injury. This also might mean that Selim Benachour could get playing time while Nabil Baha recovers and hope for a quick recovery. Hopefully Selim will take advantage of the situation and make plays. He only got one assist so far this season. I would like to see more and maybe some goals in the back of the net. Hope he has a good October so it will give him a chance for a comback to the NT.

By alex | October 6th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Thanks everybody for the various info.
@Rami: Puma don’t seem to be vary creative with their jerseys. Except for the 2004 kit, everything since 2002 seems to be variations on the same theme. The kit seems to be the same for just about every country that has red and white in their flag?!?!

Posted from Japan

By bassem | October 7th, 2009 at 3:12 am

About the shirts, i think Puma is trying to sell the shirts to various people that also don’t have anything to do with a country but like to but soccer jersys and where them like t-shirts. They know people with a lot of proud for there country will eventualy buy the jersy any how.

I can remember myself before the african nations cup and world cup in Germany i orderd the shirt for 70 euros at sports and style in Haarlem and the sales man looking at me as i where some kind of allien. I told him also its about proud and i realy realy liked those shirts. A beautiful eagle for us and as Cameroon a Lion, liked the concept very much. As i like those basket ball shirts of Cameroon if you still can remember , it was a lot harder to pull some one’s jersy .

But this time looking at the jersy i will wait till they drop in price a little bit already having the other jersy

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 4:47 am

Bassem, good find on the bonus rumor. I hadn’t heard about that. And yes, I remember those Cameroon jerseys! FIFA made them add those ugly black sleeves to them unfortunately because they didn’t comply with regulations.

Abdullah, you’re right man bonuses don’t mean that much. The prospect of potentially missing out on the African Cup should be of more concern to Kenyans. Plus we have bonuses too so it’s not like we don’t have any monetary motivation for our players on top of the requisite desire to reach the world cup for the fourth time running

Alex, yea puma is lazy with some teams and unfortunately we’re one of them. Our kit and Poland’s kit in the World Cup looked practically the same except for the badge and Eagle background. They have these templates they use and they usually stick to them and only deviate when its Italy, Cameroon etc. I think its just marketing. We’re not a very marketable team right now and we’re a small country too so they just overlook us.

Hopefully a great showing at the African Cup and the World Cup (if we qualify) can change that. Plus when our contract is up with Puma I wouldn’t be against finding a new supplier who can take better care of us and give us more attention. The fact that you can’t find the red jersey in stores is really not cool at all. Puma needs to produce more of them! As I said, hopefully our alternate jersey has some flair to it. I’m a fan of simple jerseys so I don’t dislike our new white one but I just want more innovation like you.

Someone posted the jerseys on Tunsie-Foot (pg.4): http://www.tunisie-foot.com/ips/index.php?showtopic=11354&st=60

I like Cote d’Ivoire’s alternate quite a bit.

Posted from United States

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 4:51 am

Oh and btw, Tunisia vs. Kenya preview should be up late tonight (EST) inshallah.

Posted from United States

By moni | October 7th, 2009 at 5:42 am

Tunisian kit of PUMA in 2004 was nice, but I most liked the LOTTO kit of 96

http://www.rundom.com/balha/images/photos/balha7.jpg

most awsam kit tunisia ever had !!

sorry for the bad image

Posted from Netherlands

By Adam Talbi | October 7th, 2009 at 10:03 am

I Think theres no differences between the current kit and the new one.
That’s just unfair for Tunisia, because all the others puma countrys have some new things on there kit.
I don’t like puma so much, but if we’ve got adidas or nike as a new kit for the national team it will be great!!!!!!!

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 10:54 am

Adam, there is a difference bud, it’s just not a significant one. We have that line over the shoulder with the eagle emblazoned on it. That wasn’t there before. Our current one is super plain with basically nothing on it except a few red stripes. This adds a bit more to it and its consistent with the other countries. I just wonder about our alternate because other countries got some really cool ones.

Posted from United States

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 11:12 am

Moni, I liked the lotto one too in retrospect (at the time I didn’t because I was obsessed with everything Nike- still kind of am but I digress). As for the 2004 jersey I only like it because we won our first african cup in it. wasn’t really a fan of the collar. However, the one we wore at the 2005 Confederations Cup was classy I think (pic below).

http://english.people.com.cn/200506/16/images/argentina2.jpg

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | October 7th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

More training pics http://www.jawharafm.com/sport/ENS/ENAA/ENAA.html

Posted from Netherlands

By bassem | October 7th, 2009 at 5:07 pm

Again a post of a famous but notorius news paper ( ps. my parents just came in from Tunisia after spending summer+ramadan+aid in Tunisia so thats why the newspapers )

Yassin Chikaoui is making progress and played 60 minutes with the junior squad of Zurich. Still there’s a lot work to do and maby even surgore necesary to get better. Doctors are making a slight comparison with the injury that Ronaldo has had back in the days with the knie.

Posted from Netherlands

By thamer | October 7th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

i dont think he did play with the junior squad. someone on tunisie foot said that and then someone else showed him the squad list and chikhaoui wasnt on it. like rami said, i would rather just totally forget about him for now until hes fully fit because he’s of no use to us if he cant play.

Posted from United States

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

The Tunisia vs. Kenya TV spot for download http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2mmc3wxo23w

I’m downloading it now. Will probably up it to youtube and use it in the preview later can’t wait to see it. Pretty big file for just a commercial though… We’ll see how it goes. Abdullah if you beat me to it I won’t be mad hehe.

Posted from United States

By Rami | October 7th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

ugh, its not the spot but it damn cool video. My photoshopped Chikhaoui pic is even in it

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | October 8th, 2009 at 1:01 am

Nice vid, i am curious though wich spot you are talking about Rami, oh and dont worry i wont upload it i’m working on a new one myself

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | October 8th, 2009 at 3:32 am

Cool man I’m talking about the commercial which will be (or is) running on TV7 urging people to go to the stadium. It’s either the same one or similar to the vid you used in your previous highlights vid. They showed it to the team after their first training on Monday. I wanted to use it in the preview (which is still in the works btw, sorry guys. i passed out yesterday mid article. running on a severe sleep deficit and my body just shut down). Up early working now though, will have something later today.

Posted from United States

By bassem | October 8th, 2009 at 3:52 am

I know Thamer i realy realy wan’t to wait untill he realy gets fit, but my mind is still on him because i see a lot of potential and maby its something that reminded me of my child hood passion of football with el Marhoum El Hadi Berkishssa may ALLAH SWT bless his soul.

I see alot of resemblense and a lot of his rushes that remind me of him. And thats why i can’t let it go that easely. Everytime i hear something about him the hair of my neck stand up. I realy would like him back fit and up and running.

There’s also another rumor of a joungster playing in Germany at a big club where the Tunisian federation made a lot of effort talking him over to the Tunisian squad but didn’t sucseed in doeing ( technical board where very charmed by this player ), does some one know wich player this is or heard something about this rumor?

Posted from Netherlands

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