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August 2nd, 2007 | By: Rami | 8 Comments »

So I was going to start off by reviewing our campaign through last summers World Cup but considering the fact that it only brings back terrible memories: Tying Saudi Arabia (a team I expected we would dominate thoroughly), being up one to nothing against Spain for 70 minutes only to concede three goals in the final 30, and Sheva’s comical dive. So I’m not going to do it, even though I kinda just did.

Instead I’m trying to look ahead and have a positive mindset. Though I may lack the ability to imagine myself far into the future, this is not the case when it comes to soccer. I love predictions. According to two of my friends who follow soccer here, I have made ten dollar bets with each of them that Fernando “El Nino” Torres will score more goals than Crouch next year. Needless to say, I made this bet after a few too many gin and tonics. I don’t remember that night at all (though I remember all too well how I felt in the morning). Nevertheless, I’m a man of my word and even though something tells me it is more likely that Torres will act more as a facilitator next year and pile up the assists, I will stand by my prediction (memories of how a certain Spaniard named Morientes did in Red don’t help my case). By now you may be asking, “Rami, what the hell does any of this have to do with Tunisia?” Well, frankly at this point I don’t know…… Oh yes, predictions.

After romping through their African Cup of Nations qualifiers and securing their place in Ghana, Tunisia have a few friendlies and one final qualifier against Sudan to determine who takes top honors in the group. Heres a complete list of the fixtures.

I predict we will go unbeaten in all these games. Austria has a good team but I know we can take them. At present we are ranked 40th in the world (our highest was 19th in 1998) but with some more positive results I think we can keep climbing. Not that these rankings mean much, I still haven’t understood how they calculate them and I doubt I ever will. The most important thing is that we keep improving. I’ll be profiling some of our players soon enough and bringing news about our youngsters that are going to South Korea to compete in the upcoming U17 World Cup (Tunisia plays USA on August 23rd which couldn’t be more fitting because its my birthday, mark your calendars. In case you missed my previous post I’m a dual citizen so its always fun when both my countries play each other). For now heres a taste of what some of our players can do (and please, try not to follow my example and make bets when you’re blacked out). I’m still trying to convince myself I have a chance of winning 20 bucks. Hopefully Crouch gets benched a lot or shrinks or something…

Tags: African Cup of Nations, Ghana 2008, Tunisia Soccer, U17 World Cup, World Cup 2006

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Comments

By skillz | August 2nd, 2007 at 11:16 am

Sheva’s comical dive? Two defenders and the goalie all were trying to kick his legs out and they finally did which caused him to stumble and fall. Plus, even if Sheva didnt score and it remained a draw, Ukraine still would have made it through and Tunisia wouldnt.

Posted from Canada

By Rami | August 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 am

I’m not saying they didn’t touch him but watch closely, he keeps his feet throughout the whole play (after what I believe is legal contact) and manages to trip himself. Click the link and watch it closely. Wait for the last angle and look at his feet. I’m not saying Ukraine didn’t deserve to go through, in all fairness they probably played a slightly better game (even though it was one of the worst games of the tournament). Nevertheless, you’re entitled to your opinion skillz, thanks for joining in the debate.

Your argument regarding a draw is valid however I have to say that conceding such a goal completely changes the mentality of the players who end up feeling cheated and can find it hard to channel that towards scoring two goals.

Heres a link to what Haggui and Lemerre said after the game:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=372414&&cc=5901

Posted from United States

By skillz | August 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm

I agree it was hardly a crushing defeat, and Ukraine was only slightly better. But, to me it looks like he gets knocked around and tries to stay on his feet until he cant anymore and stumbles to the ground. In all fairness I think he would have scored on that play if not for the triple team foul. You cant blame shevchenko, you have to balme yourselves for not beating Saudi Arabia, you really should have.

Posted from Canada

By Rami | August 2nd, 2007 at 12:42 pm

I’m not blaming Shevchenko (maybe a little bit). I’m just trying to illustrate why my memories of Germany are so terrible and thats part of it. Don’t get me wrong, as far as I’m concerned our teams performance was miserable and as you pointed out the Saudi game is Exhibit A. The players said they were overconfident and I believe them. After scoring rather early I thought we’d go on to control the game, instead we completely lost our concentration and let them get back in it. If we had managed to lose (which we very nearly did) I don’t think I’d be writing for World Cup Blog right now. You’d find me homeless and under some tree lamenting what could have been. Thanks for your input Skillz, its much appreciated.

Posted from United States

By skillz | August 2nd, 2007 at 12:49 pm

Well to be honest I think 2010 is open for African teams to do well and since Tunisia has been an African power house I think Tunisia really has a chance to go far next world cup.

Posted from Canada

By Rami | August 2nd, 2007 at 1:19 pm

I sincerely hope your words turn out to be prophetic. I believe we have the players to do it. I just hope we don’t go playing with too much of a defensive mindset like in Germany… and thats up to the coach. When Lemerre first came in he gave us exactly what we needed and we won the African Cup on home soil in 2004. He installed a rugged team defense and instilled discipline and unity amongst our boys. I think that last world cup he got carried away though. After the Ukraine game he said that our strategy was to play defensive up until the last 15 minutes and then go hard and try to score the winning goal. Obviously that didn’t work. How can you play defensive in a game where the other team only needs a draw and you need a win? It goes against all logic. If it had worked then maybe I’d be eating my words but it didn’t. His contract runs until 2008 with an option to extend until 2010. Tunisians seem to be split on him. Some still love him for bringing us our first continental title but others believe he relies all too much on our players in other leagues and doesn’t give some talented domestic guys a chance. As long as we go far in Ghana I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Posted from United States

By massaer | August 2nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm

I liked your defense when Trabelsi was a the helm of it (maybe not “like” when you see what happened during the Senegal/Tunisia game. Let’s say admire). But now that he’s out, it will be interesting to see where They plan on going. And can someone please explain to me what Slim Benachour has done to deserve the silent treatment he’s been given the last few years.

Posted from United States

By Rami | August 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm

Yeah, we’re going to miss Trabelsi. But its time for a new generation. We still have a veteran in Radhi Jaidi (Birmingham) to captain the team and Karim Haggui (Bayern Leverkusen) is coming along quite fine. As for Ben Achour I’m not entirely sure. He played a vital role in 2004 and the lead up to the 2006 world cup but he wasn’t called up to go to Germany and he took it rather hard. A lot of people were surprised and clearly he was too. He put an ad in the Tunisian papers saying he was done with the national team and that he couldn’t play again after being treated like that for no reason. However, he recently came back to Tunisia and had a press conference where he reversed his decision. He’s been called up since but he hasn’t been playing every game. I guess Lemerre knows more than we do. I think he’s one of our best playmakers…

Posted from United States

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