Eaglets Down Stars and Stripes and Fly Into Second Round

In what is only its second participation in an U17 World Cup, Tunisia booked its place in the second round with a 3-1 win over the USA (highlights available here). This monumental win comes against a team that was tipped to go far in the tournament. Meanwhile, Tunisia which has been widely overlooked in the pre-tournament buildup and predictions can no longer be ignored. The offense has produced 7 goals in two matches (not quite as many as Brazil but still…) and the defense looks relatively solid. More importantly than that, the squad has proved that it is a talented and cohesive unit with very good understanding and technical ability, especially on the attacking side of things.

The USA started the match with a little more possession and created one or two openings but didn’t trouble our goalkeeper Atef Dikhili with any of their attempts. The early going wasn’t an uptempo affair like the Belgium encounter but in the 7th minute Youssef Msakni made some space for himself and his shot was handled by a USA defender in the box. Nour Hadhria, our midfield maestro, got his first goal of the tournament on a well placed penalty kick that he drilled into the bottom left corner. The USA goalie guessed the right way but couldn’t extend his body far enough as Hadhria found the perfect angle on his strike. After the goal, Tunisia started asserting itself more in the midfield, keeping possession and stringing passes together with accuracy. Despite creating chances it seemed like the decisive goalscoring touch was eluding our strikers. Hadhria, Ayari, and Msakni even attempted a rehearsed trick play of sorts on a free kick. Msakni pretended like he had just lost an argument between him and Hadhria over who would take the shot and walked away disgusted only to quickly make a run behind the defense once Hadhria passed to Ayari who tried to connect with a rushing Msakni. It didn’t work but it was well worth the try, showing that Tunisia has been practicing all ways to get an advantage over their opponents in this tournament. The US had its best chance of the half through Nimo who took on two players and fired a powerful shot high and wide from outside the area. Just as it looked like Tunisia was content to go into their dressing room up one goal, Hadhria’s trickery in the box forced a USA foul and Nour showed his calmness by slotting home the ensuing penalty kick to put his team up 2-0 right on the stroke of halftime.

In the second half, the Eaglets started to show their technical superiority through Youssef Msakeni, Khaled Ayari, Nour Hadhria, and substitute Rafik Dkhil. Thankfully, missing the suspended Oussama Boughanmi (red carded goalscorer from Belgium match) was not a problem as the Tunisian attackers showed class and patience on the ball with a few tricks included. A USA substitution saw their left side look more potent as Ibrahim came on and started to make some decent runs down the flank. However, most of his attempts put him on a collision course with our impressive right back, Bilel Ifa who seems to be a young Hatem Trabelsi in the making. After creating one of the goals in the Belgium match, Ifa continues to show that he has some serious potential at his position. As the clock ticked away, the US piled on some pressure and should have scored on an offside trap that went terribly wrong for the Tunisians as well as a one of one situation between Ibrahim and our goalkeeper. The US got their consolation goal on a PK in the 90th minute but it was too little too late. With 4 minutes added on the USA was caught committing too many players forward in its attempts to equalize and Tunisia executed a counter to perfection to finally get a goal from the run of play in a match full of penalties. Tunisia will look to stay in first place in group E when it plays its next game on the 26th against Tajikistan which will be looking for a result after losing its second match 1-0 against Belgium.

While the soccer may not have been quite as entertaining as what was displayed in the Belgium match, the result is what mattered most. Our teams have never gone into the second round of a FIFA competition and that has finally changed. I personally couldn’t be any happier as it came on my birthday! So thank you to the U17 side for giving my 22nd year in existence the perfect start. Hopefully they can show the way to the senior squad!

Speaking of our older brethren, the Carthage Eagles drew 1-1 against Guinea in preparation for the final African Cup qualifying match against Sudan next month (both team are already through the qualifying phase but the match will determine who gets first place and a higher seeding in the draw for Ghana 2008). If I manage to get a hold of the match somehow I will give some more analysis on it later but for now here’s some brief highlights.