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Etoile Overcomes Spirited Stade Tunisien Fightback

June 27th, 2008 | By: Rami | 13 Comments »

MWAH What a match this was. Even though there were some lulls in the action, it was high scoring and high drama in Rades today. The goals provided were each amazing in their own right and we were treated to the compelling lottery of penalty kicks before luck smiled upon Etoile.

The Sahlis were favorites coming into this match but you wouldn’t have guessed it if you watched the first half. Stade Tunisien players were intent on causing an upset and their determination should have borne fruit right before the stroke of halftime when Souheil Berradhia, who had a mediocre game by his lofty standards, controlled the ball with his chest in the penalty area and was unaware that there was an ST player right behind him.

The onrushing Jedidi, anticipated the move beautifully and crashed the ball home into Balbouli’s goal. Unfortunately for the striker, the referee (whose last name is also Jedidi coincidentally) waved it off for an inexistent offsides. With that decision, the two teams went to the dressing rooms tied at 0-0.

The second half wasn’t of the highest footballistic quality but it turned out to be a thrilling finish nevertheless. Gilson Silva noticed the ST goalkeeper, Naouali, off his line and opened the scoring for Etoile in the 75th minute with a fantastic open footed snipe from about 40 yards out. The Cape Verdian pointed straight to new head coach Michel Decastel and ran to give him a big hug before being mobbed by teammates. After withstanding so much Stadiste pressure you might have thought that the Bardo boys were ready to quit. How wrong you would have been!

Just five minutes after Etoile had finished celebrating the score was 1-1. Felhi cleared a ball from Etoile’s penalty box with his head but it fell perfectly to Hamdi Mabrouk who lashed an unforgiving volley from right outside the area. Selliti could have put ST into the lead on a great individual move where he fooled three Etoile defenders. His shot, which looked to be going in, ended up hitting one of his strike partners instead of the back of the net.

Into extra time and Etoile once again took the lead. This time from the one and only Amine Chermiti, who had been having a relatively quiet game. There was nothing quiet about his goal though. I’ve only seen him take one free kick previously: It was near the end of the season and he scored on that attempt too. After watching him put one past Naouali today, I’m starting to wonder why he doesn’t shoot more of them! It’s a facet of his game I didn’t really know existed but he sure knows how to whip that ball with his left foot. He went crazy in classic Chermiti style and celebrated with gusto.

This time it only took ST three minutes to bring the score level with Selliti showing his predatory instincts and following up a parried shot by Balbouli. The penalties, which felt like a real marathon, went like this:

Ben Nasr scores, Mhadhebi misses/ Sassi misses, Hamed scores/ Falhi scores, Korbi scores/Jemal scores, H.Zaalani scores/ Narry scores, Selliti scores/ Nafkha scores, Mabrouk scores/ Chermiti scores, Zairi misses.

Congratulations to Etoile on this win. It should go a long way towards washing away the bitter taste of the previous season. Michel Decastel admitted they were a little lucky but as he said, you need some fortune to win these games!

I’d be amiss if I didn’t say congratulations to Stade Tunisien for the heart they displayed. They could have thrown in the towel when a legitimate goal was wiped away in the first half but they kept fighting and showed character by tying the score on two occasions. Some might argue they deserved the win more today but we all know soccer isn’t about what you deserve, it’s about what you forcefully take and Etoile was more realistic today.

Things Worth Mentioning

- Robertinho has done great work at ST and his departure will be a great loss to Tunisian soccer. However, it has to be said that he made some tactical mistakes in this match that might have cost his team a place in the final. Firstly he subbed out Jedidi, who was arguably the best player on the field, in the 82nd minute for Mhadhebi who has been lacking competition. Jedidi was visibly distraught when he ran off the field and into the dressing room (he later came back and said he respected the decision, not so sure if he does really though).

Mhadhebi’s lack of confidence and concentration showed when he missed the first penalty. He approached it so nonchallantly and didn’t strike the ball with much conviction. The first penalty kick is so important and he blew it. It reminded me of the penalty kick he wasted against Argentina in the Confederation Cup when he had a chance to put us up 1-0. I’ll never forget that. Secondly Robertinho failed to put in his penalty kick stopper for the ineffective Naouali. The young ST keeper was ready to go in and do what he’s paid to do but Robertinho decided at the last moment not to send him in. In retrospect, that wasn’t such a good decision.

- Mossab Sassi is young but he’s got some guts. He didn’t hesitate when he was called upon to shoot a penalty. He struck it well but it crashed against the crossbar. I have to say I really didn’t want to see Etoile lose after that because it would have been unfair on the youngster. He didn’t deserve to have that guilt and luckily for him, Chermiti came through in the clutch. It looked as if Amine really didn’t want to kick the penalty at all. He wasn’t one of the first five selected and when his turn came he looked quite nervous. I guess looks are deceiving though because he sent the keeper the wrong way with a textbook “contre pied” and put his team ahead.

-Why don’t the ST fans come out in those numbers to represent their team in the domestic league? I know their results haven’t been all that over the years but this year they did really well and some days there was barely a soul in El Menzah to suppor them. Today the fans came out (there were still more Etoile fans there) but they need to start coming for more than just the big games!

-Komoko Toure got skills. He spent part of last season on loan at Zarzis but was in the squad to replace Ogunbyi and he did a bang up job.

-Balbouli keeps showing us why he’s starting for the national team now. He went the right way almost every time during the penalties.

Ziad Jaziri, Saber Ben Frej, and Amir Akrout were present to partake in the festivities. Now Etoile awaits the winner of tomorrows match between Gafsa and Esperance. May it be just as entertaining as todays encounter!

More Pictures: Here and here.

Those Incredible Goals

ST-ESS 1/2 finale
Uploaded by Footn

Tags: Amine Chermiti, Coupe de Tunisie, Etoile du Sahel, Group H, Hamdi Mabrouk, Jedidi, Michel Decastel, Mohammed Selliti, Stade Tunisien

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Comments

By Momo | June 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Thanks for the great post. I really like your take on the game and you did a great job with the analysis. By the way that chick on the video you posted is pretty hot man

By Achraf | June 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

I like all of your posts Rami. Hopefully Coelho will be watching the final and getting an idea on the players and the Tunisian league. Do you know if CAB added any players this year?

Posted from United States

By Rami | June 28th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Merci bien les gars

Momo, I’m glad you’re concentrated on more than just the soccer bro! For real, she aint bad at all Sounds like we both gotta make it back home asap.

Achraf, so far the only person CAB is considering adding is Zied Laaroussi who should be coming back from Dubai. Other than that they’re just concentrating on resigning the players Tlilli has deemed off limits (Baghouli is one of them). They lost Ahmed Akaichi because he returned back to CA since he was just on loan. Akaichi has sinced been moved to ESS in a swap deal for Melliti.

Rachid shared a great resource with me a while ago where you can keep track of possible transfers and official ones (the ones in bold are official complete and the other names are just possibilities).

Here’s the link:

http://www.kawarji.com/actu-2249-_transfert_tableau_des_transferts_de_la_ligue_1_intersaison_2007_2008.html

On another note, EST beat Gafsa 3-2 in Kairouan. I watched some of the match but I don’t think I’ll be able to write about it today. Got some things to take care of so inshallah domani. It wasn’t as crazy as yesterdays game but it still had its moments and it’s fair share of goals. EST vs ESS final: A classico in its own right.

By thamer | June 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

hey guys whats up. a funny thing happened to me yesterday and this would probably be the best place to share it. so i was at a party yesterday in roosevelt island, the island between manhattan and queens in new york city, and the party was on like the 11th floor of an apartment. so i was chilling with my friends on the balcony which overlooks a giant football pitch. it was maybe like 9:30 so it was dark but the field had strong lights so it was still playable. anyway, in the whole field there was just this one guy playing soccer by himself, and he looked pretty good from what i could tell. i hadnt played in a long time and really wanted to go join him, but i didnt want to be rude and just leave the party, so i just told my friends i would be right back…so i go down to the field and i see the guy playing by himself, turns out hes was a teenager. so i ask him “do you mind if i play with you” and he says, “i dont speak english” he was kinda brown so i thought he was latin american, so i asked him, “what language do you speak” in case it was spanish so i would be able to communicate with him. to my surprise he said french. so i was like “ah bon?, ca te derrange si je joue avec toi?” and he was like “non” so after a little small talk in french i finally asked him “alors, t’es d’ou?” and he was like “de la tunisie”…i dont know who was more shocked that the other was tunisian. turns out he is the cousin of a younger boy in my school who i actually know, after a while he joined us. but how amazing is that…what are the chances that the only two people playing football at 10:00 at night on a friday are two kids from the same country who have never met before. yea, anyway, i just wanted to share, hope you enjoyed the story!

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | June 28th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Nice story there Thamer :D, seems like there are tuansa everywhere….their taking over the world w0000t!

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | June 28th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

Thamer that is a really awesome story! Thanks for sharing… It’s not as crazy of a coincidence but when I met up with Tahar to watch France Holland at lucky bar in DC we got to talking and it turns out his cousin lives in my neighborhood and I know who he is. Thats the great thing about being from small place like Tunisia. There’s always a good chance that you know someone through some extended family relation or friendship. Ah man, I miss Tunis!

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | June 28th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

Where are you guys all from in tunis?, My family is from Metlaoui in gafsa its near tozeur, i consider it my real home even though i have been living in Amsterdam all my life, its hot as hell there tho!

And rami i must say since i have been visiting this blog, i have been up to date on all the changes in tunisian football, is this blog gonna stay after the worldcup?

I think if you kept up this good work it might be a real succesfull site, i see you have way more articles about tunisian soccer than any of the other countries i see listed.

Posted from Netherlands

By Moni | June 28th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Rami you should organise a tunisian USA vs. EUROPE game, between the visitors of the blog hehehe

Posted from Netherlands

By Rachid | June 28th, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Rami ought to be congratulated not just for the number of articles he produces, but also for the high quality and for his continued impartiality. He is a declared CA fan, but consistently reports on news affecting all Tunisian clubs. July is going to be a busy month with three expected matches between Etoile and Esperance. Then, there is the fight for the CAF Cup fight for the group phase involving our other two favorite clubs, CA and CSS. It’s too bad not all can qualify, but we will have at least one and a maximum of 3. Three Tunisia clubs out of 8 would probably be a first in the history of this competition. As you can see, the probablity of the CAF Cup staying somewhere in Tunisia is pretty good!

By Achraf | June 28th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Hey Abdullah, I am from menzel jmil in bizerte, and I live in DC in the US.

Posted from United States

By Moni | June 28th, 2008 at 8:31 pm

Yo Rami I saw your comment on the Egypt blog with Tamim, over the decision of the Egypt FA, you said about oure FTF suggesting not playing during the rammadan, that playing 2 times a week would be bad.

But my Q to you is, why Englisch premier League players can do this ?
they also play 2 times a week and sometimes more including CHAMPIONS League ore UEFA cup foot. ALso there league consist of 20 clubs like the SERIE A and Primera Divisione, so the have 38 days of competions Football, and the tunisian league only 26 , Is it not possibel to play 2 times a week ore even make Tunisian league consist of 16 ore even 18 clubs in league A ????

I think players would have more playing time ? Ore could we say that 14 clubs is just good for tunisia ?

Posted from Netherlands

By Skander | June 29th, 2008 at 3:24 am

Abdullah, i’m from Sousse.

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | June 29th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Thanks for the love guys! I’m glad you are happy with the material. I’ll do my best to keep it coming and hopefully continue to improve on the quality of writing and the content. I wish this was my full time job, I’d have so much more time to dedicate to it. Not complaining though, I’m enjoying every second… And as I’ve said in the past, the feedback, arguments, and debates are what make it even more enriching so I have to thank all of you also!

Abdullah, I grew up in Menzah 7 near Cite l’Emir if you know it. Went to Tunisian primary school at Menzah 7 then College at Menzah 5. Switched to the American School in Aouina for high school. Spent a lot of time in Gammarth and Marsa over the years as many of my foreign friends lived out there. But yea, Menzah and Ennasr are where I’m from I guess. It’s cool to hear where you’re all from. Makes me think of all the places I want to visit (Sousse, Bizerte, Korbus, Hammamet, Djerba, Sidi Bou…aaah don’t get me started!)

To answer your other question, I’ve been writing for World Cup Blog for almost a year now (less month away from the anniversary) and I don’t count on stopping anytime soon. I’m trying to find an avenue to get paid to write eventually…

Rachid, thanks for the kind words. This series you have going with EST is going to be a real joy to watch. Not often you get three classicos back to to back to back

Moni, if we’re all in the same place at the same time a game would definitely be in order. I know Tunisie-foot organizes some in France and in Tunis sometimes. It’s a cool idea I think.

Enjoy the Euro Final everyone!

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