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Mark Your Calendars

June 25th, 2008 | By: Rami | 6 Comments »

Soccer Calendar The press liason of the FTF, Mondher Chaouachi, notified the media today of some administrative decisions that had been taken last night during a meeting. Below are some items he addresses and I’m mixing in some other random tidbits that have been traveling around the airwaves over the past week. Here’s what you should be aware of:

- The Tunisian League restarts on August 10, 2008. We’ll get into the buildup and talking points as that date approaches. Lots of storylines to follow, let’s hope the season is as exciting as the last one.

- Friendly on the menu: Our Carthage Eagles will play a friendly on August 20, 2008 against either Cape Verdes, Guinea, or Angola. I’d prefer one of the last two since this match will serve as preparation for our crucial qualifier against Burkina Faso in September. We want to go up against stiff competition to know where we are at. No disrespect to Cape Verdes because they have been improving a lot over the years. No word on where the friendly will take place but I’m guessing somewhere in Tunisia as this will be Humberto Coelho’s highly anticipated first match in charge of the Tunisian National team. Then again, it could be beneficial to have it away since we’re preparing for an away match…

- In case you forgot: Tunisia vs. France on October 14 in Paris. Need I say more? According to this there might be an unconfirmed return fixture for sometime in November 2009.

- Coelho’s Assistant: The National Team assistant coach will be named by Coelho on July 3rd. According to infofoot it’s between Habib Mejri and Skander Kasri. One gets the NT job and the other is likely to be handed the reigns of the Olympic squad.

- CA vs. Zamalek on July 6th, 2008: Club Africain was trying to get a friendly set up with Marseille or Lyon on this date but both teams have packed preseason schedules and could not make the trip to Tunis. Booking a match with cup winners Zamalek of Egypt isn’t a bad thing to fall back on by any means. They will be preparing for Champions League while Club Africain is readying itself for their CAF confrontation with Djoliba of Mali on July 12th.

- Tunisan Cup Semifinals: I’ll do my best to get previews up for this but just so you know the games on the menu are ST versus ESS on friday at 5:30 Tunis Time (Rades) and Gafsa versus EST on Saturday. The time for the second match is yet to be determined and the venue switched from Kasserine to Kairouan. These guys need to get better at programming this kind stuff! It’s funny we have one of, if not the, best run leagues in Africa. It makes you seriously wonder about how bad the planning is in other countries. The final will take place on July 5th.

-The Eaglets Upcoming Challenges: The U-17 Team will be in Cote d’Ivoire along with Gabon and Ghana from the 5th to the 13th of July for a tournament that serves as preparation for the qualification match we have against Burkina Faso. Meanwhile the Junior national team will play Mali next Sunday (Sousse) in the home fixture of their series with them to attempt to qualify for the Junior African Cup in Equatorial Guinea.

- Radhi Jaidi is playing in Jay Jay Okocha’s testimonial match tomorrow in honor of the Nigerian legend. The two became friends at their time at Bolton Wanderers. Best of luck to Jay Jay in his life post football.

Tags: Carthage Eagles, Group H, Habib Mejri, Humberto Coelho, Skander Kasri, Tunisia Football

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Comments

By Adam | June 25th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

I can not wait to see the Tunisia friendly game. I marked that on my calender, I want to see the players he’s go to bring and the way they play at the game. Also that France game is going to be huge, I would go to that game if I was at Paris. I think the ftf should get a friendly in with the United States at RFK Stadium or fed ex field. I remember the younger tunisians u-21 team beat usa in the world cup. I want esperance to loose their match but I think that will be unlikley to happen. I am a cab fan and we should have been at the final but est is always getting in our way.Last years final was CAB VS EST 2-1. THIS YEAR EST VS ESS (MY PREDICTION). And Rami, are you going to the USA GAME IN OCTOBER AT RFK?

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By Rami | June 26th, 2008 at 9:52 am

Hey Adam, the smart money is definitely on an EST vs. ESS final but as you know cups can always have surprises. As for the NT, I’m waiting for a Tunisia vs USA friendly too. I think you meant our U17 team last summer, we beat USA 3-1 on our way to the second round. We were practically toying with them that game and showed our technical superiority. Enjoyed it a lot. I love that generation of kids (Hadhria, Sassi, Msakni, Ifa, Ayari, Dkhil, etc). They’re growing up to be some very impressive players… Hopefully they’ll make to the seniors team in the future and get us to the second round of a world cup. I think we have the talent already but those guys did it at youth level, so maybe they can repeat this at the higher level.

You’re referring to the Trinidad and Tobago match vs. USA in October right? I wasn’t planning on it but I don’t rule it out. Are you going? I haven’t been to a game in a while…

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By Momo | June 26th, 2008 at 11:42 am

That is some mouthwatering summer-soccer menu you put up there Rami! I am also waiting on Coelho’s first game in charge of the Eagles. Actually I wont have to wait till the game, when I see the squad list I’ll know what he’s thinking right away. I hope all players will be at his disposal (no injuries or anything of that sort). I do like the choice of Habib Mejri as assistant coach. He is experienced, sure of himself, and maintains a clean record so far. I expect him to do a better job than Maaloul, who has been criticized by many as working for Lemerre before the Team, and as well for some suspicious player call-ups that helped inflate their price tags and lured local and European teams to acquire them, the likes of Wissem Bekri, Chaker Zouaghi, and Chakib Lachkham.

By Rami | June 26th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

Yea Momo, it’s not a bad lineup of matches! Coelho’s first list of callups is surely going to shed light on what he’s trying to do and I’m eagerly anticipating it as well. Especially considering he has so little time to analyze players and he’ll have to do it from tape and not in person.

As for Mejri, he seems like a good enough choice. I hear he’s a disciplinarian and kind of over the top sometimes but he’s managed to save a lot of club teams from relegation over his career so that’s a good sign. I don’t think Coelho would pick him if he didn’t think the guy had something to offer. Maaloul was a good player in his time but in my opinion he failed as an assistant. Those callups you listed are definitely suspect. Bekri actually had a good game against Senegal which surprised me. Unfortunately there’s more examples of players that didn’t deserve the team being called up. It’s good to test players but it’s also important to create a cohesive team and style of play!

By Momo | June 27th, 2008 at 2:46 am

That is why I like the choice of Mejri, because I never see him getting himself in any controversies, very untypical in the Tunisian league. I am sure you heard of a man called Mokhtar Tlili, or Mrad Mahjoub, or even Khaled Ben Yahia..you know if one of these men were to become Assistant Coach they were ready to pull the trigger on anyone at any moment. Even the so called Head-Coach candidates Youssef Zouaoui and Faouzi Benzarti have their own share of controversy and unexplained moments of fame. By Tunisian standards, Mejri is the safest choice. Hey Rami, there was news that broke in, since we talked about the suspicious call-ups, about a German agent, working with Maaloul and Lemerre. I guess the agent tried to talk to Mouihbi, but Mouihbi refused to do such a thing while still under contract with Club Africain. Lemerre and Maaloul tried to force Mouihbi to talk to the agent, but to no avail. Feeling helpless, the manager and his assistant agreed to their little dirty plot, and decided to “teach Mouihbi a lesson” by telling him to warm up for the entire half, and then completing the three substitutions with Mouihbi still warming up! So Mouihbi just went back to the bench, and crowds behind them started shouting at Lemerre. This is unbelievable! I don’t know why he is still trying to boss himself on us even when this was his last game? A game that he almost lost playing against a very weak opponent! What kind of behavior is this? is he now officially the Bobby Knight of soccer? this psycho needs rehab man and quickly! By the way I read that B.S. about him crying over the dinner table with the FTF people and Coelho..lol..my God what a great story for the newspapers to end this movie with! We’ve been for this for a long time Monsieur Lemerre (not you crying of course, you can cry all you want, but you might wanna save some of those tears for Morocco, remember?). Roger, Good luck elsewhere buddy..

By Rami | June 27th, 2008 at 10:01 am

Damn Momo I had heard about the german team being interested in Mouihbi but I never heard the rumors about the agent and the connection to Lemerre’s substitution patterns. I hope thats not true because that’s just pathetic.

I don’t think Lemerre was crying in front of Coelho. It was at a restaurant for his goodbye dinner with Ben Ammar and the rest of the FTF gang. It’s hard to leave a place after six years.

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