Say Cheese! Official Team Picture for Ghana Taken

If you click the thumbnail and check out the photo, you might notice that there’s someone curiously missing. Let me give you second to guess… got it? The person in question is none other than our right back, Saber Ben Frej, who was given a leave of absence as he traveled to France to sign a two and half year deal with Ligue 1 side Le Mans. I have to say that I am really happy that he decided to go to Europe rather than go to Zamalek in Egypt. Etoile du Sahel is a better team and I think that it would have been a step in the wrong direction. Best of luck to him in his new team but more importantly, let’s hope he makes Le Mans proud of their investment in Ghana. Not being in the picture is a small price to pay… Maybe they can photoshop him in or something?

So that was the good news… The bad news is that Iran did in fact pull out at the last minute citing an inability to summon domestic league players.This is disconcerting mainly because there had been reports that we would finally see our starting lineup for Senegal play against the Iranians. Instead, it’s come to light that our boys will play two more matches before flying out of Tunis. One match against l’Espoir Sportif de Hammam Sousse on the 15th of January and one against l’Etoile Olympique de la Goulette et du Kram, on the 16th of January.

Zoubeir Beya wondered aloud on Dimache Sport today why they didn’t pick Tunisian Ligue 1 sides and I can understand his point of view but I think the answer is nobody in the Tunisian Federation would want to see the Carthage Eagles playing against a team composed of players who feel that they should be flying to Ghana instead. Just imagine a game against Club Africain in which Mouihbi, Ouertani, and Dhaouadi are playing! They would go all out and try their best to prove to Lemerre that they were robbed of a roster spot. Though I doubt such a game would turn nasty, it is not outside the realm of possibility. And then just imagine if the national team got beaten!

Nevertheless, the fact that they’ve scheduled games on consecutive days makes me wonder what kind of lineups they’re gonna put out in each one. Whatever Lemerre does, I sincerely hope that he quits the fiddling around and decides on his starting eleven in one of the two matches. It’s time to for people to know where they stand and what is expected of them. Best case scenario for us is that all of these setbacks bring the group closer together and we see a unified team on the 23rd that is ready to take one huge step towards 2nd round qualification with a positive result against Senegal.

In Other News

The national team captain, Radhi Jaidi, was interviewed recently on Mosaique FM in which he assured supporters that the team is doing well, that they’re feeling the weight of responsability, and that they will do all they can to put forward good performances in Ghana. Click here if you want to hear what he had to say.