The Weekend Classico Sans Chermiti/Mouihbi

April 16th, 2008 | by: Rami |

This weekend is the match of the year between Club Africain and Etoile Sportive du Sahel. With the end of the season fast approaching and CA only two points behind the defending champs, it’s an understatement to say that this game has a whole lot riding on it. As luck would have it though, both teams will be missing their top striker for the same reason: Yellow card accumulation. Amine Chermiti out, Youssef Mouihbi out.

I guess the football gods wanted to keep it fair and square. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects both teams. Each player is an incredibly influential force in their respective side and their impact will be greatly missed. However, when you have two giants of Tunisian football going head to head at this point in the season, no one will be making excuses come match time.

Ben Chikha’s job might be a little harder in that CA has been running their offense through Mouihbi a lot while Chermiti plays further up the field and will be easier to replace on a tactical level. On a personnel level though, it’s still quite a challenge because no one on that team is as fast Chermitigol. I’m sure both players are cursing the fact they’ll miss a game with such huge title implications. The goals will have to come from elswhere…

What are your thoughts on the upcoming game? Predictions?

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Tahar

Inshalllah marbouha lifriki

FORZA CA
Tahar

My prediction is a 1-0 CA for Ouertani
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Congratulations Tahar, you just broke the 1000 comment mark for Tunisia WCB!! I didn’t want to do it myself hehe.

I can see Ouertani scoring a goal off a set piece with his head like he usually does. Hopefully Dhaouadi keeps improving. His return has been really helpful and he’ll be even more important with Mouihbi suspended.
thamer

im not too familiar with club africain, but my understanding is that dhaouadi is the best player on that team, am i right in thinking this, or is mouihibi the better player. in any case, there will be no shortage of stars in this game…nafkha-ben yahia, bendhifallah-ouertani, meriah-souissi, not to mention the goal keepers. i’ll be looking forward to this one.
Rachid

It’ll be 2-0 ESS at least! I think they’ll get the job done early on. They did not look their best today, but they convincingly beat Stade Tunisien in Rades. Etoile is unforgiving in Sousse. My guess is that both Bendhifallah and Traoui will score! Gilson may score too!
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Based on current form Mouihbi is definitely the best player on CA. Dhaouadi is just coming back from that injury so he’s just finding his rhythm (he created the goal for CA today). When they are both in top shape it’s hard to distinguish between them though. I’d give a slight edge to Mouihbi. Dhaouadi has a history of making amazing runs (the difficult part) and not putting the ball into the net (the so called easy part). Mouihbi’s is usually lethal once he reaches the box (even though he missed an absolute sitter today). So that’s my way of not really answering your question Thamer hehe. They could both go to europe and do big things eventually.

CA 2-1 win (yahia, dhifallah, ouertani) in that order.
Etoiliste

As Rachid said “Etoile is unforgiving in Sousse”,my prediction is 3-1 for ESS..
Did you heard that next match between CA & EST “Le Derby” will be played without fans !!
Forza ESS
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Yes I heard this and I was about to write something about it. I might wait until after EST appeals the decision, even though I don’t think they’ll get it overturned. It’s really sad. Two derbies in a row with no fans. That’s just not right.
marwen

i think etoile will win or it will be a tie
both teams are good
even if ESS is missing chermiti, they still have other fast plays like gilson silva and that other guy who scored both goals for etoile in the cup games
Etoiliste

Mawen ,the player who scored both goals in the cup ESS vs SRS(Ralway) is
Muri Ola Ogunbiyi
I like it it’s a very good player ,he won three times the African champions League(2 with Enyemba and 1 with L’etoile)I hope that he’ll score against CA
marwen

ok thanks etoiliste
just wondering, what country is he from
Etoiliste

Muri Ola Ogunbiyi was born in Nigeria ,he has a Beninese nationality and he plays for Benin National football team..

The “classico” is 4 tomorrow ..I can’t wait
marwen

great, i can’t wait to watch
it is going to be a very good game
i hope it doesn’t rain tommorow so i can watch
al

marwen: what rain has to do with watching?
Yassine

Hi!
I just discovered WCB by chance and I really like it!
Only 2 hours to the Kick-off, I’m an ESS fan and I’m having a headache already.
I think tha
Yassine

Hi!
I just discovered WCB by chance and I really like it!
Only 1 hour and a half to the Kick-off, I’m an ESS fan and I’m having a headache already.
I think that Mouihbi’s absence will be more influential on CA then Chermiti’s, because ESS has more solutions on the bench: Mosaab Sassi, Tempo Fwayo, Slim Jday and this year’s flop Sadat Bukari who could prove us all wrong today.
I hope for you guys in USA and Canada that it won’t rain so that you could watch this historical match.
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

LOL, you’re all talking about rain and I just woke up today and its absolutely pouring. I don’t think it’ll affect Sopcast! I’ll be paying close attention. Forza CA and may the best team win. What a way to start my day. Sellami shoud be back for CA and Osagie will probably replace Mouihbi. Yassine welcome to WCB, I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. I agree with your assessment of Etoile’s bench situation. There are definitely options there. I’d love to see Sassi, I really like that guy after watching him dominate during the U17 World Cup. That kid has a future!
Yassine

Thanks Rami!
The match ended 2 hours ago, it was a draw 2-2 and the two teams produced a very enjoyable performance.
M. Sassi came off the bench at the 78th minute, he didn’t do much but you can see from how he touches the ball that he would be a great player in Tunisia’s history, he indeed has a bright future.
http://egypt.worldcupblog.org tamim

rami..why don’t you start a ca blog on the offside?, i have started a zamalek blog. also, if anyone interested you may add your club
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

I’ve given it some thought Tamim but right now I’m afraid handling this blog is enough of a challenge. Maybe this will change in the future. However if anyone else is interested do shoot Daryl an email expressing your desire to start a team blog on theoffside.com (it’s our sister site). email is daryl@theoffside.com

Rachid, I bet you’d make a good Etoile blogger. Skander or Thamer you could do Esperance. Tahar you could do CA (excuses if I missed everyone, I know plenty out there could do well for whatever team they support). Haha ok I’ll stop being pushy! Just giving you ideas buddies. Get at Daryl if you’re interested (it’s really fun!). Let him know why you’d be a good choice. Esperance, CA, CAB, Sfax etc. As Tamim pointed out, they’re all for the taking. It’d be great to get some more Arab/African representation on the Offside to balance things out. Right now I’m sticking to covering Tunisia in general.