Kenya 1 – 2 Tunisia: Crucial Result

good round up rami, im thanking god we won that match. if coelho had made better choices, perhaps we wouldnt have had such a hard time, but congratualtinos to both sides nonetheless. i agree with you about darragi, he definatley should have started if we were playing with 5 mids. if we had two strikers up top, i still think belaid and ben kalfallah should start, but this kid is definatly talented and i doubt he’ll still be playing in tunisia in two years time. a lot of potential. i also would have liked to see allagui, so far hes only played like 45 minutes in three matches under coelho, but i can’t complain after the win.

These three points made me very happy. Ammar Jemal also surprised me playing a great game. I dont think he will take mikaris spot forever, but the way he played might put him in Haggui’s spot and maybe ghzal for Jaidi, which should improve the backline. If Coelho also brings Ben Radia, the would put 2 ESS players and 1 former ESS player which would mean more familiarity between them especially with mathlouthi, will make it 3 then.

I hope Coelho will schedule a friendly or two for April and May to prepare for Mozambique and Nigeria.

Why is Allagui not getting playing time?

I really think we need ifa, dhaouadi, darragi, essifi.

Hopefully by the time we play in june against mozambique and Nigeria we will have Mouihbi, Chikhaoui, Chermiti, Mikari, and Lassad all healthy. We did it without them imagine with them.

—————-Balbouli——————-
—Ifa——Jmel—Ghezal——Mikari——
—————–Ragued——————–
-Ben Khalfallah—Chikhaoui–Belaid/Mouihbi–
——-Lassad-————–Allagui———-

Morocco is down 2-0 at halftime to Gabon… at home! Oh man, sounds like us with Burkina Faso. Roger Lemerre taking good luck with him eh?

Burkina Faso won 4-2 today against Guinea! Looks like they are good.

Theyre only losing the ball, there is no teamplay whatsoever by the moroccans.

Taarabt and boussoufa in for Dirar and Chamakh, things are a bit better now but still they lose the ball very easily.

i was thinking to myself that in a couple of years morocco might even be better than us because of all the young talent they have (taarabat, hamdaoui, that guy on ajax) but i guess it doesnt matter how much talent you have when lemerre is your coach!

yea i was thinking the same thing Thamer, btw hamdaoui plays at AZ

Morocco is such a mystery. Amazing in friendlies. Great against European sides but they suffer from a combination of terrible luck and defensive frailty that screws them almost every time. It’s really unbelievable. And now Lemerre as coach, yikes. I hope they can bounce back. They’re fun to watch…

yea, i know abdulla, i was talking about ismail aissati. 20 year old dutch born who decided to play for morocco. he’s very good, as im sure you already know.

Yea i heard he was leaning towards picking Morocco to represent, but it wouldnt matter that much because it seems Lemerre is gambling each and every match.

It goes to show you cannot go wrong with Etoile players! Jmel showed he had strong character ever since l’Etoile had to rely on him against Ahly in the 2007 crucial final, when Ghzel could not play. He did very well then, and has been a key player with l’Etoile ever since! My favorite player is Ben Khalfallah, but others from the local teams are quite good too, if given the chance. Look at Morocco, they lost at home despite all the talent they had! It was good to hear the Moroccan commentator saying good things about how Tunisians played like hell to win in Nairobi. May be we don’t need to be so hard on ourselves. I think there are going to be a lot of surprises in these games. Names of countries and expectations are not going to matter much. Congratulations!!!

I didn’t get a chance to watch the match, but I think we need a better defence. I think darragi should start next time, he is very good for esperance. Haggui always makes mistakes when we play, he made france score 1 or 2 goals against us in that match.

I think Haggui got comfortable and started to take things for granted. He needs some competition to keep him on his toes. As long as we make decisions based on performance rather than names, I think we can go far. Good luck!

congratulations Rami, one of the few good results arab teams achieved both in africa and asia!!!

hopefully we will win today and add another victory, morocco’s game scared me yesterday!!!

Can someone please tell me when Tunisia plays a friendly match.I hope this names are in selection.Balbouli,Kasraoui,Khaloufi,Jmel,ghezel,Mikari,Ifa,Jaidi,Haggui,
Camus,Darragi,Mouihbi(if he is back),Yahia,Khalfallah,Dhaouadi(if he is back),Essifi,Chermiti,Allagui,Lasssad,Ghariani.

I was worried by Coelho’s choices and tactical scheme. Yesterday it seemed that Lemerre was coaching us. We used 3 pivots, Lemerre’s favorite word, Demai + Ragued + Ben Yahia. It reminded me of Mnari + Nafti + Zouaghi that the French coach used every match.
The only difference is that Coelho saw the uselessness of his plan and converted from 4-3-2-1 to 4-2-2-1-1 when he introduced Darragi (Currently the best Tunisian player IMO).
Still we couldn’t control the ball properly and I didn’t see 5 successive passes by our players.
Let’s hope that with Chikhaoui, Mouihbi and Chermiti’s return, talent would be enough to defeat Nigeria.

Oh I almost forgot! Where the hell are Eric and E-MAN?

Mocambique – nigeria 0-0 first half AND MOCAMBIQUE IS DOMINATING THE GAME !!!

I just turned on the game :p

70th minute, still 0-0 i really hope mocambique score..

Nigeria 0-0 Mozambique
We’re top of the group!
I watched the 2nd half and we could definitely beat these teams.

This is a great development for Tunisia. Wonderful beginning, something we definitely cannot complain about. There should be no excuses whatsoever not to qualify!!!

I feel bad for our Moroccan friends. They lost at home and they next have to play against Cameroun in Cameroun. Worse yet, Cameroun lost to Togo and for sure will play like hell to beat Morocco. Good going Lemerre!

this is great…now all we have to do is win all our home games and win in mozambique, even if we lose in nigeria, we’ll still qualify!

Having watched Tunisia yesterday,i have to admit that they will top the group.They punished our defensive lapses with two splendid goals and though they extinguished our world cup hopes i hope they lock out Nigeria.

Great start. The journey is still long….

James N Macharia thanks.jihed you are right.Evrything can stil happen.

Egypt tied Zambia at home

i think the main reason y we won and egypt and morocco didnt is because we took our opponants seriously. moroccans and egyptians guaranteed victory at home and underestimated their opponants just like we did last year against burkin faso…

I think you’re onto something Lazar. Same with the Nigerian coach… I hope we stay humble and just keep working hard. We can’t get too happy. Its a good first step, nothing more.

Great win for you guys. Congratulations! We are disappointed at not picking up the points at home, but were hehartened to see our team hold their own against a team of such caliber as yours.
We expect you to return the favor when we visit Tunis

2 Tunisian players in the CAF team of the match day

Kapango
Ammar Jemal – Romuald Boco – Hany Said – Kolo Toure
Moustapha Salifou – Mafisango Mutesa – Ndri Romaric
Issam Jemaa
Didier Drogba – Moumouni Dagano

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1647/wcq-africa/2009/03/30/1182530/world-cup-debate-caf-team-of-the-match-day

Thank you Max Every match will have its truth, we expect tough battles in every one of them but you are always welcome in Tunis

Congrates to all the Tunisian, it seems like a good start, but… let’s wait and see what we do when we play in Tunis. We are not able to attack and dominate the game we are only effective when the pressure is on us as we have good defenders!!

So far did not see any time Tunisia playing attacking football!

ciao

Me neither Fahd, i’m hoping that will change when we have more offensive players available.

But i still think Coelho made the right choice not be tempted to play only offensive football, because africans are allways very physical and as we saw with Zambia & Kenya they rely on their counters so we need to prevent them from letting us do all the work while they sit back and play defensive football and attacking when our team is not in formation.

Hope Coelho keeps doing his research and finds a balance between offfensive/defensive play.

Also i really hope he plans a friendly sometime soon, Morocco has one tomorrow.

I’ve just recovered from that loss anyway kudos,we lost that game coz of having a coach who doesn’t understand our players.Perhaps you didn’t display a great game you were only lucky i’m sure if we get our act right we can even beat you at home.

Eric just shut up we won you loosed.Home we play better with better players Chikha mouihbi ….

Easy, Feedi your team was better on the day and deserved the win. We are not denying that.
A man that really caught the eye was Issam Jemaa(?) . He is really clinical and someone who I can compare to our Dennis Oliech. I was really surprised that he missed that free header.
But on Nigeria’s showing, we have a lot of hope of locking them out and doing you a favor in your WC qualification bid. The last time they played in Nairobi, the drew a much weaker team than we have right now. This time we will show them no mercy. Hope you guys do them in as well, and help us make it to the ACN. Cheers!

Eric saw a different match i think he was a sleep and dreaming. The main reason that we win by small margin’s abroard is that the players as staff are affraid of the consequences and the reaction of the crowd.

A lot of these hutsies and tutsies are able to group people up and harm the squad before the leave your god for saken country. Club teams in the Champions league Africa and Cup winners league have experienced a lot of trouble by winning with big margin’s abroard ( sticks and bricks are not the only tools that are used to scare our teams ) so they are on high alert and not at full strenght in your country. So enough said i think about this result.

At the moment looking in to Africa i hope the represent in South Africa would be: Cameroon, Cote’Ivor, Tunisia, Togo, (South Africa). The rest is not ready yet to be a good represent of Africa during a World Cup.

Don’t forget the players that where injured as Feedi mentiond, they will hopefully be able to play against you in Rades. Don’t think that when Chermiti and Chikoui would play we would stick to a 2-1 win. Make that at least double and a big 0 at your side.

So see you in Rades

Bassem you’re right I’ll never forget what happened in Ghana when EST defeated Hearts of Oak, or when ESS drew with Asante Kotoko 2-2, or when we lost unjustly in Abuja (Candia Traore’s offside goal + Imaginary penalty given to Enyimba + Refused Jdidi penalty). Both matches were refereed by Coffi Codja.
Cameroon and Togo are in the same group they can’t qualify together

No your absolutly right in your last sentence. They can’t qualify together. I hope it will be Cameroon then.

But yes abroard happens a lot, also the referee has a lot of presure so its almost not possible to play a fair game in those kind of countries.

Here in the Netherlands by the way, they where pretty shock up about the power Tunisia had and the hard play during the friendly agains Holland. I told every body also it was normal play in Africa and they need to stop wyning about it. Its Patatoes against CousCous and i’ll put my money on the CousCous

Max,I hope you guys win versus Nigiria and Mozambique.Kenya is a team and the coach nows how to play with Kenya.Nigiria is underrating Mozambique and Kenya.If Kenya plays home they have a 12 man (the supporters) and you have the good luck,because your stadium is high.I dont noq how much above sea level.
News about chikha?Mouihbi?
Does someone nows when Chermiti comes back?

I really hope Kenya grab a point or 3 in Nigeria :d

this weeks goal.com editorial on Roger Lemerre and the Atlas Lions: http://www.goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2009/03/31/1184399/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-roger-lemerre-and-the-atlas-lions

On dimanche Sport, They showed the Morrocan fans throwing bottles at Roger Lemerre and he looked really mad. I was happy to see that, because I dont know who he think he is. He is not the president or anything of a country. I think this will be his last african country he will be coaching.

Rami, do you think any friendlies will be scheduled before the next 2 games?

Achraf, I mentioned the bottles in my article As for friendlies, I don’t know for sure. Morocco is playing one today in Lisbon against Angola. We didn’t schedule anything. I don’t know if there’s a FIFA friendly date before our Mozambique matchup… I’ll have to get back to you on this one. I hope we get a friendly in also. I saw promising signs in the Kenya game but we definitely need more work if we’re going to get two big home wins against Mozambique and Nigeria.

Feedi, nothing has changed in terms of injuries. Mouihbi aiming for end of April but will not be pushed back if he’s not ready. He could make a brief outing in the last two games of CA’s season but only if he feels 100 percent. No use rushing, he’s already been out long and we don’t want it to be even longer. Haven’t heard anything on Chikha, hopefully in the next week. Chermiti’s injury was just a bad bruise so either this weekend or next.

Guys i loved it when the commentator said: ” Hrab Jemaa fi nhar sebet ” get it jemaa fi nhar sebet lol

Or when Darragi cut back and nearly made the Kenyan player fall before his long distance cross/shot “Ey hizou m3ak ghadi” Like yea take him into the corner and waste some time lol. but then Darragi had his own ideas! What a clever play and what a talented player. I think he showed he more than belongs in the squad from now on. He came in for a half and had an assist and nearly created two other goals (Jemaa miss starts with his pass to Ghariani and then the strike I just talked about). Not bad for only his second match with the NT.

I agree we really need players like him who are young and are eager prove themselfs.
Dhaouadi, Ifa, Essifi, Mouihbi and Chikha etc etc.. all are players who come from the local league and with them lies the future i’m not saying we are depending on them because right now the defense is worrieing me more than the offense.

I really admire Coelho for his good decision yesterday, first half he played an aggressive densive mid Demai(who this time held his composure more than against holland), and when he saw that we needed more dept in our attack he brought in an offensive one.
That shows us he’s not afraid to try and that will surely be helpfull in the future.

Rami thanks for the information.I hope we play in Europe.There are the refs better and the field too.Btw Tunisia u21 loosed 3-1.

I’m most excited about Ghariani, he seems to the quick and technical winger, he can dribble and has a good acceleration. I really hope that he gets more involved in our team

Also i think Belaid is beeing give the benefit of the doubt on much too many occasions, he sometimes seems invisible.
I recon that’s a bad thing?

I say next match bring in Dhaouadi if Belaid’s form is the same.

http://www.infosfoot.net/fr/articles/article.php?id_article=1760

Everyone Read this! Is lemerre really coming back to Coach Tunisia?

Let this be an april fools joke pleeeeassse!!!!!

I think it might, I hope so!!!!

No this is an april fools joke that was born in a Universty in Sousse, so no worries mate, never make the same mistake twice. With all due respect, we don’t need a chicken shit coach wile we as country prefer to play attack and have the abilties to play forward with good strikers.

I called the guys today and asked about it and they laughed. So no, its not going to happen. And if the Moroccans want to make a chance to place there selfs to South Africa then they need to fire Lemmere yesterday and not tomorrow.

I give him full responsebilty for loosing qualifing for the first in African history in to the next round in a World Cup. You need to play 4-3-3 Simple as that. To play 5-4-1 is outragus, absolutly outragus. I will never forget seeing Zied Yaziri running from a to b and then again from a to b and then again, and this for a straight half going on with out any clue what he should do.

And don’t give me the crap about that we qualified, because this was realy meant to be, can tell you realy ment to be that way. Because the goal that was scored in Rades against Marocco was ment to be that way. A goal imaginable from that distance a range like that and from that angel? Realy blew of the roof by the way, but concluding in this, it wasn’t Lemmeres work over there as also the African Nations Cup in Tunisia.

So we have the players, but still now a good coach. And its not the one thats sitting today, and deffenatly not the one mentioned above.

Ofcource april fool, They did the same last year!!! Ahhh soo lame!!

They seriously got me, i was unaware of that joke they pulled last year , i was seriously angry until i read your comment.

lol Abdullah, if they did that the FTF wouldn’t be in existence for much longer! We got a coach and we like him The best thing about the result is that it will allow him to work in peace. All I’m wondering is will the Tunisian fans for once realize their team needs them and at least fill the bottom part of Rades (which wasn’t even full for Holland). For Nigeria I imagine people will come but Mozambique cannot be ignored. They look like a team capable of causing anyone problems.

http://www.mosaiquefm.net/index/a/ActuDetail/Element/6613-Le-poisson-d-avril-de-Amine.html

This was a very funny April fools joke On Ammar Jmel!!!

I’m a CA fan and even I think that was cruel! He was so happy! Can’t blame him, he will be missed. Plus its bad for the national team, I want him in playing shape. I hope his suspension gets knocked down myself. Four is too many matches for what he did, especially when you see what other people get away with sometimes.

ahhhw i feel bad for himmmm :p he cincerely seems like a nice guy!

AMMAR ya BATAL

According to http://www.worldfootball.net/spieler_profil/oussama-darragi/ Derragi’s contract will end this summer? Is there any interest in him in Tunisian league or Europe? I think he would do good in France.

well, he cant go to a better team in the tunisian league . and there have definatly been inquires into his services by european teams. normally i would say that he’ll probably stay in tunis another two years. but hes just so good that i wouldnt be surprised if he went abroad. he would be a bench warmer on like 18 of 20 french teams next year so i would say that he should go to a swiss club like chikhaoui did or maybe a mid table dutch team. his skills would be emphasized there, i think.

Thamer i agree on a transfer to the dutch league, they take care of their players even at subtop/mid level teams, they let them grow and when it’s time they leave for a better club.
And they attract a lot of scouts because everything is organised really well, just take a look at Ajax or Psv, they all bring in players from over the world(and their own) and shape them into diamonds.

I don’t know if Taraji will let him go so quickly. Especially if his contract is ending this summer. If anything he’ll extend it and then go so that his team can get a good sum of money for him. He’s pretty young too, if I was Esperance I’d hold onto him for at least another year. Plus I’d rather him stay longer in Tunisian football and start every game rather than go to a european team and sit on the bench. If he can go and get consistent playing time then fine but otherwise he may as well wait. If Esperance wants to start winning the African champions league (which is one of their stated goals after this season) then letting him go would be foolish.

Ya i’m with you on that one Rami, but there is no telling if he will be guaranteed a spot if he leaves esperance so either he takes that risk or he plays it safe as you just mentioned.

So it’s really a question of where can he go to get some decent playing time?

Oh and Lassad had a hamstring problem when he was in Tunisia but how is he doing now?, can he play this sunday?
I really hope so because Depor is playing Espanyol and if they win it could mean a real big step closer to Champions League football.

History:

1991-1992 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 3
1992-1993 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 2
1994-1995 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 0
1995-1996 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 0
1996-1997 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 1
1997-1998 –> ESPANYOL 2 – DEPOR 0
1998-1999 –> ESPANYOL 2 – DEPOR 2
1999-2000 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 0
2000-2001 –> ESPANYOL 0 – DEPOR 2
2001-2002 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 0
2002-2003 –> ESPANYOL 3 – DEPOR 1
2003-2004 –> ESPANYOL 2 – DEPOR 0
2004-2005 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 1
2005-2006 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 2
2006-2007 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 3
2007-2008 –> ESPANYOL 1 – DEPOR 0

History tells us this is going to be a hard one for Depor, who are playing a team wich is on the edge to be relegated.

I hope Lassad Nouioui plays, i really get excited watching him, all he needs now is a goal.

Good News!! Chikhaoui was back training this week!

http://chi5aoui17.skyrock.com/2364298887-Le-retour-de-Yassine-aux-entrainements-avec-le-groupe.html

That is very good news!!Is he training all the time with the team or a litle bit?I think a litle bit.2 stars are coming in april back!(mouihbi and Chikhaoui)

What has Mouihbi done for the National Team? Zilch, if I recall right! We should not jump the gun, at least not too much.

Well i am happy to get our Zidan back, Just having chikha called up will build moral for the players and motivation.

where the hell is Ben frej??????

LASSAD SCORED HIS FIRST GOAL TODAY!!!

Unbelievable Lassad has amazing free kick skills & dribbles i hope someone puts up a highlight of this match later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN8cMlZn0wY

Wow! That Lassad Goal was amazing, I am very happy for him, and coelho was smart to let him rest for precaution. Also Ali zitouni scored 2 goals today for Antalyaspor giving them a 4-2 win!

Tunisia only went up 2 rankings this month, I thought it would be a lot higher. Kenya went down 11 rankings, Mozambique went up 11 rankings, and Nigeria went down 6 rankings. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=180

tunisia also tied ghana in accra and holland in tunis and got negative points for it…so these rankings obviously dont mean anything.

Yea I think those results haven’t even translated in the latest rankings even. There’s some kind of interval that makes them take a while to reflect. I haven’t done any research on that or anything but its the only reasonable explanation I can find. They don’t mean anything but it’d be nice if we were in the top 50 so at least we’re on that first page

Shit.Ess lost.Good news for ess and ca.

Yes, heartbreaking as it may be, but l’Etoile did lose, and they did not deserve to win. A bunch of fresh legs from CSS and new recruits determined to show their stuff did the trick for CSS. It did not help that l’Etoile players showed no motivation whatsoever to win. At times, I wondered which team was more concerned about winning. Not sure what to think about their coach either!

With that said, yesterday’s results highlighted some problems we have in the Tunisian championship. How credible is it for Kasserine to beat Stade Tunisien in Tunis by 2-0? How credible is it for Marsa to beat H. Lif (who just beat CA and almost EST few weeks ago)? Why didn’t CSS play as well against CA? Wasn’t that 89th minute penealty kick for CA imaginary? All of these leave one wondering if this is even worth watching! I stayed up late to watch Dimanche Sport, but it was almost 11 pm and the show was not on!!! Does TV7 have any common sense to broadcast that show so late on a weekday? This is some of the BS that goes on in our otherwise fine country!

Rachid, I understand your frustration but I thought the foul on Traore was very much real. If you want to check Jeudi Sport here’s a link buddy:

http://www.dailymotion.com/group/DimancheSport

Otherwise the best news of the day is that Chikhaoui is aiming to be back next week or at least for the last two games of FC Zurich’s season

http://www.tunisie-foot.com/fr/news.asp?id=11410

More good news is(i shouldn’t really call it ” good ” news since it involves another player getting injured) but Lassad wil probably start this sunday because Riki is injured.

Chikhaoui ya m3allam! Good to see him back, hopefully he will not have any setbacks. Every Tunisian should thank the FC Barcelona doctors.

I hope Lassad will score this weekend then he will have his spot every week.

I hope Chikhaoui and Mouihbi can be the same as before there injurie.I am happy to see them back and inshaalah rabbi m3ahom!!

http://goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2009/04/11/1203147/zurich-tunisia-ace-yassine-chikhaoui-closing-in-on-return
Great article Rami. It’s being referenced on several Tunisian forums.

I’ll be ready to watch FCZ’s match on the 18th goooo CHIKHA!!!!

http://www.deportivo-la-coruna.com/dlconnect.php?match=126 starting line-up was announced today for Depor’s match 2morrow against Atletico Madrid.

Setif 0 – Esperance 1. Bravo Esperance!!! Amazing what Faouzi Benzarti has done with the team in such a short time. He’s a brilliant coach! I’m usually hard on Kasraoui, but today I have to say he made incredible saves and showed a lot of COURAGE. Bravo!!!!

I second that Rachid. Really incredible performance by Esperance especially if you consider they just played two days ago. If not for some shocking refereeing decisions (so many missed calls by both the ref and the guys on the touchline) then it could’ve been an even better scoreline. Looking forward to the match in Rades.

Thanks Yassine