Tunisia Has Everything to Lose at Nations Cup

Defending champion Tunisia will be a marked team at the upcoming African Nations Cup in Egypt.

Coach Roger Lemerre’s team will aim to repeat as tournament champion, a feat that has only been achieved by Cameroon. Tunisia’s first round grouping is easy, but unlike 2004 it won’t benefit from playing on its home soil.

With all but one starter coming back from the victorious 2004 team, Tunisia should come out on top of its first round group that includes Guinea, South Africa and Zambia.

From there, the north Africans could meet up with a Nigeria side that is motivated to do well after failing to qualify for the World Cup. Fellow qualifiers Togo, Angola, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire also could get in the way of a repeat.

The question I have is with a spot in the World Cup already locked up and a championship under its belt, will Tunisia really have an incentive to try to win the tournament or will its players save their energy by bowing out early?

I think the tournament is set up in a way that teams that qualify for the World Cup have little to gain. An early exit raised questions and turns up the heat on coaches. A long run in the tournament exposes players to injury and takes a toll on their fitness.

Tunisia has nothing to gain, but I won’t tell its players or fans that if it walks away with another trophy.