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Tunisia Slips up in Sudan

September 10th, 2007 | By: Rami | 12 Comments »

You see how it almost looks like the Sudanese player is kicking the Tunisian guy in the head? Well, thats kind of what happened. That’s right, we lost. The final score was 3-2 and all we needed was a draw to top our group. We still made the African Cup of Nations but that was never a question when you looked at our opposition (Mauritius and Seychelles round out the group). The reality is we should have finished first but we failed at the last hurdle in front of a hostile crowd that was treating this game as if it was a Cup Final. It’s hard for me to accurately evaluate this game because I have not seen it in its entirety. Instead I’m relying on highlights (which can be found below), articles published by the Tunisian press, and forum chatter on Tunisie-Foot following the loss.

Besides the result itself, the most worrying thing in my mind is the fact that Issam Jemaa had to come off in the first half with an injury following a pretty nasty tackle from a Sudanese defender. I don’t know how bad it is yet but if you take into account the tears streaming down his face and the ice pack firmly strapped around his knee, then things aren’t looking so rosy for the CAEN attacker. Hopefully its not serious. Secondly Dos Santos’ lack of competition in recent months finally caught up with him. While he was passable in the Guinea match, he never really got into this one despite scoring our second goal on a penalty that was cleverly created by Chermiti. The man needs a club desperately. Maybe Sochaux or someone else will finally pick him up so he can get back into shape. Also I’m somewhat confused by some of Lemerre’s decisions (at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised when he surprises me but alas, I am ). Not sure why Yahia, who played so well in the Guinea match, was replaced by Bekri who made a number of mistakes in this game. How Lemerre goes from praising Yahia in post game interviews to demoting him without explanation is strange to say the least. We’ll probably hear more about that in the coming days as Lemerre’s take on the game is published. He has a frosty relationship with quite a few Tunisian reporters so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of questions are asked of him to explain this unexpected loss. Radhi Jaidi’s presence was missed as well. His size and stature alone would have helped against such a determined Sudanese squad. Not to mention his experience…

There’s a lot more to talk about regarding this game but it’s left me a little disgusted so I’m going to hold back my criticism a little. If anyone has anything to add then please be my guest. The only bright side I can think of is that Lemerre has gotten to look at a few players he usually wouldn’t call up. Better to experiment now while we can then to get to the real deal and not know who we can count on. It’s all a process and ultimately we’re thinking about South Africa 2010 as well as Ghana 2008. So this isn’t THAT bad but it’s not good at all. Far from it.

Update

The original video was deleted so I had to find a new one. This means that my response in the comments section regarding the tackle on Jemaa is not entirely accurate because you won’t see it 53 seconds into the video. It can be seen in detail later in this video which includes an interview with Lemerre.

SoudanTunisie
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Comments

By massaer | September 10th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

On a similar note, we DESTROYED Burkina Faso 5-1 saturday. Just so you know.
I have a feeling our paths will cross again this winter.

Posted from France

By sudani | September 11th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

You seem out of touch with everything and your comments full of lies. First the picture you are shwoing has nothing to do with the truth since Sudanese players were wearing red. Then you said Issam was hit by a defender -FALSE. He hit the Sudanese goalkeeper and he got hurt and Sudanese goalkeeper was sent to Emergency room between the halves and had to be substituted. There was no hositility whatsover. Referee granted Tunisia a very questionable penalty. Listen to your coach who admitted that Sudan played much better. Your arrogance is so clear and you came to lie despite the fact that you didn’t see the game. Be honest and admit it or better shut up.

Posted from United States

By Asim KAMAL | September 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

Vive le Soudan

Posted from United States

By Jamal | September 11th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

Great game by both teams.

By Rami | September 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

Sudani, let me start by saying that I completely respect the Sudanese team and their fans:

1. I am well aware the picture is not from this game. I was just using it as a joke. Clearly I know that the Sudanese team was wearing red today. Even from just watching the highlights, that much is clear.

2. The highlights show the incident in which Jemaa gets tackled by a Sudanese player viciously. Happens about 53 seconds into the video. I didn’t see the incident with the goalie.

3. The penalty WAS questionable. I even said Chermiti created it cleverly.

4. Sudan did play better. I never said otherwise.

5. Sorry if you felt that I’m speaking from a position of arrogance. I can see why you would think that but that’s normal considering you support the opposition. I’m not taking anything away from Sudan, they got the result and so they’re in first place. However, to say that they were expected to top the group is false. Tunisia is clearly, based on recent history, a bigger African football powerhouse than Sudan. I’m basing that off world cup qualifications (we’ve been in the past four), and African Cup performances (Runners up 96, Champs 2004), coupled with the shear number of players we have in european leagues compared to Sudan. I think thats pretty much common knowledge. We were the team that most people would have put their money on to win the group if you asked them when qualifications started.

I can understand your passion but you must also understand mine. Congratulations on qualifying and sealing first place. Hopefully our paths cross again and we can talk about that game in a civil manner.

Posted from United States

By thamer | September 12th, 2007 at 12:05 am

anyone know who wore the number 10 shirt this game?

Posted from United States

By Rami | September 12th, 2007 at 12:16 am

Pretty sure it was Mouelhi who wore the number 10. Didn’t see the game but according to what I’ve read and heard he didn’t really impress…

Posted from United States

By thamer | September 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm

yea, i figured it’d be him. i saw the highlights of a lillestrom game a couple of weeks ago where he had two goals and two assists, so thats probably why he got called up. lets give hadhria a call up and see if he can do any better.

Posted from United States

By Ali | September 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 am

Hi there,

Rami, I love your logic and objectivity in reponding back to sudani. To let you know the first African Cup was in Khartoum in 1956 and we won in 1970 but never managed to make it to the World Cup. I love the Tunisian team in fact I supported them fully in the world cup and felt depressed to their loss from Spain (3-1). I believe they played a phenomenal game but unfortunately, the spaniards dominated fully.

Your article tackles the idiosyncrasies that faced the Tunisian team in the game which is fine. What I can’t understand is your use of the word “hostile”. Not to get emotional but the Sudanese are known in the Arab World and Eastern African hemisphere for their warmth and hospitality.

I just saw the game today between ESS and Hilal. Unfortunately, I have seen this in the game for ASEC and Hilal why is that the Egyptians and Tunisians totally make use of an injured player to counter attack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gy1E4KAtZE&mode=related&search=
(Watch the commentator change views)
The Egyptians scored a goal on ASEC. Ya3ni I would say that as Sudanese we truly bind by our value of sportsmanship (which are congruent with our religious beliefs) more so than any of your teams. Today I was saddened to see the Tunisians of ESS pursue similar approaches with Hilal (weak sportmanship). Watch the game and tell me what you think?

By Rami | September 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 am

Welcome Ali

Thanks for your comment. Nice to have someone new make one. Perhaps my use of hostile wasn’t quite on point. It’s not like they were trying to kill any of our players or anything. They were just doing what fans do which is support their team and intimidate the opposition. Nothing wrong with that so I apologize for using that to describe the fans. One of my best friends growing up in Tunisia was from Sudan so trust me when I say that I know about their hospitality and their character. I have absolutely nothing against them or anyone else for that matter.

Funnily enough it was Mohammed (my Sudanese friend) who gave me the news of the ESS loss last night while we were chatting online. I was belatedly congratulating him on the Sudan-Tunisia result and he goes “not only that but we beat ESS today as well.” I haven’t watched the game and I honestly don’t know if I will be able to do so. If you know of any way then by all means let me know. I’m still waiting on someone to put the highlights up on dailymotion or youtube and i’ll make a post. It’s hard to analyze a game when you’ve just watched highlights but thats the plight of an African Football fan living in the USA unfortunately. I need to find a way to get ART online or smthn because they show so many of these matches…

Since I didn’t see the game I can’t really comment on the sportsmanship (or lack of it) but I will say that I’m not surprised if ESS didn’t display much of it. That is perhaps what is most lacking in the Tunisian approach to the game (some would say tactical discipline as well but we’ve gotten better at that). If you ever watch the Tunisian league then you know how heated and crazy things can get. Just last week there were incidents after the CA-CAB match that left a lot of property destroyed. That had a lot to do with the fans but it extends to the players as well. These guys don’t give an inch, especially if it’s a derby match like EST vs CA. I’ve seen my fair share of poor sportsmanship coming from the players, the coaches, the fans, and even the ballboys so I know what you’re referring to. Hopefully things get better on that side of things but I doubt it will be soon.

As for playing while a man is down I think it depends on the situation. The rules indicate that the referee must stop the action but we all know that the sporting thing to do is to kick it out and restart once the guy is off the field. I’m of the opinion that if an attack has already started then it’s ok to finish it off but if you’re still in the build up and you see a man go down then it’s better to stop. It’s a complex issue and it depends on the situation. It happens all over the world, even in the premiership I can remember last year (or was it two years ago?) that Arsenal and Tottenham were going at it when someone from Arsenal went down and the Tottenham players counter attacked and scored a goal. Arsene Wenger and Martin Jol even got into a shouting match afterwards.

Anyways, I apologize on behalf of ESS, hehe. If that means anything. Thanks for joining the debate Ali. Hope to hear from you again.

Posted from United States

By Ali | September 23rd, 2007 at 6:19 am

Salam Rami,

My appologies for the misunderstanding. I wanna commend you on your blog … its awesome. AlNagm ElSahili is a very strong team better than Al-Ahli from what I have seen. It was an awesome game and I’m sorry I wish I can be with ESS but its hard to be in this situation (conflict of interest . And whats crazy is that on the other side in the Confedirate cup you have AlMerrikh (Knock on Wood) and Alsafaqsi and looks like they might play the final together. This is a great year for Sudanese Soccer and Tunisian Soccer. My friend here in the bay area is also Tunisian and the irony is his name is Mohammed.

I have some highlights from the game and an analysis. Its at the end of my thread:
http://www.omdur.com/board/showthread.php?p=123313#post123313

what can I say I’m a soccer fanatic. Tommorow, I’ll be watching Ahly and Iti7ad (Libya) as well as ElMerrikh and AlIsmaili (Egypt)

Hope to hear from you again. Stay in touch.

By Rami | September 23rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm

Thanks for the link Ali. It is quite incredible what Sudanese soccer is going through right now. They’re really doing their thing in terms of clubs and country. Very impressive indeed.

Posted from United States

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