Carthage Eagles Stumble in Vienna

Lineups:

Austria: Alexander Manninger, Franz Schiemer (Martin Hiden, 77), Martin Stranzl, Ronald Gercaliu, Gyorgy Garics (Andreas Ibertsberger, 63), Andreas Ivanschitz, Christoph Leitgeb (Christian Fuchs, 65), Veli Kavlak (Yuksel Sariyar, 74), Rene Aufhauser, Roman Kienast, Sanel Kuljic (Martin Harnik, 46).

Tunisia: Aymen Mathlouthi, Wissem El Bekri, Wissem Abdi, Karim Haggui, Saber Ben Frej, Kamel Zaiem (Yacine Chikhaoui, 68), Tijani Belaid (Mohamed Ali Nafhka, 81), Jawher Mnari, Mehdi Nafti (Shaker Zouaghi, 65), Francileudo dos Santos (Amine Charmiti, 75), Issam Jomaa (Chaouki Ben Saada, 87).

The Game

Disclaimer: I watched the match in terrible resolution and the game froze at times too so if I confuse some players or don’t talk about something you think I should have then there’s your reason

If the weather in Rades for our last game against Namibia was cold then this must have been the frozen Tundra. Still though, the game was in Vienna and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a substantial contingent of Tunisian supporters in the stands. The fans probably came thinking that we would spank an Austrian team which has been struggling mightily in its preparations for the Euro 2008 which they are co-hosting with Switzerland. In fact, they are so bad at the moment that a great deal of their own fans have signed a petition indicating their desire for Austria to step down and not host the tournament.

In all reality, there’s no chance of that happening. However, it does show you the sense of desperation that Austria must be playing with. With their coach under fire, their players came out onto the pitch looking a lot more alive in midfield and simply wanting the ball more and keeping possession better. The midfield was struggling to hold onto the ball and do something effective with it. Bekri had some failed clearances before he settled into the match and actually gave us a chance to open the scoring against the run of play when he went down the right hand side and found Zaiem (or was it Belaid?)who rattled the crossbar with a left footed strike. There’s some confusion about this because as some reports say one thing and some the other. We’ll wait for some highlights to sort that out. Unfortunately that was our best chance of the first half and it came in the 16th minute.

For some reason nobody was pressing the Austrians or defending high up the field. We seemed content to sit back and absorb pressure which gave the home team plenty of time on the ball for them to build a rhythm and some much needed confidence. When Jemaa is defending just as much as he is attacking, you know there’s a problem. I don’t have a problem with him helping out but honestly thats Mnari’s and Bekri’s job. Speaking of Jemaa, he was all over the place (in a good way) and probably our man of the match. His speed is a constant threat but he needs to find people with his deep passes. The subject of deep passes brings me to something I simply can’t stop complaining about. I’m sure some of you can guess who I’m gonna talk about now…. Santos! Oh my god, that guy is driving me crazy. It’s actually not his fault, Lemerre is driving me crazy by selecting him when he’s so out of shape. His timing is completely off and as a result he ended up hindering our attacks more than he helped them. I honestly stopped counting how many times he was called off side after the 5th time.

People might say that I’m being hard on a man that brought us so much happiness in 2004. Maybe so, but 2004 was four years ago, it’s damn near 2008 and the CAN starts tomorrow (2 months but you get the picture). At this rate, I can’t see him being ready or effective. The man played for 70 or 75 minutes and didn’t do one thing that made me think otherwise. If he couldn’t score against the UAE, Namibia, and Austria with that much playing time then how is he gonna fare against South Africa, Angola, and Senegal? I won’t go on with this, but you know where I stand.

Back to Jemaa, who put forth a big effort. Once Tunisia settled into the match slightly and stopped giving the ball away on practically every possession, we started to see some things. When Jemaa is supported by the midfield and is freed to do his job he can press and cause serious problems for the defense. One of our best chances of the second half came when he surprised the Austrian defense and intercepted one of their clumsy passes with a direct pass to Santos who returned it a little too heavily for Jemaa who was in a 1 on 1 with the Austrian goalie. Unfortunately the keeper got to the ball before Jemaa could tap it.

Meanwhile, one can’t talk about this game without mentioning Mathlouthi (aka Balbouli) in goal. I said a few posts ago that I would like to see him in goal rather than Kasraoui and after watching last night my opinion has only strengthened. With our midfield (especially Belaid) looking quite ordinary and losing most of their duels, the Austrians were allowed to create quite a number of chances against our defense which stood firm. Haggui keeps amazing me with his level of play. At this point he’s superior to anyone we have in the center of defense. He doesn’t commit too early on tackles and waits for the perfect moment but when the time comes he goes in with authority and wins more than he loses (a lot more yesterday). We knew this though, his place is not in question. So back to Balbouli: he stopped an opportunity in a 1 on 1 situation by simply standing his ground, he showed great reflexes by stopping some very powerful shots on target and his positioning is immaculate. Not to mention, he’s a lot more physically imposing than Kasraoui and that intimidation factor goes a long way at that position. I can’t say enough about him. To me, he’s got to be our number one.

Frankly last night was a worrying game for me. It wasn’t a catastrophe but when you’re playing a team like Austria (which I rank in the 3rd tier of European teams), we need to win. At the very least we need to score. And one goal would have won it yesterday. The crazy thing is we made them look decent when they’re actually not even close to our true level. We’re more technical, more imposing physically and hell of a lot faster at most positions. The fact that we let them dictate the run of play was no good. It must be said that a lot of this has to do with the lineup. I like Belaid but yesterday might have been his worse game in a Tunisia jersey. He’s young though and I think he’ll come around. Even if you’re going to let Austria have the ball, you have to have to play with some tactics and in this case it would have been to counter attack quickly and effectively (like ESS did against Al Ahly). However, when you have our wingers defending there’s no outlet pass and nothing will go deep. On top of that, we had Santos leading the line and he’s just not capable right now.

The glimmer of hope came in the last 15 minutes. Tunisia blog favorites Chikhaoui, Chermiti, and Nafkha came onto the pitch and it was basically a new team. All of a sudden we were playing like we should have the whole game. We controlled the tempo and dictated the run of play. It’s a real shame that Chermiti is suspended for the first two games of the African cup because he did more in 15 minutes than Santos did in 70 (and barely broke a sweat). He had what looked to me like a good penalty claim waved off (he was tripped in the box and fell convincingly), he had the ambition to attempt a scissor kick which went high over the bar (I appreciated the effort though), and he created a number of other opportunities for us to open the mark late in the game (one of which was a reflex shot that he could have brought down to make things easier on himself). With so many scouts there yesterday (Arsenal, Hertha BSC, Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV, MSV Duisburg, VfL Wolfsburg, FC Nürnberg and Hannover 96) you can bet he made an impression.

Chikhaoui still hasn’t found the right balance between dribbling and passing in national team. In his club he has a creative license to do practically whatever he wants but I still haven’t seen him reach that level when playing in the red and white. I think this is something Lemerre has to take the blame for. When you have someone of that quality and you can’t get the best out of him it’s almost shameful. Chikhaoui, needs to play behind the two strikers not be isolated or constricted by a certain area. He also has a bizarre habit of dribbling past two players and then waiting for them so that he can dribble past them again. It can provide some entertainment but in a game like yesterdays it wasn’t what we needed. Nevertheless, this is someone that is coveted by the likes of Ajax (a team renowned for it’s talent recognition) so I’m not going to question his style of play. He just need to be put in the position where he can be most effective and that is when he can roam free.

Nafkha didn’t touch the ball much but his mere presence in midfield had a calming effect and Austria looked less potent as soon as he came on. That just shows you how badly Belaid played. I don’t know if it was the video resolution or me but I really didn’t see much of our youngster yesterday. His biggest contribution came when he cleared a certain Austrian goal off the line. I’m glad he was at the near post for that one. On the whole though, Nafkha touched the ball less but had more of an impact. I think he should be given some real time on the field in our next game. He has the potential to take the right side of midfield for himself. Even if that puts Belaid on the bench, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Belaid would still be in the plans but if he looks lost against Austria I don’t want to think about how he will look against Senegal in a few months.

I’m sorry for the negativity but it’s barely that really. I’m just being realistic. The last 15 minutes were very promising. With Jemaa, Chermiti, Chikhaoui, and Nafkha on the field we actually looked dangerous and (what is more crucial) cohesive. These guys seemed to understand each other and I think we should build around them. Chermiti’s suspension complicates things but we’ll just have to get around it for the first two games. We simply have no choice. But please please please, enough with Santos. I don’t think I can write about him anymore. To him I say, thanks for the memories but come back when we can actually use you! Besides, if we took him we’d have a take Jaziri (who I actually like) and thats a whole other question entirely. We haven’t included him in our plans and I think he’s playing quite well in Kuwait right now. Jaziri and Santos have always had a great understanding but if one of them can’t go then I don’t think the other should either. Plus a side of me just wants to turn the page and focus on the future. Neither of them will likely be available for the entirety of our world cup qualifying campaign and even if they were then I don’t see them being available in 2010 if we make it.

I forgot to mention Ben Fraj’s performance. He played a respectable game (defensively) but when you see how he plays with ESS and the positions he gets himself in, it’s almost night and day. On the national team he struggles to get high up the field and provide crosses or link up play with the midfield and the attack. It’s the second or third time he’s played like this and the right back position is still a question. Meanwhile on the left, I still prefer Mikari to Bekri who overcame his shakey start to have an ok outing.

In conclusion let me say this. The national team is better than it showed yesterday. I’m not a big believer in the Fifa rankings but I think for once they’re useful. We’re currently ranked 43rd in the world and Austria is 88th. We’ve been falling in the rankings and with a result like this we’re bound to either stay where we are or fall further. Given that they are constantly changing and no one really takes them very seriously (I mean the US was something like 6th in the world before the last world cup, that made no sense) I don’t care too much. But at 2 months before the African Cup we should be playing better soccer than this. The first half was a sad display with only a few high points and the second wasn’t much better despite the strong finish. It’s good we ended on a high. Now it’s time to choose a nucleus and build around it.

Enough with the testing and tinkering Lemerre (I think since the world cup we’ve tested around 100 players, no joke). For your information, you can only take around 22 to the African Cup! We’ve discovered some players but we’ve lost a year when it comes to the question of building a TEAM in the truest sense of the word. It’s time for a starting eleven, for better or for worse. On that note, which players do you think we should be building around? Some might consider this blasphemy but at this point I’d take a great deal of the ESS players who already have a team spirit and have developed a chemistry. We’re short on time and I think they can be the blueprint. Already the Nafkha, Chermiti, and Chikhaoui partnership that I mentioned earlier in the post is the remnants of last years team.

ps: Sorry for all the doom and gloom. I’m usually a lot more positive. We can still do something, it’s just time to act decisively and start the work needed to have us ready for the African Cup. After the CAN we’ll talk about whether Lemerre should keep his job…

The Highlights

They’re not very comprehensive highlights as they’re missing some of our chances and the late rally (Chermiti’s penalty claim etc.). You’ll get to see just how good Balbouli was though. Once I find better ones I’ll embed it into this post (sorry these aren’t embedded, I think World Cup Blog is having technical issues with this again). Worse comes to worse we have to wait until Sunday where Dimanche sport will almost surely touch on the match. Hopefully some other ones surface before then!

The Trip and the Game

Courtesy of Bman, thanks for finding this!

I didn’t mention the score in my game analysis as I was a lot more focused on the individual performances of our players but if you don’t already know, the game ended goalless for both sides. We both had chances but nothing went in.