Comments on: Tunisian Cup Semifinals Mini Preview

By: Rachid

Rachid — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:22:12 +0000

Momo, I agree 100% with your assessment. Sorry, that I got a little carried away. I was not ready for another disappointment, and luckily l’Etoile won. They are clearly struggling with Ghzel, Ben Frej, etc gone. It did not help that the cup games have been so delayed!

By: Rami

Rami — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:46:14 +0000

Match Recap and goals are up! I think Stade Tunisien deserves serious congrats for their efforts today. Even my Etoiliste friends were impressed with them. I’m not saying Etoile doesn’t deserve to go through but you have to admit Stade did their thing today and could easily have taken it.

By: Momo

Momo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:22:06 +0000

Rachid, man clearly you are an avid Etoile supporter, but how can we believe what you say when we know you are bias? I did not watch the entire game, but I thought Stade Tunisien played well too, at least for the part I watched. They gave us an entertaining match despite all the problems we know the Baklawa are going through. These are the kind of teams we need more of in the league so we can see higher quality competition. I don’t expect this will be a changing point for Etoile, because they’re still struggling, remind you the game ended with a 2-2 draw. They can still easily go down in the Final if they keep conceding goals like that. On a different note, for Etoile’s benefit next season, I think Amine Chermiti should get out of Sousse as soon as possible. He’s causing too many problems that might cost Etoile a little too much for him to stay. It’s disappointing to see a talent like him behaving like that. He needs to keep his feet on the ground.

By: Rachid

Rachid — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:59:28 +0000

L’Etoile dominated, deserved to win, and did. Mhaddebi tried, but Mathlouthi made a brilliant save. ST had 3 ex-Etoile players trying to prove a point. They tried, but eventually l’Etoile went through. This win means a lot to l’Etoile; in fact, I would go as far as calling it a turning point. Clearly, DeCastel is a positive sign for l’Etoile, and I’m very happy for him. He seems to have a big heart, and it’s nice to see that got rewarded. Robertinho is a cowboy of a coach. That works in the short term, but often lacks consistency. I sure hope Gafsa wins tomorrow and face a crushing defeat against l’Etoile in the final. Paybacks are hell, and I sure wish to see them experience that. I’m surprised they settled on playing in Kairouan; why not Beja or Rades; that way they get to make some really $$ from Esperance fans (”ibtizaz”), as they did with CA fans! Also, their club president can order his number one goal keeper not to play, because of suspicions that he may “sell” the match to Esperance. Or, do these irregularities happen in championship games only!!!

By: Momo

Momo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:53:38 +0000

Abdullah, man you are being too harsh on Trabelsi. I think it is actually a courageous decision he took when he stopped playing for the Eagles. He could have continued playing, but we all know that today’s Trabelsi is not the same Trabelsi of 4 years ago, well maybe some of us still need to be reminded of that once in a while. Like Rami said, I am happy with Ben Fraj playing there, and besides a right back is not a very pivotal position in football, some teams do away with it by playing only 3 center backs. So required experience in that department is definitely out of context. In fact Trabelsi did not bring any experience in his days when he played. All he brought was speed and tireless runs, and guess what now he’s out of gas and he has a bad knee. Please don’t Zidanise Trabelsi just because he was our number 1 star in Europe. He was the most famous of all players, but I don’t think he was the most crucial. This is a mistake some people make. Look at France, they got rid of the whole 98 squad except Zidane during the World Cup, and you know why? not because he was famous, but because Zidane playing or not meant France winning or not. I don’t think that’s the case with Trabelsi, unfortunately many people over count on him too much..maybe that’s why he was pushed to quit.

By: Rami

Rami — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:32:56 +0000

Abdullah I’m with you on the money thing. He’s definitely after lots of money and it pisses me off also. I know that he supports a lot of people in Sfax but you’d think by now he’d have enough to keep them and himself happy. Marseille is a great club and he could have played there after the departure of Habib Beye. He can play on his knee but I was saying that the teams didn’t want to give him the kind of contracts he wanted because of the knee. Thats one thing they cited after every medical.

As far as the national team goes I respect his decision to stop playing for it. We don’t want players in the team who don’t want to be there. There’s absolutely no point in that. Plus as I said before we have players who have taken his place and done just fine. Jaidi and Mnari bring experience and even though he’s young, Haggui does also. I don’t have a problem with a young team. I really like our group of players in the national team, we’ve just needed a coach who can set up a system that plays to their strengths. I think we might have one now but only time will tell.

By: Abdullah

Abdullah — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:26:32 +0000

Rami, if Trabelsi can play for a team in the premier league i think he should be able to play in the national team,…. at least that is what i would do, i would even consider playing at a less known team just to be able to represent my country.

And the fact that he didnt accept the offer from marseille(wich is a pretty good club) makes me suspect he doesnt only play for the game but more for the $$big bucks$$.

Could it be that he wasnt satisfied with the ammount of money they where paying him, or is it really his knee.

Anyway i think we need players like him and jaidi for their experience, they keep a young team balanced.

For example take the dutch national team, the always have a bit of experience in either their devensive positions or offensive potitions, i mean even the goalkeeper (Edwin van der Sar) is playing with them from 1993 until now, and up front they have had Ruud van Nistelrooy for about 10 years now.

By: Rami

Rami — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:04:28 +0000

Hey Momo, I saw the match and will try to write about it asap. I might wait until after tomorrows game and do a two in one type deal. Coelho was not at the match today (he’s back in portugal) but he will be at the final. I think he’ll still get to see tape of the match though. At least he should.

Robertinho did a good job with Baklawa but he made some mistakes today that cost his team dearly. He took out one of their best players Jedidi who was having the match of his life and put in Mhadhebi who is only just coming back. Result, Mhadhebi misses a penalty just like the one he missed against Argentina in the Confederation Cup. Also, they didn’t put in their Goalie Zidane who is a penalty stopper and it hurt them a lot in the end.

It was a great game though, even though Baklawa was hard done by the referee who called an inexistant offsides on their first goal and disallowed it. I thought they deserved to go through after coming back from a goal down twice. They really impressed me. Having Etoile in the final is by no means a bad thing though. The goals were crazy!

By: Momo

Momo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:50:07 +0000

Hey Rami, did you get a chance to watch Stade Tunisien play Etoile Sahel today? I caught up with the end of the match, and what a game it was! I haven’t seen games like that for a while in Tunisia man! Did you see the goals? Incredible. I hope Coleho was watching, because there are a few Stade Tunisien players who deserve a call-up to the National Team at least for the upcoming friendly. Imagine if they had Amir Akrout with them..Selliti and Akrout combo up front can arguably be the best attacking duo in the entire league. It is sad Robertinho will be leaving, because he really did a great job for the Baklawa. I hope tomorrow’s match will be a good one too..although it is unfortunate to hear Gafsa is missing a number of key players, the likes of Lotfi Belhaj and Tarak Salem. I heard Esperance will be missing the talented Aboucherouane too.

By: Rami

Rami — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:04:23 +0000

Trabelsi has issues with his knee so teams don’t want to spend lots of money on him. Marseille wanted him and he said no because they wouldn’t pay him like he was being paid in England (that’s normal since the English teams overpay players all the time). Le Mans wanted him too but ended up with Ben Frej (a better deal both financially and also considering his younger age). I have no clue where he is. And Abdullah I disagree, he’s not a traitor because he gave us many years of great performances. It’s his time to go anyway we have great players at right back like Ben Frej and Berradhia who are younger and need to get their chance. I do think it’s ridiculous he’s not playing anywhere though. He should accept less money and get a few more season in, it’s sad for a legend like him to stop playing like this without a trace.