Jaziri is playing in Kuwait now and hasn’t been called up since he moved there. He’s gotten a little older and from what I hear he’s not training very regularly with the team there. He comes to training when he wants and doesn’t when he doesn’t feel like it. Not exactly the attitude you’re looking for. He gave a lot to the team but we have good strikers who can take his place (Chermiti, Mouihbi, Akrout and others). If he’s back in shape he could still be called up but since I think we are looking more towards younger players now as they are the future. We won’t forget what Jaziri did for us of course. He could still make a return, it just depends.

Santos has been out of shape because he doesn’t get very much playing time at Toulouse. The coach there doesn’t like him and leaves him on the bench all the time. So he needs a new team where he can get back in form. He might be signing for Grenoble. He could definitely return.

Nafti had a little injury but nothing serious. He’ll be a back and same with Haggui who a surgery that was not very invasive. Haggui is still one of the pillars of the team.

I hope you can fulfill your dream of playing for the team one day my friend. If I’m still writing maybe I’ll be writing about you! hehe, keep practicing and stick to it. It’s worth a shot!

I don’t know if the handling of the ball makes Chermiti smart. Maybe it makes him clever and sneaky… I guess that’s splitting hairs though. I’m just saying, next time something messed up happens to our team in sub saharan Africa with a wack referee maybe we shouldn’t scream so loud… The margin of victory was small and that “goal” was it. Even Seif Ghzel said the penalty and sending off actually had a negative effect on us because it motivated Burundi. Whatever, I’ll take the 3 points. We were one mistake away from tying that match yesterday and that’s really disturbing.

Mr. Coelho, good luck!

Just like when maradonna scored with his hand because he knew the keeper would get to the ball before him.

And i know i’m definatly not the only one.

as for the game itself, i agree with everyone else, i watched the first half, and after realizing it would finish 2-1, i went to watch the second half of the russia game. i really dont understand how we only beat a team like burundi at home by one goal. in the next round(inshallah we make it) we’ll be playing teams like cote d’ivore or egypt or ghana) thank god lemerre is gone. i can’t wait for chikhaoui to come back because i think his absence is a big reason why we’re playing so poorly. i dont know if it has been planned yet, but it is absolutely neccessary to play a friendly or two before the burkina faso game, because if we dont win that, its unlikely that we will qualify for the world cup, even if we do make it to the next round.

Rachid, I think that the outrage isn’t there because people legitimately don’t care for the team anymore. What do you expect when Roger Lemerre mocks us by putting in Essifi instead of the in form Mouihbi and starting an out of shape Nafkha instead of the leading scorer in the Tunisian league. His decisions defy all logic. If he did those things and we played well he could get away with it but we play like shit. The fans who stayed home to watch Russia-Holland made the right decision in the end. They need to be given a reason to care again. Lemerre is gone, maybe we can get our team back finally.

I honestly don’t think its a player problem. I think that we have plenty of guys that want to impress and love the jersey. Its just Lemerre has complicated things so much that even the players have been touched psychologically by the situation. They show up at Rades and it’s like a ghost town. The determination doesn’t only come from within. We have to rally around our team now and actually give them some enthusiasm.

As for which players should be called up, it’s hard to get into that discussion without writing forever. All I have to say is this, the players who are most in form at the moment a game is about to be played should be the ones called up. We shouldn’t rely on names or reputations. Coelho has a clean slate and he has an opportunity to completely change the mindstate of this team. I think the future looks positive. We were living under a cloud. A team can’t give everything when there’s so much negativity around it. So much of it stemmed from Lemerre’s decisions, now they are a thing of the past.

Achraf, I’ll definitely be writing about the Coelho press conference. I’m very interested in what he has to say after seeing that disgrace yesterday. I want to hear what his conception of the team is. What kind of style he’d like to implement and what his tactical outlook is. I hope he addresses some of that. The man seems like a warm hearted person who legitimately would like us to succeed. I don’t know him that well but that is my first impression. I hope he proves me right in that regard. He will be a breath of fresh air after 6 years of coldness. A lot will depend on this first press conference. He needs to set the tone for a good relationship with journalists and the Tunisian sporting public. Hopefully he gives us the impression he cares about our opinion. Ultimately he will have to make tought decisions and he cannot please everyone but a smile goes a long way…

Abdullah, we did not qualify for the CHAN. We lost out to Lybia and a lot of it had to do with the fact that we didn’t take this tournament seriously at all. It’s a good initiative in one sense but it also puts a serious strain on our players who are relied upon in the national team. I wrote about it a while back… Mouihbi played and scored in the first game but in the second we ended up losing on penalties after an away goal by Lybia. Mouihbi didn’t play in that game and some people said it was so we wouldn’t qualify.

But you are right i think coelho should look for only the very best and fit players who actually want to win and defend their country at all costs, that’s what i would do for my country!