Arab Derby Time: Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia Preview

October 13th, 2009 | by: Rami | Comments(109)

A mere three days after having narrowly edged Kenya 1-0 in World Cup qualifying at Rades stadium, our boys will be back at it again at 19:00 CET tomorrow. It’s not so often that we get treated to two matches in such a short span unless we’re in a tournament or preparing for one so this is somewhat of a unique occasion.

However this isn’t any old regular friendly considering all Tunisian football fans are demanding that the squad show some flair and attacking fluency that they failed to produce versus the Harambee Stars. In truth, a tie where we actually go out with the intention of constructing our attacks will be more appreciated than if we play like we did on Sunday and win unconvincingly.

This isn’t a qualifier, there are no points involved and thus this will give Humberto Coelho an opportunity to test many players, formations, and lineups that he hasn’t dared try out in other fixtures where he judged that there was too much at stake to tinker with a formula that has been producing results.

On the other hand, there are plenty of fans who still remember being reduced to tears by this same Saudi Arabian team in 2006 and thus want to our squad to set the record straight and get a resounding victory. While it’s true that this encounter is a rematch of that game which produced a result that Carthage Eagles fans still have a tough time swallowing, our team has changed so much since then that any talk of revenge isn’t really appropriate (at least in my opinion).