The tunisian league will now go on pause for two reasons : the muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun today, and it will make it harder for practicing players to play before sundown (not every LP1 stadium has floodlights), but more importantly to let the national team prepare for the oh so important WC qualifiying game against Nigeria on september 5th. Make sure to check out the Tunisia WCB for regular updates. But we will have to carry on with our african campaign, and hope to see more of today’s display. Who knows, it could probably pay off and guarantee us a spot in the semis. For now I’ll just stay ecstatic about today’s win.

Highlights and photos will be up as soon as they’re available.

The team traveled to Nigeria with a chartered plane (a luxury not a lot of clubs in Africa can afford), hoping to achieve something tunisian clubs have failed to do since they got involved in continental competitions : actually beating a local team. Heartland FC were hard to predict, not only because they are new to the competition, but because they also had an away defeat and a home win before that game, like all other teams in Group B. The major consensus was that Etoile would play for a point to ensure a serious advantage in topping the group, but that meant not reckoning with Heartland’s simple yet effective football.

The first 20 minutes were quite entertaining from an Etoile supporter’s point of view, and it really could have gone either way without some impressive goalkeeping by Mathlouthi and especially Heartland’s Austin Brown, who denied Sadat Bukhari on two occasions. From there on the Etoile ship began its journey towards sinking as Agba and Obaje gave their team a comfortable 2-0 lead before the break, with both goals resulting from naive man marking and positioning.

As the second half started, I hoped that the spirit which helped us come back in the last two games would save the day once again, but it just wasn’t there. Zouaghi and Nafkha seemed to have lost any connection to the team, Opara had the fitness of a 70 year old, and Jedaied was far too isolated to provide anything decent. It was only a matter of time before Owerri made it 3-0 for the home team, as we failed to even reduce the score knowing the importance of goal difference on direct confrontations.

We have a long struggle ahead of us, and no choice but winning our two next games, at home against Heartland and Monomotapa, before trying to get a miracle win in the DR Congo against group leaders Mazembé. On the first look, you might think the lads will get their act together and get those 6 points, backed with the home advantage, but from what I’ve seen yesterday, I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire on it. If you look at our opponents’ conditions and salaries, and the fact that some teams don’t even have a sponsor, you’re entitled to give our players no excuse for such a display. Moreover, we have to stop lingering about the fact that only 3 players are left from the squad that won the CL 2 years ago. This is professional football, people, and infuent players moving to Europe is nothing new for us, so just get over it.

It’ll be interesting to see what Lotfi Rhim has in mind as we prepare to face Hammam Sousse and Hammam Lif in the league before hosting Heartland FC. That is if he doesn’t get fired before, of course.

Granted, a tricky ACL game in Zimbabwe against an unknown opponent, Monomotapa United, isn’t exactly a dream start. Yet the newly appointed coaching staff (Lotfi Rhim, who led US Monastir to the cup final, and former Étoile and national team star Kais Ghodhbane) has had plenty of team to adjust to the roster and the atmosphere around the olympic stadium in Sousse. A few defensive mistakes and a constant lack of determination cost us the points in Harare, against the team currently holding the 11th (yes, 11th) spot in the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League.

The LP1 started in the same spirit. Coming back empty handed from the other end of the continent was enough to disgust players, coaching staff, and obviously the fans. Throw in a highly motivated young squad like this year’s Stade Tunisien, and the best you can hope for is a draw. Watching Stade Tunisien demolish title holders and arch enemy Espérance de Tunis 4-2 last Saturday was really comforting for me and a lot of Étoile fans though.

As of last weekend, we had a defeat and a draw from two games, which only meant that Lotfi Rhim had to worry about his job if his side failed to beat Tout Puissant (french for Almighty) Mazembé, arguably the best club from the DR of the Congo, with a rather interesting history. Lucky for him, the lads had enough balls to come back from a 0-1 stunner by Luyeye Mvete, thanks to Ammar Jemal on a PK, and Aymen Abdennour with a nice header. The gutting aspect of that game was seeing Sadat Bukhari miss so many chances. The striker is way below his form from last season, and if he doesn’t react quickly, he may very well lose his first team spot permanently. With at least 3 clear misses, he gave us a thrill we could have done without, as the game could have been sealed long before the half time break.

One hour from now, l’Étoile will be trying to get the first 3 points from Espérance de Zarzis. A tough game for many reasons : 1- travelling to Zarzis is never easy for any club in the league, 2- Tunisian south in August, temperatures well over 35°C, 3- we will be without our n°1 goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi, who’s not feeling well.

Expected line-up :

Bouderbala

N. Jebali – Ayari – Jemal – Abdennour

I. Jebali – Nafkha – Mabrouk – Gelson

Bukhari – Jedaied

I guess it’s the last chance for Bukhari to prove he’s still 1st team material. I’m happy about the inclusion of Selim Jedaied, who got things moving up front as soon as he was subbed in last Saturday against Mazembé. It would be great for him to score Étoile’s first goal of the season.

You can follow me on twitter, I’ll make sure to post regularly before and after each game, and I’m still open to any suggestions.

Group B

• Étoile du Sahel (TUN)

• TP Mazembé (RDC)

• Heartland (NIG)

• Monomotapa (ZIM)

Group A therefore consists of :

• El Merreikh (SUD)
• El Hilal (SUD)
• Zesco United (ZAM)
• Kano Pillars (NIG)

This surely could have been worse. In addition, topping Group B would allow us to play the return leg of the semi-final (and the final, if we make it) at home. Just brilliant isn’t it ? With the other big names – Al Ahly, ASEC Mimosas, Coton Sport – out of the picture, one might think that this is probably the easiest Champions League we’ve had to play, but we have to show some prudence and respect towards the opponents, who will be relying on the element of surprise. Chokri Lamiri, head of the football section at Étoile du Sahel, in an interview with cafonline.com :

“Sincerely, I am really satisfied with our group. In Sousse, we were praying to avoid the Sudanese teams and our wishes came true. After a brief difficult period the club seems to have redeemed itself. Before now and the start of the next phase, there will be sometime for holidays and people can return to work harder. I hope that the Ramadan which is coming too soon will not have any negative effect on our players especially with teams like T. P Mazembe in our group. We also have teams like Monomotapa which eliminated ASEC and Heartland which booted out Coton Sport. Teams must now be judged by their results.”

And here’s what TP Mazembe’s technical director Aboubacar Ouattara had to say :

“We have to expect an open and intense contest in the group. Etoile Sahel is one of the pillars of African football for the past decade and the two other teams relatively unknown have proved their worth. You don’t get to this stage of the competition by chance. There must be some quality in the team which is what we have been able to do. But experience has shown that we need to be humble as we need to go as far as possible, like our other opponents will want to. It will be great to win the trophy in the same year that we won the CHAN.”

This group stage will stretch between mid-july and mid-september, which should leave the team enough time to rest after the final game of the season, get on with the preparation, and eventually adjust to a new coach. Word has it that Gernot Rohr will be leaving after the EST game, and that his replacement will be US Monastir’s current coach, Lotfi Rhim, who led the Blues to the first cup final in their history.

Our first step will be away to Monomotapa in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, a team we know absolutely nothing about, except that they managed to kick out ASEC Mimosas, and won the Zimbabwe Premier League for the first time in 2008.

How do you think we will do in this Group ?(answers)

1. Étoile makes it to the group stage of the CAF Champions League with not much effort

2. Real 2-6 Barcelona, you had to enjoy that even if you don’t care for the spanish Liga

3. Espérance 2-3 US Monastir in the Cup semi-final, and our rivals can forget about their ridiculous quadruple idea

Not much to say about last Saturday’s game in my opinion. The lads just pulled themselves together and got the job done, with some help from Tripoli’s shaky backline and passive goalkeeper. You didn’t have to be a genious to come out with the conclusion that whenever we just keep the ball on the ground and just pass it around, we can be dangerous. I’d sincerely would like to know who tells 11 professional football players that they can produce a decent play just by catapulting the ball from defense to Sadat Bukhari. Anyway, we’re finally beginning to ged rid of that habit.

The other good news concerning the Champions League is that we’re in it with some rather easy competition compared to the last tournaments. With Al Ahly of Cairo, Coton Sport of Garoua (Cameroon) and ASEC Mimosas of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) eliminated, our chances of bringing the cup home are higher than ever. The May 7th draw in Cairo will decide which of these 7 teams will join us in the group stage :

- Kano Pillars FC – Kano, Nigeria : qualified at Ahly’s expense after a 3-3 on aggregate, thanks to away goals

- ZESCO United FC – Ndola, Zambia

- Al Merreikh – Omdurman, Sudan : we met them in the group stage of last year’s CAF Confederation Cup

- Heartland FC – Owerri, Nigeria

- TP Mazembe – Lubumbashi, DR Congo : the strongest of the lot if you ask me, mostly thanks to the “next Samuel Eto’o”, Trésor Mputu, who became a target of many tunisian clubs after being the competitions top goalscorer in 2007.

- Monomotapa United FC – Harare, Zimbabwe

- Al Hilal – Omdurman, Sudan : Another force to be reckoned with

To be honest, I’ve never even heard of 4 out of these 7 teams, so we might be in for a little surprise in Nigeria, Zambia or Zimbabwe. The african competition safari trips are never easy, and most of the time you can consider yourself lucky if you come home with a draw. But we’re the most experienced team of that lot, and we’d better take the most of this and maybe make history again in the Club World Cup !

Right after that game, I could rejoice at some reports on Rohr getting the sack, but apparently it was just a rumour. I’ve also heard that the players “insisted” he should be maintained, and threatened not to come to training sessions anymore. Of course ! Who would want to let a trainer like that go away ? Kids in pre-school have heavier schedules than Étoile players, and nobody else would give them so much praise or look for excuses in their place after each crappy performance. But I’m one of hundreds of thousands of fans who want to see their team play football and at least TRY to win. I don’t think sacking another coach will change anything. It’s really all about the players, their mentality, their attitude. We need to get rid of some old faces, teach the younger ones like Ammar Jemal some humility, especially after he had another outburst after angry Étoile fans shouted at him after the cup match.

This team is only a shadow of the one that made the Sahel believe in winning again. I’m not too optimistic about the African Champions League now, but the final is in december, we’ll have time and a transfer window to hopefully get there. The management and the coaching staff have to start thinking about next year, because a third season with no domestic titles would be just unbearable.

Drawing Espérance away in the quarters is never funny, but having to play them in such difficult circumstances is even less funny. After reducing our title chances to next to nothing, our only hope remaining hope for a domestic title is the cup.

After the defeat to Club Sfaxien, it’s obvious that some changes need to occur in order to make the team stand on the right foot again. Rohr will have to make new choices, and here’s an idea of what these may be.

Bassem Boulâabi has apparently been doing pretty well in training, and should consequently team up with Radhouene Felhi in central defense, with Ammar Jemal still under his 4 match ban. Everson will miss due to a third yellow card, so Nafkha will probably start in midfield and hopefully be productive on free-kicks, assuming that we get enough of them.

With Ben Dhifallah and Hamdi Mabrouk still a doubt, it’s not unlikely to see Tembo Fwayo in the starting XI after some time with the reserves. There’s also talk of Adnene “Daina” Raddaoui, a 20 year old promising ESS grown offensive midfielder, in the starting XI as well, but I wouldn’t get too excited about it. The first thing we need in this sort of match is experience, that’s why I’d rather see Mossâab Sassi or Mejdi Mosrati, despite his poor form lately.

Other than that, the players certainly know that they HAVE to win this game, not only to regain some support, but also to get more confident ahead of our CAF Champions League clash against Al Ahly of Tripoli. Apparently, chairman Moez Driss has promised them a substantial and “exceptional” bonus if they make it to the semis. It’s only up to them now.

Quick word on the ref who has been picked for this game : Eric Braamhaar from the Netherlands, who is famous for looking rather happy after Ajax scored a goal against PSV in the 2006/2007 Eredivisie season :

Let’s hope he likes all teams that have red and white kits !

16:30 CET, Rades Stadium, Tunis 7 or Tunis 21. A live stream will certainly be available on www.power-ess.com.

Enjoy it and inchallah marbouha.

Last minute edit

I found this minutes after posting : the likely formation for tomorrow’s game. I got Boulâabi and Daina right, but Xavier wasn’t expected.

Do you think we’ll make good use of the element of surprise in midfield ?

Being on the pitch in front of those crazy crowds must have been intense enough, that’s why the players deserve a lot of credit for holding on against the pressure kept by Chlef, especially Massoud and Gharbi with their long range shots (where were these guys in the first leg?). But Mathlouthi and the woodwork stood between them and a goal that would have been enough to get us out of the competition. But we didn’t stay in our half for 90 minutes, that’s just not how Étoile rolls in african competitions. We saw some nice collective play at times, but didn’t really take advantage of the few counterattacks we managed to get. Meriah almost surprised Chlef’s keeper with a high ball from a free kick when the stadium was covered up in smoke. With a bit more luck, it would have gone in instead of bouncing on the cross-bar. What a goal that would have been ! Most of the credit goes to the defenders, no doubt about that.

These are the games that show you if your team is able to handle the pressure and the environment, to concentrate on achieving a given task, like not conceding at any cost. Our next opponent will be Al Ahly of Tripoli, Libya in less than two weeks, with the return leg in Sousse. Piece of cake ? I wouldn’t put any money against l’Étoile anyway !

Next Friday will be the first of a series of crucial fixtures to end the season. After winning 2-1 in Sousse against ASO Chlef, we now travel to Algeria for the tricky return leg. Having conceded an away goal, it is not easy to predict how Gernot Rohr will deal with this game. Will he try to manage the result and rely on set pieces and counter-attacks, or will he try to get an early lead that will let his boys play less nervously ? 

One way or another, he can rely on a complete squad. Mehdi Ben Dhifallah will miss due to an injury, but Emeka is fit again and could play a role in this fixture. 

In other news, Ammar Jemal’s 4 match ban has been maintained by the FTF after the first appeal. Étoile can now take the case to the CNAS (which they will probably do) or just leave it and face the fact that we’ll have to win this title without him.

  Will Étoile qualify to the next round of the CAF Champions League
( polls)