This decision was only the first of many that cost us the points we so desperately needed to keep up with Espérance and Club Africain. Ahead of this game, it was sort of obvious that the Sfaxians would rest some of their key players considering the fact that they had more important stuff to deal with, like the Arab Champions League semi-final or their Cup game on Wednesday. The media did their part in spreading the news that Ghazi Ghrairi would field a squad of benchwarmers and reserve players, and we all thought it was a huge bluff. Rohr took the bait, and even had specific instructions for the likes of Karim Nafti and Soumah Naby. I bet the players were surprised to see that for once, they could take the papers’ word for it.

Our boys found themselves in front of a set of highly motivated CSS youngsters and really didn’t know how to deal with whom, since many of them were playing their first league game ever. From there on it was almost certain that the three points wouldn’t be ours, although the goals happened on individual errors, not due to an overwhelming offensive build-up or ball possession. Call it what you want : grinta, winning spirit, combattivity, the Étoile players definitely didn’t have it.

Here’s a recap of all three “important” league games of the last matchday :

A quick glance at the table will show you that we’re practically out of it. Club Africain’s remaining games are home against Stade Tunisien (whose last concern is the result), and away to Jendouba (serious relegation candidate, must win and wait). Espérance will be away to La Marsa (another relegation candidate) before hosting us at El Menzah in what I thought would be a decisive game for us. It still will be decisive, but we will be the spoilsports and decide who will win the title. But before that, we better not make complete fools out of ourselves against Hammam-Lif. There’s still hope, and I’d hate to see them throw it away in an easy game like that. Nobody knows what the teams at the bottom of the table can be up to. Espérance can find itself in a less comfortable position before our visit, but probably not Club Africain.

We’ll wait and see.

Yesterday’s game against our Hammami neighbours was without a doubt one of those that make me think ” Why the hell am I still watching tunisian football ? “. A very slow game, Hammam-Sousse with up to six players in the box. And yet they managed to get enough chances to make Bouderbala look like the hero of the day. If I were Mathlouthi, I’d start to worry about my first team spot, big time.

Bringing Ben Dhifallah and Meriah in for Mosrati and Toniche eventually gave us more dynamism. MBD got a nice header on target, and Khmiri forgot he wasn’t the one wearing the gloves. That late goal was Ammar Jemal’s 9th of the season, and 5th from a penalty kick – no one will complain that we don’t get enough PK’s this season. I won’t speculate on whether the win was fully deserved or not, but the goal certainly was. Hammam-Sousse put on a nice display and resisted well, Jupiter got the best of Ben Radhia most of the time, so we can consider ourselves lucky.

Right now, half of the Tunis population must be heading towards Rades, and the 10 million tunisians who couldn’t get a ticket warming up in front of their tellies. Isn’t anybody interested in writing a CA or EST blog here ? An email to daryl[at]theoffside[dot]com will do the trick ! My prediction : A nice show in the stands, a poor display on the pitch, referee Tom Henning Øvrebø fucks up one way or the other like he did back in Euro 2008. Final result : 1-0 for the Blood and Gold, CA and ESS see their title hopes fly away. Let’s see them prove me wrong. 3 pm CET, Tunis 7.

Now back to the actual football ! The game against Asante Kotoko was one of those where you have to hold together as a group and believe in your chances until the last minute. And we did, until the miracle happened and Coffie Codja actually granted us a penalty – which, unfortunately, we couldn’t see live due to the poor broadcast. Despite the point we came back with, we still have to beat JS Kabylie in Sousse next Saturday, but we got rid of Al Merrikh as a direct opponent. Goalkeeper Mathlouthi was arguably Étoile’s best man on the pitch, saving the day more than once, while the rest of the group did their job and held back against the numerous attacks of the ghanaian team. If we show this much strength against JS Kabylie, there is no reason to be anything else but confident ahead of this “semi-final”

This game will definitely be very special, not only because I’m lucky enough to arrive in Tunisia only a few hours before kick-off (Tunisian bloggers on the move, eh Rami?), but also because it’s one of those must-win situations where players have to give their best.

Mathlouthi, Nafkha, Felhi, Jemal and Mosrati, five of our 1st team players will get the chance to play against France today with the national team.  A huge opportunity for all of them, but they need to stay focused on the only competition that matters right now.

You can have a look at the only interesting goal of the game, Slim Jedaied’s 1 on 1 following a nice in-depth ball from Bejaoui. Apart from scoring, Jedaied wasn’t really impressing. At some point I thought I was watching a tired 35-year-old and not a youngster like him, but he did more than enough. He can just lay on the pitch if he scores a winner against JS Kabylie.

Your impressions about what happened in Kumasi, possible/preferred lineups are most welcome ! Good luck to our boys against les Bleus, see you soon, and inchallah marbouha.

I pointed out previously that winning your away games in addition to the home fixtures is the key to topping the group, but this seems to be everybody’s problem in Group B, which leads us to this table :

1 – Al Merrikh P:4 W:2 L:2 D:0 +2
2 – Étoile du Sahel P:4 W:2 L:2 D:0 0
3 – JS Kabylie P:4 W:2 L:2 D:0 -1
4 – Asante Kotoko P:4 W:2 L:2 D:0 -1

Everything’s possible, including an humiliating withdrawal from this second rate competiton. Not easy to picture it after the glorious 2007 campaign and the outstanding performance in Japan’s Club World Cup, but a lot of things have changed since. It doesn’t get easier when you know we still have to play Asante Kotoko in Ghana, and that our fate possibly won’t lie in our hands, given Al Merrikh’s one goal advantage on us. Speculating is useless anyway, the only thing left to do is wait and hope for an awakening. My guess though would be an agonizing last matchday battle between all teams, where the players would try their best on the field and yet have to wait for the outcome of the other game. But don’t we Tunisians enjoy it when things get spiced up ? We sure do, so allez les rouges !

I must say that a lot of people (myself included) were more afraid of what would happen if we won in Tizi-Ouzou – no offense, algerian football fans – than of the idea of coming back to Sousse with no points. JSK has clearly improved since our last encounter two years ago, and having to play without wonderkid Sadat Bukhari aka Boumeliar (referring to his high transfer fee of 1 million TND, 550.000€, a bit more than that when we bought him) can lead to a serious incapacity in the front, and Mehdi Ben Dhifallah didn’t show he was in good shape after losing his first team spot and his place on the National Team roster. His substitute Slim Jedaied didn’t do a lot better (he had a very nice shot from 40m that hit the crossbar), but that leads us back to the issue of having so many unexperienced players for this year’s campaign. We just have to deal with it.

This defeat isn’t tragic at all, we still have plenty of time and 4 games to top the group. Yet we can’t not look back at last year’s Champions League, when winning all our away games during the group stage proved crucial to winning the first place. Things will get better up front when Bukhari gets back from his suspension. Bassem Ben Nasr is improving, and Mejdi Mosrati can prove to be an efficient bench player.

ONE thing I have to mutter about : ART Sport’s egyptian commentator sounded like he had no idea of what was going on on the pitch, and we heard more information about the egyptian ref trio than about any of the two teams. Seriously, if you’re buying the TV rights to every african club competition, at least provide some decent coverage, with people who actually have a clue.

Bukhari is continuing to be up to the fans’ expectations, and his goal from 20m was an absolute stunner.
The team looks good, and our hopes can only get higher when you look at the other top teams struggling against minor competition : Club Africain drew Olympique de Béja 1-1 at home, CS Sfaxien lost at home to CS Hammam-Lif 3-1, and Espérance was outsmarted by newcomers ES Hammam-Sousse (2-1 loss away). If Decastel and his boys know how to take advantage of the situation, we’ll be alright !

Enjoy the goals : Jemal (17′), Touati (o.g. 26′), Bukhari (34′, 77′), Jemal (p. 84′)

Here’s the starting formation :

A. Mathlouthi, E. Opara, A. Abdennour, M. Sassi, A. Jmal, R. Felhi
M. Sakho, T. Fwayo, M.A. Nafkha, B. Ben Nasr, M. Meriah

First half :

There’s an interview with former ESS right back Saber Ben Frej (Le Mans UC 72) and his club’s president, Henri Legarda – maybe trying to hit two birds with a stone : nice vacation in Tunisia and interesting players to add to the transfer list.

Second Half :

Besides Opara, Tembo Fwayo was pretty impressive to watch, and I hope Decastel grants him a regular first team spot. His strength and acumen allow him to assist opportunist strikers like Opara and Bukhari in a very effective way. Nafkha performed well again, proving he’s become the masterpiece of Etoile’s midfield. Meriah confirmed what everybody was expecting along the left sideline. His crosses were, if not necessarily sharp, were well directed and completed Emeka’s skilled headplay.

The only major disappointment was Tarek Ziadi who came in the second half as substitute. I’m starting to think the guy’s a jinx, you only have to see how many times he missed in front of goal. I believe Decastel – who brought him along from CS Sfaxien – wants him to perform really well, but if he’s unable to score with assists from Fwayo and Meriah, the coach has to give someone else a chance too. If it were up to me, we still have 10 days left to sell him

The next fixture will see us pay our algerian neighbours JS Kabylie a visit, and it won’t be an easy one at all. They lost their first game agains Al Merrikh of Sudan 3-1, and another defeat will make them much less likely to take the group’s lead by mid-october.

Good luck to the other tunisian clubs in this competition as well : CS Sfaxien, who crushed Interclube of Angola 4-1 at home, and Club Africain, who unfortunately didn’t know how to manage their second half against egyptian side Haras Al Hodood, and lost 2-1 after a 0-1 lead in Alexandria.

I’d like to finish with a call to the fans of other tunisian clubs, especially Espérance, Club Africain and CS Sfaxien. If you want to make an addition through a blog dedicated to your team, contact Daryl : daryl [at] theoffside.com . It would be great to see tunisian football represented at a wider scale.

The first thing that surprised everybody I guess, was Decastel’s starting formation :

Mathlouthi (GK), Ben Mansour (CB), Opara (ST), Yaken (RB), Bejaoui (LB), Jmal (CB)
Bukhari (ST), Nafkha (MF), Ben Nasr (LW), Gelson (RW), Ben Hadj Frej (MF)

Decastel wanted to give some of the new and young players a chance right away, or maybe was forced to do so in the absence or lack of fitness of some players.
We didn’t see much from the CA players, but they had total control of midfield at times, since Étoile’s new-look-midfield still had to find itself. They came close to our penalty area, looking for free kicks as usual, and got one that really could have been avoided. Étoile’s defenders proved once again that they can be pretty naive when it comes to conceding dangerous free kicks (remember the cup final ?). A free kick well taken by Mouihbi caught Mathlouthi completely off guard (once again, he has to work on his and the wall’s positionning). Bukhari has managed to score a beautiful header (I somehow knew he would score) after a corner, leaving no chance for Nefzi. We saw some amazing offensive build-up from l’Étoile, thanks to the perfect understanding between Emeka Opara (seems he never left the team), Sadat Bukhari and the amazing Mohamed Ali Nafkha, who probably played his best game by far in the last months. Maybe it was Coelho’s decision to leave him out that fired him up. He had the chance to score a marvellous volley in the second half.

Unfortunately, these were the only 3 players who were really impressive. Ben Mansour, Yaken and Bejaoui still have a lot of work to do. The young Ben Hadj Frej was a bit better, he’s got the potential to become a central piece in Étoile’s midfield, and Gelson’s over-confidence has probably cost us a goal or two.

All in all, it’s a fair result, but it certainly makes the CA fans happier. The next league fixture won’t be an easy one : Club Athlétique Bizertin at home is always tough to play, but we will have got our classic central defense back, Ben Dhifallah up front, and maybe Ben Radhia if he recovers quick. We certainly can do without a couple of last year’s key player’s, but you can’t take them all away and expect the team to deliver the same game.

Enjoy the game’s highlights, and especially The Slap at 2:20 (I’m writing it in capitals since I’m expecting it to become one of Ben Chikha’s trademarks this year). Dhaouadi had protested (and probably couldn’t help yelling a few cursewords), and his trainer didn’t like it. Don’t mess with the Chikha next time !

One last remark about the refereeing. Mr. Trabelsi is one of those refs who like to stop play as much as they can, and it really got on my nerves. Who doesn’t like a nice fluid game ? That’s why the advantage rule was invented, and it would be nice if more referees made use of it more often. Apart from that, correct yellow card decisions for both sides, nothing to complain about