Bumpy season start

By: Houssem | August 5th, 2009

I’ve been waiting for good stuff to happen before my first post, and now that we have finally got a win in our third game of the season, Champions League campaign included, I can finally begin to make my mind about the team so far.

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.