Étoile 2 – 1 ASO Chlef

By: Houssem | March 17th, 2009

Pheeew ! I think we avoided the worst last Saturday by scoring two amazing free kicks against a very tenacious ASO Chlef side. I had underestimated them, and they showed a very physical game, stood perfectly well in defence and disrupted our already diminished attack – Ziadi will miss the first part of the competition because then-interim-manager Hervé Gauthier didn’t bother to include him and Manga on the 25-player list. Highlights after the jump.

TV7 – Dimanche Sport 15/03 – (1)
Hochgeladen von SuperBeurkMan

Thanks a lot to Mehdi Ben Dhifallah and Everson for those beauties. I have been waiting for such a stunner from Everson since we signed him, and he finally did it ! As to Ben Dhifallah, I believe some luck definitely was there, but the routine looks like it’s been tried before in training, although he denied it after the game. Cudos to him anyway. Chelf’s Paul Biaga also gave the algerian fans something for their money with that 12th minute shot that gave his team the lead. Can’t complain about the show these players gave. This doesn’t make up for all of Chlef’s horrible anti-football though. I saw some stuff in this game that I had never seen before, like a goalkeeper going to look for a ball when there was already one on the 5,50m line. The referee didn’t bother to show them a few yellow cards, so they kept on and on, whereas our own Souheil Ben Radhia got booked for waiting 5 seconds to play a throw-in. The funniest part was to see Chlef’s coach complain about the refereeing afterwards !

What I will retain from this game is that the strategy could have been more appropriate. Our old 4-4-2 didn’t prove to be effective, and Tembo’s inclusion came way too late in my opinion. In addition, we needed a player who would get control of things in midfield, and synchronize the game. This could be achieved by making a guy like Everson get more involved in offensive build-up, he definitely has what it takes. Also : what’s with the long balls ? Four games remaining in the league, and we’re playing like a third division team, staging some kind of “who can get the ball higher?” contest.

I’m not saying big changes are necessary. It wouldn’t make any sense at this stage, and our current position in the table proves that we have been doing well enough. However, if we are to go through in the ACL and remain a serious threat in domestic competitions, some choices need to be rethought.

PS : Sorry for passing on the liveblog. I was getting ready for it when some mates decided to show up at my place and watch the game together, there was no way I could watch the game on the Power-TV stream AND blog with two mad supporters watching as well. I’ll make up for it, promised !