A solid performance in the first half, a brilliant goal by Ahmed Akaichi to end his scoring draught, and lots of promises by the new guys. Or how the “Étoile new look”, as the TV commentators dubbed it, begins to impress.

I was expecting a tough game, since CS Hammam-Lif are maybe the toughest mid-table team in the Tunisian LP1, but we controlled it from the very beginning, despite 3 changes in comparison to the season kick-off against Espérance : Goalkeeper Bouderbala in for the recovering Mathlouthi, Ben Chagra for Jebnoun and Belakhal for the suspended Chedly.

Our players got down to business very early on, with full backs  Chagra and Abdennour (whose disappointing loan at Werder Bremen probably worked out for the best from our point of view) making fast runs and getting crosses into the surface as soon as the second minute. The CSHL players were basically unable to even keep the ball, let alone leave their own half and build up some play. The whole pressure led up to a logical opener in the 12th minute. Abdennour nets home a corner after the ball flies past Felhi, totally undisturbed.

After the first goal, the players continued to offer a good show. Akaichi displayed a lot of skill on the ball, and wasn’t afraid to take on up to 3 defenders on his own, although he still seems to overdo the dribbling a bit. One player who particularly impressed me was Lamjed Chehoudi, who seemed to get along pretty well with Akaichi, covering his back, pulling defenders to allow him to make some incursions, and even getting a shot from distance that passed just right off Zitouni’s goal.

Only a few minutes later, Akaichi finally managed to get his first goal since what seemed an eternity, and you could see he was relieved to break the spell.

From there on, it was all about keeping things that way, and I didn’t really expect the second half to be as impressive as the first. I guess the most important aspect Fakhir had in mind was keeping his players fit. No player could have performed at the same level for 90 minutes in that heat anyway. I just wanted to see Danilo and Atético Madrid wannabe star Sadick Adams play, and wasn’t disappointed as they were subbed in at the 63rd and 79th minute respectively. Unfortunately, Danilo didn’t make the impact I was looking for. We only saw him again in the last minute after he was just short of a low cross by Adams.

Good performance all in all, and special mention to all the new young faces in the team. Maybe letting the ones who have won everything and don’t have any aspirations left except securing the post-retirement years with some petrodollars or barely well-earned euros and swiss franks go, and bringing in young talents from small clubs who are hungry for titles, eager to show what they can do, and are probably motivated when someone tells them that national coach Bertrand Marchand is watching from the stands IS the right way to do things if you want to make radical changes and bring a culture of winning back to a club.

Some of these guys are going places, especially Chehoudi, Akaichi or Chagra, and now that they are at a club like Étoile, they simply have to give their best.

The Good : 26 year old Brazilian midfielder Danilo Petrolli Bueno will be qualified to be in Étoile’s starting XI on August 1st, as we face the tricky suburban Tunis team of CS Hammam-Lif. I can’t say that I’m not excited about him making his first apparition in the Tunisian League. The man is reported to be a very skilled playmaker, and was elected best player of the Brazilian Serie B in 2008/2009 with Atlético Bragantino. In addition to that, he was a target for Reggina, Catania and Sao Paulo FC before signing at Étoile. I’m sure he’ll provide some much neede livelihood in our midfield and connect the strikers to the rest of the team. I hope he won’t be another South American disappointment (remember Mendoza ?)

The Bad : No Mathlouthi . Tunisia’s current first choice between the posts underwent surgery in France a few days ago, and will miss training for the next couple of weeks. Mohamed Bouderbala should be filling in for him. Also, Adel Chedli is suspended after his red card against Espérance, so we should see Mohamed Ali Nafkha in midfield.

The game will be played in Radès, which takes me back to that 2001 Cup final, first game to be played in the then brand new stadium, and to CSHL’s Anis Ben Chouikha’s stunning long distance shot that denied us the Cup yet another time. Would be nice if we could beat a Tunis based team in Rades for a change !

The 2010-2011 season started yesterday in Tunisia with 5 games played in Rades, Bizerte, Gafsa, Hammam-Sousse and Zarzis, and two to be played on Sunday. It’s quite unusual for the tunisian season to start before the european championships, but with the month of Ramadan only a few weeks ahead, the league heads probably wanted to get a head start before the “mandatory” break, where professional football players prefer refraining from food and water during the day to actually doing their jobs. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

The fixture was of course Tunisia’s Clásico : Espérance against Étoile. You can hardly imagine a better start to the season in theory, but the circumstances gave birth to one of the most boring games I ever watched. Due to Espérance supporters’ shenanigans during and in the aftermath of the previous season’s last fixture, the host team was sentenced to play in front of empty stands. A necessary decision, although it always takes away most of the game’s attractiveness and influences the way both teams perform.

The new Étoile showed its face for the first time in an official fixture : new coach Mohamed Fakhir (managed Morocco’s national team from 2006 to 2007, as well as most moroccan clubs starting 1983, and won the CAF Confederation Cup in 2005 with FAR Rabat), and an awful lot of new players, both well known and unknown to the general public. Familiar faces are former internationals Francileudo dos Santos and Adel Chedli, Radhouane Felhi, Aymen Abdennour and Seif Ghezal who made their comeback to the Sahel club after not-so-convincing spells with Werder Bremen, 1860 München and BSC Young Boys. Newcomers on the pitch were Hamza Jabnoun, King Osanga, Mehdi Marzouki, Lamjed Chehoudi Wael Belakhal, and Marouen Belghoul who made their first appearance, awaiting those of brazilian midfielder Danilo and ghanaian striker Sadick Adams.

The starting line-up presented the advantage of a routined defence with Felhi, Ghezal and Abdennour. All of them looked good for the whole duration of the game, as well as Mathlouthi who saved free kicks by Darraji and Chammem and didn’t have any trouble with aerial balls. Unfortunately for the rest of the players, the congested midfield, the prudent attitude of both coaches and the unbelievable number of fouls made for a very difficult first half where we seemed to look for quick counters instead of building up decent attacks.

The second half, which saw Étoile-bred Mejdi Traoui replace the injured Bouazzi in Espérance’s line-up, was slightly less frustrating than the first. We had a couple of decent chances and should have made the most of EST goalie Wassim Naouara’s hesitation and insecurity, but luck wasn’t on our side, as always when we play teams from the capital in Rades.  Adel Chedly was sent off only minutes before the final whistle after an unnecessary hand ball caused him a second booking. We could have done without that, especially after the former Tunisia skipper’s display and audacity from outside the box.

I believe there is some quality in this team, it’s still the first game of the season, and the most important thing was not to lose it, especially against the incumbent champions. The three points could have been ours for the taking, but I’m sure supporters can look the other way, considering how many new players are on the squad and the fact that they still need to adapt to each other. There will be plenty of time for that during the Ramadan break, during which the technical staff doesn’t plan on resting : a friendly against Emirati club Bani Yas on August 4th is already in the books, but only after another tricky away game against Hammam-Lif on August 1st. Let’s hope we can come home with the three points this time.

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 !

Gernot Rohr must look pretty stupid now. Changing to a more attacking approach for once got us 7 goals against the same team that held off Espérance to a 2-2 draw and beat Club Africain 3-1. Meriah was left out (much to my liking), making way for the more ambitious Mosrati. Slim Jedaied was on a good day, and I’m sure there’s more to expect from this youngster if he is given a proper chance.

The lesson we can take is that Étoile always has been an attacking team. Playing with 3 defensive midfielders never was our way of doing things. It’s become clear now that Gernot Rohr didn’t quite realize how much potential this squad has once you make a good use of the talent. But his odd choices and far too prudent approach will be the main regret of this season. I hope we can get rid of him after the return leg against Al Ahly of Tripoli, and put somebody with a strong personality and a better knowledge of the tunisian and african football scenes in charge.

Whereas the title is out of reach for Étoile, the second spot – which would take us to the Africain Champions League – is still up for grabs. It would require a victory in Tunis and a Club Africain defeat to the now almost certainly relegated Jendouba Sports. In other words, it’s even more difficult than winning the league was 2 weeks ago. But this is football, and you never know what could happen. One thing is certain : We’re not letting Espérance have it !