Étoile du Sahel vs. Club Africain prematch

By: Houssem | August 8th, 2008

So here we are. Tomorrow the new season kicks off, and the long awaited clash between last season’s two top teams will certainly get millions of Tunisians in front of their tellies (not to mention the other high profile game between EST and CSS).

Who will be missing ?
Étoile will start without three key players : center back Radhouane Felhi, striker Mehdi Ben Dhifallah (both suspended for a third yellow card), right Back Souhaeil Ben Radhia and midfielder Afouène Gharbi (recovering from injury). Decastel should count on respectively Mejdi “Manga” Ben Mohamed, Emeka Opara and new signing Walid Yaken (his actual form and readiness might accelerate Ben Radhia’s recovery).

Club Africain has to do without Sellami (that’s a big relief if you know what he’s capable of on set pieces), Nsaybi, Alexis and Helmi Hmem.

Likely formation

I have doubts about Manga, and they’re far from being unfounded. He has made a lot of mistakes that, in my honest opinion, don’t make him first team material. Despite the time spent at Etoile, he seems not to have gained enough experience, and couldn’t prove himself in front of the young blood that has marked the team’s defence over the last years (Felhi, Jmal, Hagui …). He could be the weak link in Decastel’s starting 11. The midfield pair Nafkha-Mida will be making its first appearance, as would have any other combination in midfield, since all last season’s key midfielders have left the club. CA’ midfield isn’t exactly a piece of cake, so they will have a tough 90 minutes. I’m personnally not worried about attack, as long as Gelson can make his way through and provide the strikers with some quality balls.

I wouldn’t complain if we manage to grab an ugly 1-0 win. A clash against our top rivals comes definitely too early for a team that isn’t running on full regime yet, but we’ll see about that soon enough. But mostly, I can only wish for a “normal” season, an honest competition, nicer stadium crowds and fair referees. If you’d like to watch the game, tune in on Tunis 7 tomorrow at 6 pm CET, or look out for the Kooora Tounsia Sopcast channel.

Category: Match Previews

Tags: Étoile du Sahel Team News, Club Africain, Emeka Opara, Gilson Silva, Manga, Match Previews, Mehdi Ben Dhifallah, Michel Decastel, Mohamed Ali Nafkha, Radhouane Felhi, Sadat Bukhari, Souhaiel Ben Radhia, Walid Yaken

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Comments  

• Rami |  August 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am

  
  
  

  Nice preview buddy (like the graphic too!) You’re right about Manga we’ll be trying to take advantage of that tomorrow. For me it’s going to be interesting to see if Melliti gets to play against his old team with Sellami out. It seems Ben Chikha has already taken a liking to him. Whatever happens in the game, we’ll both have to keep our feet on the ground since it’s just the first day. Albeit a really big first day

  Enjoy the match buddy.

  Posted from United States

  

• Matt |  August 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am

  
  
  

  Kooouria Tounisia on Sopcast? Will try and check it out. Good preview. I need graphics.

  Posted from United States

  

• Abdullah |  August 9th, 2008 at 5:53 am

  
  
  

  Congrats on the blog Houssem , ya3tik essaha!
  I love reading about my favourite club.

  I think it definately won’t be a great win for either, but im really looking forward to seeing if they can manage to break through their defense without chermiti, i hope ogunbiyi gets some playing time, i’ve noticed he really gives the team that much more offensive possibilities.

  Posted from Netherlands

  

• Yassine |  August 9th, 2008 at 9:47 am

  
  
  

  Sad news everyone, Koora Tounsia SopCast channel has officially stopped broadcasting. Its creator decided that after he was warned for a stupid reason.
  We’re trying to convince him to come back.
  Try the channel anyway we never know
  Abdullah Ogunbiyi left the club for EA Guingamp for 800.00 Million Euros.

  Posted from United States

  

• Houssem |  August 9th, 2008 at 9:51 am

  
  
  

  you guys could also try this http://www.mogulus.com/barwita, that’s where I watch all the games that don’t come on TV

  Posted from Germany

  

• Rachid |  August 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am

  
  
  

  Overall, this game showed Etoile is in pretty good health. Some impressions:
  1. Nafkha did an excellent job! Ben Nasr also, but still needs to know how to make a difference when he’s in a position to do so (he missed one very good opportunity).
  2. Despite the many missing key players, the group played well together and maintained an edge over CA players.
  3. A win would have been great, but a draw should not be looked at as a total disaster at this stage.
  4. Opara still got it! I think he played as if he never left l’Etoile. There appeared to be some good chemistry between him and Ben Nasr (and Bukhari), which is promising.
  5. Sadat Bukhari scored a wonderful goal. He’s making it clear he’s going to give it all this season. If you watched the Moroccan Summer Cup games, you’d notice he started that process in that tournament.
  6. DeCastel needs to do a better job making timely substitutions. Ziadi, for example, should have been given more time to play; the guy can score!
  7. Ben Chikha needs to stay away from over reacting. Slapping Dhaouadi on live TV is not a good idea. It was a very third worldish act!
  7. TV7 needs to know that it’s a NATIONAL TV for all Tunisians! The so-called commentators or technical analysts, as they call themselves, are clearly biased. The biggest testament to this were some comments made by someone named Adel Dridi, essentially hoping CA would score from a free kick (which BTW they did). Displaying that bias on national TV is plain wrong! He was brought back towards the end of the end to kind of apologize and state that Etoile was a great team and blah, blah, blah. Etoile does not need his charity!

  Posted from United States

  

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