ESHS 0 – 1 ESS : Now we can relax and enjoy that Tunis derby …

By: Houssem | March 1st, 2009

… and hope it will end goalless, with a lot of red cards and injuries on both sides. But seriously, the title run is all but over, and Étoile is looking like a decent contender again, although the remaining fixtures won’t be a walk in the park : a trip to relegation candidates Jendouba Sports, Stade Tunisien at home, Club Sfaxien away (with a due taste of revenge), Hammam-Lif at home (they gave Espérance a hard time a week ago, and won’t hold back against us), and of course, the cherry on top of the whip cream on your Ligue 1 sundae : Espérance in Tunis, which should be a legendary game if one of us is still in the race by then.

Everson and his magic magnetic boots 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.