Tunisians win against Mozambique

2009-06-08

Although they won 2-0, analysts and fans of Tunisia's national team complained about a "slow" performance and weak strategy.

By Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 08/06/09

[Mona Yahia] Fans, bored with a slow-starting match, cheered for Ousama Darraji to take the field.

Tunisia's national team defeated Mozambique 2-0 on Saturday (June 6th). The game was part of the final round of the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

With this win, the Tunisian team reinforced their place on top of Group B with six points. But critics and experts were sceptical of both teams' performance in the match, calling it weak in a slow match.

The Tunisians were keen to play cautiously at the beginning of the match, dominating the midfield and preventing the Mozambique team from building attacks. In the 20th minute, Wissem ben Yahia scored the first goal from a penalty kick, and that changed the tempo of the game, but just a little.

Following the goal, the Tunisians had a greater domination of the midfield. They started to play short passes and to diversify their attacks.

In the second half, the two teams didn't change their tactical options too much, but the Mozambique team controlled the ball for a while, taking advantage of the retraction of the Tunisian players to their zone.

Then, coach Humberto Coelho fielded attacker Lassad Nouioui to boost the forward line. However, the performance of the team remained slow. The Tunisians were comfortable with the one goal and players did not initiate many attacks.

"The match was very slow," said sports analyst Tlili said. "The coach should think how to enhance the midfield and how to create harmony between the elements of our national team."

After a while, fans were bored and wanted more excitement, more attacks and scoring attempts. They shouted through the stadium, demanding Ousama Darraji to be fielded.

When Lassad Nouioui was injured, coach Coelho had no choice but to field Darraji.

Darraji managed to make it up for the spectators. In minute 90, he received the ball and shot an accurate low-crawling ball that deceived the Mozambique goal keeper, scoring the precious second goal.

"I succeeded in scoring and I didn't let the fans down," Darraji said. "As to why I didn't play from the beginning, these are the coach's choices and I respect them."

"We prepared quite well and we were looking for victory," Defender Karim Haqui said. "However, the Mozambique team surprised us."

This was the second time the Tunisians have played Mozambique since 1996, when they drew 1-1 in the African Cup of Nations in Port Elizabeth in South Africa. The goal was scored by late international player Hedi Ben Rkissa.

"It was a difficult match as we expected against a team who play good football," said Coelho. "However, we put in good performance and we had our own strategy. We won the three points, and this is the most important thing. We created spaces during the second half when we tried to tap in a second goal. The other team tried to take advantage of these spaces, but they didn't pose major dangers."

Tunisia will play against Nigeria on June 20th as part of Group B.