African Football, Soccer: African Cup Of Nations 2000: Group D preview: Tunisia

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THE SHOT THAT PASSED RIGHT THROUGH THE NET

African Cup Of Nations 2000 JAN 22 - FEB 13 Nigeria/Ghana

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Group D

Tunisia

the professionally run club football dominates the African club competitions and has brought out a bunch of top class players
Tunisia has reswitched from the more defensive style of 1993-98 to a more attacking attitude
brilliant form in warm up matches - too early? - the others are warned
overview: Tunisia among the best of Africa
the list of players (includes age and where do they play analysis)

Tunisia is a small country but has achieved a lot in football, especially in club football. Espérance Tunis, Club Africain Tunis, Etoile du Sahel Sousse, and CS Sfax have been dominating the African club competitions of the 90's and the players feel comfortable at home so that Tunisia like Egypt does not suffer as much from expatriage as other African football nations.

The national team has had some successes in the 90's probably as a consequence of the good players build up in professionally led clubs, but also due to the tactics of coach Henry Kasperczak who had developed a very appropriate disciplined frame for the team to beat other Africans. The same strategy then failed at competitions with other continent's powers like at Atlanta 96 and France 98. Defensive and counter tactics adjust to exploit the imperfection (blemish) in the productive game of opponents, but against non-African teams there had been different looks and strengths to defend against.

Now Tunisia seems to have returned to a more attacking style with the risk of a more vulnerable defence. This 2000 Nations Cup is an unsafe adventure for the North Africans: In this 'group of death' only little lies between failure and triumph.

Tunisia has demonstrated early form with a 7:0 bang against Togo. But whereas this documents form it does not mean Tunisia will do as easy weeks later at Nigeria (/Ghana). Their opponents are warned now and for many teams in the past it has been better to have a slow start and experience improvement and a confidence rise during the tournament. If though Tunisia can reproduce that form, there will be a big, big problem for Nigeria and the others in the group.

Tunisian clubs dominate the African club competitions, but the national team has not won the Nations Cup yet despite having had two attempts at home. But it also has to be considered that the country is relatively small. At least once they came out as Africa's best: When they qualified for the World Cup 1978 where they beat Mexico and held Germany to a draw.