The Tunisia factor

They are a strong team, but we must beat them! If we lose to them, then they deserve to go through and not us, simple as that. I believe we can beat them.

Posted from  United States

Confidence is a must, but overconfidence can lead to a hefty shock. Here are some things I’ve noticed.

Tunisia’s strengths:

1. As we saw against Saudi Arabia, these guys can score well after the 90th minute if given the chance. Saudis thought the match was on over; they tried to ice it by kicking the ball high into the air. Result? Tunisia inbounds, runs through an empty midfield, then uses two guys to score against about four defenders.

2. When they assault the penalty area, they really assault the penalty area with numbers. This doesn’t happen all the time, but when it happens, it looks very synchronized as if all the midfielders and forwards know this is the time. I saw their coaching staff talking into wireless headsets in the Spain game. Could they be talking to the captain and/or goalie?

3. They are plucky. They have some guys who are built like Roberto Carlos - short but with elephant shins on their legs. They can keep hammering the ball even when it seems they lost it. Sometimes, it works, and they blast the ball right between the legs of the opposing player and begin a lighting counter-attack.

Tunisia’s weaknesses:

1. On those occasions when they storm the penalty box, a fine block by the defense or save by Shovkovsky can lead to a nice counter-attack.

2. When they are pleased with the score, they sit back quite a bit. This happened against both Spain and Saudi Arabia - so it looks like a constant thing with them, intentional or not. A 0-0 draw knocks them out, but if they get an early goal, I would expect them to sit back. Hopefully, this will not happen, but if it does - maybe their tendency to sit back will help us equalize?

3. When they play a possession game, the open players will come pretty close to receive passes. This can lead to two or three Tunisian players stuck in a small space, and allow for one of our guys to intercept the ball and get it to open space where we can attack in numbers.

With that said, they look scary. They have a good balance between speed, tactics, and technique - none of these seem to come at the expense of the others. I don’t know…our guys will definitely need to defend better than last game. As we saw against Spain, mistakes can snowball very quickly.

Posted from  United States

Tunisia is very quick. They were able to penetrate the Spanish defence and score early on Spain in the last match, and were able hold on to their lead late into the game. Their speed is the main threat to Ukrainian defence. In order to stop Tunisia, Ukraine either has to play a more defensive formation, or close their defensive holes.

Or just go all out and hope the Ref takes it easy on the card front considering there are no (few exception) premier league babies to protect.

Posted from  Canada

Confidence is a must, but overconfidence can lead to a hefty shock. Here are some things I’ve noticed.

Tunisia’s strengths:

1. As we saw against Saudi Arabia, these guys can score well after the 90th minute if given the chance. Saudis thought the match was on over; they tried to ice it by kicking the ball high into the air. Result? Tunisia inbounds, runs through an empty midfield, then uses two guys to score against about four defenders.

2. When they assault the penalty area, they really assault the penalty area with numbers. This doesn’t happen all the time, but when it happens, it looks very synchronized as if all the midfielders and forwards know this is the time. I saw their coaching staff talking into wireless headsets in the Spain game. Could they be talking to the captain and/or goalie?

3. They are plucky. They have some guys who are built like Roberto Carlos - short but with elephant shins on their legs. They can keep hammering the ball even when it seems they lost it. Sometimes, it works, and they blast the ball right between the legs of the opposing player and begin a lighting counter-attack.

Tunisia’s weaknesses:

1. On those occasions when they storm the penalty box, a fine block by the defense or save by Shovkovsky can lead to a nice counter-attack.

2. When they are pleased with the score, they sit back quite a bit. This happened against both Spain and Saudi Arabia - so it looks like a constant thing with them, intentional or not. A 0-0 draw knocks them out, but if they get an early goal, I would expect them to sit back. Hopefully, this will not happen, but if it does - maybe their tendency to sit back will help us equalize?

3. When they play a possession game, the open players will come pretty close to receive passes. This can lead to two or three Tunisian players stuck in a small space, and allow for one of our guys to intercept the ball and get it to open space where we can attack in numbers.

They look scary. They have a good balance between speed, tactics, and technique - none of these seem to come at the expense of the others. I don’t know…our guys will definitely need to defend better than last game. As we saw against Spain, mistakes can snowball very quickly.

Posted from  United States

speed…. like i said before and ill say it again…. Im freaking scared that tunisia will fly past our defence and we wont be able to do anything. But I might be wrong gatta wait and see.

What happened to the site? My comments for the past couple of days have never shown up!

Posted from  United States

..here are the odds :
1 goal advantage to Tunisia
Can Ukraine win by a goal or more margin..?

Posted from  Malaysia