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Will Tunisia be a threat ?

May 31st, 2006 | By: Andriy Korol | 7 Comments »

We all pretty much know that Saudi Arabia is not a threat to us in the group, they’ve re-affirmed this in their recent failure to win any friendlies with European nations. We also know that Spain is Ukraine’s #1 threat…. or ARE they ? Team Spain isn’t looking that sharp these days, they barely qualified into the World Cup. Perhaps it is Tunisia we should be more concerned about. They recently spanked Belarus 3-0 ! And I know what you are thinking “its just Belarus” , well it was ‘just Costa Rica’. Did you know Tunisia was the first African nation to ever win a game at a World Cup ? Tunisia participated in World Cup 98, World Cup 2002 and qualified for their 3rd consecutive World Cup ! This time around they came out of a qualification group which included Morocco, Guinea, Kenya, coming out with only one loss. Not only that, from all 5 African groups, Tunisia scored the most goals during qualifications, a whopping 25 in just 10 games. Further more, in 2004 they won the African Cup of Nations . Their coach is Roger Lemerre. WHO ? He was coach of Team France when they won the Euro in 2000 !

I think what makes me cautious about this team most is that they did not win a single game in the last 2 World Cups they participated in, that means they are hungry, and a hungry team with the credidentials to win is definitely a threat.

I had set my prediction a while ago that I believe Ukraine will finish first in the group and Tunisia second.

Tags: saudi arabia, spain, Tunisia, Ukraine

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Comments

By Petro | May 31st, 2006 at 11:10 pm

The match with Tunisia should by pretty interesting. They have a solid team that doesn’t give up easily. It is really difficult to predict which way it will go. However, there is a reason Ukraine qualified for the finals. We have a good team. As long as they do their best (read: win) everything will be fine.

Posted from Canada

By USA | June 1st, 2006 at 8:40 am

I don’t think Ukraine should take any team lightly. Any team that qualified for the Cup is a threat. But Blokhin won’t let them slack off - he’s been schooled well by Lobanovsky. And if they play up to their potential, they should handily qualify for 2nd round, and, perhaps, surprise a few teams there.

Posted from United States

By Miguelinho | June 1st, 2006 at 5:16 pm

Ukraine’s young boys just beat Serbia & Montenegro in the European U-21 semifinal! The penalty shootout ended 5-4 after the teams held each other scoreless through 120 minutes.

My favorite moment? Our boy Yatsenko - the newest member of the team going to Germany - scored on Ukraine’s crucial 5th penalty attempt to ensure that they would at least go into sudden-death penalties.

As good a test of character and nerves as any!

Posted from United States

By Petro | June 1st, 2006 at 8:59 pm

That is good news indeed.

Posted from Canada

By marco | June 2nd, 2006 at 7:29 am

Hey does any one know id the ukrain V italy game will be on RAi or does sum one know a web site where you can watch it from live????

Posted from Australia

By Andriy | June 2nd, 2006 at 12:31 pm

I understand that yes, it will be on RAI, this is something I read in comments in the Italy blog, so I can’t say for certain. I actually never heard of RAI before :O)

Posted from United States

By Rami | June 7th, 2006 at 11:01 am

Tunisia is a threat. The only thing we have to overcome is our stage fright. For the reasons Andriy already cited, we are ready to move on into the next round this time. We have players based in Europe who wont be new to pressure. Plus this is our third world cup in succession. Spain and the Ukraine might be the conservative picks but I hope it ends up being the Ukraine and Tunisia that go through. I can’t see Saudi doing much of anything. Their best chance for a win or tie is against us because we might be nervous (all the players know how much hinges on this first game, they can’t stop talking about it) but on paper our team is much better than theirs. I see us winning the first game by a decent margin and then tying the next two. That should be enough to put us into the next round with Ukraine. In my view Spain wil dissapoint, like it always has on the world stage. Of course I might be wrong but I still see Tunisia going through this year.

Posted from United States

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