Soccer-Tunisia seek to get World Cup bid back on track

[TheGift]

JOHANNESBURG, June 5 (Reuters) - Tunisia, who have qualified for the last three World Cup finals, will attempt to get their bid for a place at the 2010 event back on track when they meet the Seychelles in their second qualifying match this weekend.

The north Africans were surprisingly beaten 2-1 at home by Burkina Faso in their opening Group Nine match on Sunday, the only high profile casualty at the start of the group phase of the preliminaries.

This weekend sees 23 matches across the continent in 12 qualifying groups with Chad, Gabon, Lesotho, Sudan and Swaziland all playing for the first time while Zambia have a bye.

It will be the midway point of a tough month of matches for all 47 participants, who are playing on four successive weekends.

Tunisia, who named Humberto Coelho as new coach to replace Roger Lemerre from next month, are virtually at full strength with only injured Le Mans defender Sabeur Ben Frej missing for Saturday’s match in Victoria.

They scored three goals on their last trip to the Indian Ocean islands last year when they won a qualifying match for the 2008 African Nations Cup finals.

Two other leading contenders travel to Indian Ocean islands for matches, with Cameroon at Mauritius in Group One and the Ivory Coast taking on Madagascar in Antananarivo in Group Seven.

“It is a match that is going to be a steep learning curve for our young players,” said Mauritius coach Ashok Chundasing.

His side made a positive start to their campaign with a 1-1 draw away in Tanzania in their opening match but the quality of opposition in Curepipe on Sunday is expected to be much tougher.

The Ivory Coast will again be without Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, who have not joined the squad after their club’s defeat in last month’s Champions League final in Moscow.

Their absence, along with a string of injuries in the squad, ensured the Ivory Coast struggled to beat Mozambique 1-0 in their opening match last Sunday and coach Vahid Halilhodzic has hinted at his unhappiness with his players’ attitudes.

“There are too many structural problems in this national team and they are too difficult to try and manage,” he told a news conference on Wednesday.

“I don’t have time for that and I will not run after players. I work only with those that have bothered to turn up.”

The qualifiers start on Friday when African champions Egypt are in Djibouti, the tiny Red Sea state who are in just their second World Cup qualifying campaign and who lost 8-1 away at Malawi on Saturday.

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