A belated update.

April 9th, 2012 | by: Kazi | View Comments

Soso takes his goalscoring shot.

This was a long, long time in the making, and I start by apologizing for the lateness. I was held up by incredible amounts of work and new important developments on a daily basis kept changing the content. Now that we’ve hit some form of an interim period, now is the best time to go over the past few months for the NT.

First thing’s first; The Gambia match.

From my position, this was a rather odd match, mainly because of the massive media coverage in comparison to recent NT games. So many outlets giving their input into the game made it all the more tricky for me to put forward my own, independent and original view. Many factors contributed to this. This was Coach Vahid’s first independent competitive fixture without the weight of previous failures of predecessors weighing him down, Bentaiba and Feghouli’s first caps with Algeria seeking a first win away from home in Sub-Saharan Africa in eons.

Evidently, the game was beyond important.

Regardless, we got kicked off. The interesting part was Ryad Boudebouz starting from the bench. This was put down to Ryad being honest with Vahid and telling him he wasn’t fit enough to start. Even with the little maestro benched, Feghouli and Kadir shone, with a supporting cast of Guedioura and Lacen who supplemented them with ball after ball. Aoudia cause problem after problem for the Gambian side.

Nevertheless it was the Gambian side who went ahead after a poor defensive show that allowed the forward to twist and turn his way into what was a seemingly horrible shooting position, but still blasted the ball into the net.

The signs were there, despite early dominance, Algeria’s play was becoming increasingly erratic as the game wore on. When the second half started, Vahid’s half time pep talk seemed to have worked its magic, with Les Fennecs going all out for the win. Captain Anthar Yahia got the equaliser after tapping the ball into the net from Kadir’s corner, with talented midfielder Sofiane “Soso” Feghouli bulleting the ball into the net from just outside the box to gain the lead.

Cadamuro Bentaiba’s first cap was an average one but it was understandable considering the pressures and conditions. He picked up a knock that subbed him off but has reason to be happy with his overall performance.

Algeria then went on to win their first game of the 2013 African Cup of Nations qualification process thus cementing Halilhodzic’s renaissance as having officially started. Without at doubt the shining stars of the encounter were Kadir, Feghouli and Guedioura, out of whom I wouldn’t be able to give you a man of the match out right, they were all brilliant.

The win brought a massive morale boost to the side and to the fans, and set a benchmark for improvement for the NT. It was good, not great, good, but now must come better.

Since then the fortunes of Algerian players have been generally good. The gulf players have generally been quite good, others being consistent in their performances for their teams. Certain players such as Feghouli, Guedioura and Boudebouz have seen a surge in their form of late, contributing well to their teams.

However there are those who aren’t doing so well, with the likes of Chalali and Bouazza hardly playing, and the likes of Mesbah who is having a rough time settling in at AC Milan. His performances against Arsenal and Barcelona have done nothing to benefit his case infront of the fans. Hopefully he can regain his feet fast and the form that earned him his move to the San Siro.

Over the past few months there has also been an increase in movement with regards to the youth recruitment front. Idriss Saadi, Faouzi Ghoulam, Yacine Brahimi, Aissa Mandi, Saphir Taider, Florian Raspentino and Ishak Belfodil are all edging closer and closer to a call up to the NT, with Ghoulam and Brahimi apparently having indicated their willingness to don the jersey. Nothing is certain on those two as well as Taider, who as has been mentioned before, is the subject of a three-way tug-o-war between France, Algeria and Tunisia.

The U20’s have gotten their game time underway, with the U17’s providing a UNAF winning performance whilst the U20’s, both of whom are chaired by Jean Marc Nobilo but the U17’s are managed by Abdelkader Soltani instead of Nobilo, put together a very underwhelming display losing to Mauritania and Morocco. Granted the second game was a rapid improvement but now Nobilo has stretched his talent seeking hands all over Algeria in a bid to find more domestic talent. Bear in mind that no foreign based players were utilised in either the U17’s or U20’s.

What was interesting to see was the first stage of the induction of the JMG Paradou Academy players into the NT setup. El Moueden, Ibouzidene, Benrabah, Bensebaini and Chaiba were all called up and got the chance to experience life with the NT.

Nobilo knows there is a lot of improvement left to do, but he is a manager with a big big reputation for bringing the best out of youth players and one imagines he will do the same here hopefully given the time and resources are made available to him.

So that’s the update for the time being. I’m sorry it’s not as long as usual nor is it as soon as is reasonable, time and commitments have not been in my favour. I shall do my best to regain lost time over the spring break and look forward to the Niger friendly on the 26th of May insha Allah.