By Mohamed Assed.
Casablanca, 11 September:
Reporting exclusively from Mohammed 5 stadium in Morocco, Libya Herald witnessed the Libyan National Football Team’s undeserved loss (0-1) to Algeria Sunday night in Casablanca in the final round — Round 3 — of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers to go to South Africa in 2013.
The game was supposed to be played in Libya. However, security reasons and the fact that the Libya has now been for more than a year armed to the teeth, robbed Libyan fans of the privilege of cheering the national team on home soil. The next game, an away match, will be played in Algeria on the 11 October later this year. The Algerians clearly hold a crucial advantage.
The game in its entirety was intense and challenging for both sides. The Algerians dominated the first half as they gained possession of the ball and controlled the midfield. The likes of Djamel Mesbah, Algeria’s left back, and Sofyan Fighouly, Algeria’s number ten and Valencia FC superstar, caused all sorts of problems for the Libyan defence as they ran through the out-of-focus Libyan back line. Libya was not able to move into the game as smoothly as they wished. Perhaps the poor form of Ahmed Saad, Libya’s main star and captain, Libya’s showing during the first part of the game. There were a lot of missed passes and a lot of unnecessary and erratic running off the ball especially from defender Abdulaziz Berresh.
As the game wore on, the Algerians tightened their grasp on the flow of it. Under the mounting pressure of the Algerian attack, the Libyans were forced to retreat back and defend — in an ordered fashion if unreliably. Libya’s capricious way of defending was immediately punished as they were cautioned by the referee in the tenth minute when Faisal Badry was handed the yellow card after a ferocious tackle on Mehdi Lahcen.
A few minutes later, Algeria was very close to opening the score when Algerian attacker Slimany Islam missed a howler in front of Libyan goalkeeper Mohammed Nashnoush. Algeria intensified its onslaught and attacked with all of its players with the exception of two backline defenders who remained in their positions and tightly marked the lonely Ahmed Saad.
The Algerian right flank was the most active in the first half as Mehdi Lahcen and Sofyan Fighouly partnered well enough to upset Libya’s left-back, who in turn could only manage to awkwardly scrap off whatever the Algerians threw at him.
A second yellow card was handed over to Libya’s Ahmed Snoussi in the thirty-sixth minute of the game as he belligerently tackled Yassin Kadamoro.
The many yellow cards handed over to the Libyan players excellently reflect and summarize Libya’s premature tactical behavior on the field as they were no match to the Algerians’ cool spirit. However, the Algerians also took their share of yellow cards, as Mehdi Lahcen was, this time, deservedly cautioned after improperly tacking a Libyan player. In the last five minutes of the first half, Libya provided their last life line as they came close to shocking the Algerians and scoring an opener, completely against the flow of the game. Libya took complete possession of the ball in the final minutes of the first half and pressured the Algerians robustly who missed two golden chances to break the deadlock. In the fortieth minute, Algeria’s goalkeeper Rais Mboulhy was in the right place to block a flickered ball off the many heads of the Libyan and Algerian players. The latter tried to snatch the ball from a dangerously played free kick, close to the right side corner flag of Mboulhy. A second chance was unbelievably missed by Libya’s Ahmed Zuway in a one-to-one situation with Mboulhy. Zuway was very slow and completely unfocused as the Algerian goalkeeper quickly ran towards the ball to kick it off Zuway’s feet. It was Libya’s last chance of the first half as the referee blew his whistle to announce half time.
During the second half of the game, Libya’s performance significantly improved. It was indeed a quite different Libyan side from the one the supporters watched earlier. Nevertheless, Algeria, took the lead and started strongly as they relied on Kadir’s dangerous runs down the left flank. As the game wore one, the Algerians missed so many chances in the face of an improved Libyan defense. Fighouly, Algeria’s most dangerous player during the game was as brilliant in the second half as he was in the first. The number 10 Algerian spun though the Libyan defense and sent in a beautiful pass to Kadir who shot a poor ball off the goal posts.
Libya’s Ahmed Saad showcased his class in the second half as he sprayed his usual passes to the attack and to both sides of the midfield. However, the Libyans could not penetrate from the middle of the Algerian defense as they faced a strong and resilient defense. As a result, Ahmed Saad dropped into the left side of the Libyan attack and tried to use his dribbling prowess and attacking skills to destabilize the Algerian defense. Despite Libya’s much improved overall display in the second half, they were not able to open the score and were too complacent in times in front of Mboulhy.
The turning point of the game was probably when the Algerian coach, Vahid Halilodzic entered Hilal Soudany who was able to score the only goal of the game in the 88th minute, just two minutes from the final end of the official time of the match. The referee added five more in minutes as extra time. Nevertheless, the Libyans were demoralized after conceding and really could not pick up the pieces and score the equalizer. Moreover, Algeria nearly scored a second and a third goal as the Libyan players were completely exhausted, especially Abdulaziz Berresh who was barely walking on the field, and who was largely responsible for Libya’s conceding of the goal.
With the end of the extra time, the referee blew the final whistle of the game. Ahmed Saad was viewed from the stands fairly shaking hands with the Algerian players as did the other Libyan players.
Sadly, out of nothing, a brawl erupted between two players and intensified into a full scale fight that involved the Libyan and Algerian players. The fight was contained after about 10 minutes of violence. It was reported that an Algerian player (Djebbour) insulted a Libyan player who came to shake his hands. Allegedly, Djebbour uttered words such as: “We defeated you, you bunch of rats…” Such transgressions reminded the Libyan players of the infamous memories of the once brutal dictator, Qaddafi who used the word “rat” to name the Libyan revolutionaries who were fighting for freedom and for human and civil rights. Despite the Algerian offensive attack, Captain Ahmed Saad did not fall for the trap and tried to contain the fight as he stopped his team mates for further brawling with the Algerians.
In the end it was a complete mess, and things were pretty much chaotic both on and off the field. In the stands Libyan and Algerian spectators were throwing bottles of water at each other. Even the VIP stand that included the Libyan and Algerian ambassadors to Morocco, the president of the Libyan and Moroccan football federations could not be spared from the swinging bottles in the air from both the Algerian and Libyan fans. The VIP personalities were quickly escorted out of the stadium before things erupted into a much more violent situation.
Choosing Morocco as the host nation was not the best choice for Libya
The stadium which hosted the famous Maghreb clash Sunday evening was the famous Mohammed V stadium in Casablanca, Morocco. Only 25,000 tickets were available for sale, announced the managing director of the stadium about a week ago. Yet, very few Libyans attended the game despite the fact that Libya was the hosting party. The Algerian fans were present in significantly larger numbers than the Libyans during the game, as they relied on the supporters of famous Moroccan football club Raja Club Athletic (RCA). It was, one might say a not so wise decision to choose Morocco as the hosting nation as the country shares many similarities to Algeria in terms of culture, dialect and history. Many Libyans argued that it would have been better for Libya if the game was hosted in Tunisia for many reasons. Many Libyans live there, the country is very close to Libya’s populous cities, Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi, and the fact that the Tunisians would have probably been sympathising with Libya during the game.
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