LiveBlog: Tunisia-Saudi Arabia

It is the game you are waiting for. We’ll be LiveBlogging the full 90 of the Tunisia-Saudi Arabia match on June 14. Come in and join us by leaving your thoughts and comments while the match happens.

Final: Tunisia 2-2 Saudi Arabia

Full Time: The frantic feeling of the final ten minutes made this game worth the errant passes and sloppy football of the first half. After trailing 1-0 for most of the game, Saudi Arabia tied and then led the game 2-1 until the 92nd minute when a goal by Raidi Jaidi gave a slightly more athletic and skilled looking Tunisia a point instead of a loss. The final two minutes saw two decent chances for Saudi Arabia and it seemed like the game was just getting started as the final whistle blew.

94:00 Saudi Arabia gets Jaber alone on the right but he can’t get a shot off and the game ends with a peak of excitement. Can’t ask for more out of this game.

92:15 Raidi Jaidi heads a cross to the ground into the goal.

92:00 Goal Tunisia!

91:33 Replay confirms deflection.

90:27 SA free kick curls in and hits the post. Nice bend on that ball, possibly deflected.

89:00 If SA can hang on to this lead, this will be Saudi Arabia’s third win in WC play.

87:49 Tunisia nearly ties it with a 33 m strike that goes just high.

85:15 The special play worked. A three player, full length counter attack that left Al Jaber all alone on the left side. He finished from a ways out, booting it past the goalie as he came out of the box.

83:30 GOAL SAUDI ARABIA

80:05 Sideline cam shows SA drawing up a special play, no Arabic shouting heard.

78:48 Yellowcard for Tunisia’s Chikhaoui, free kick goes straight into the wall.

77:00 With the goal under their belt, SA looks like they want a win. Same can’t be said for Tunisia.

75:29 What exactly does squirting water on an injured player’s foot do for that player?

74:40 Noor off. Ameen on for SA.

73:36 Up close, slow-mo shot of a water bottle applying water to the goalie’s foot looks semi-pornographic.

72:08 Zaid the goalie can’t keep his feet and it looks like he’s out. Back up goalie coming in. Anybody know anything about him?

71:00 Back heel pass looks tricky and SA trips up their own goalie.

69:06 Looks like it’s going to be “who can Not make a mistake” for the last 20 minutes.

67:00 Al Temyat off, Al Hawsawi in.

65:35 SA team now earning the label “scrappy” at WC Blog.

63:07 Good tackle by SA defense.

60:56 Al Temwat nutmegs a T defender and gets a shot off. Then three decent shots blocked, the last making it through to the keeper.

58:02 I thought SA might put together the combination of passes and positioning to get one in, but for it to be a first class goal like that really makes this game for me. One bit of difference on any part of that play and we’ve got another blown SA opportunity.

56:40 One touch pass to Mohammed Noor who pops it straight up over the goalie. Great shot, great pass, great goal.

56:24 GOAL SAUDI ARABIA!

54:38 Bouazizi out, Nafti in.

52:40 More bounce in the Saudi legs right now. Too bad their skills aren’t as refined as their oil.

51:08 Free kick for SA reasonably close to the top left corner.

50:09 SA looks like Brazil all of the sudden.

47:44 Looks like Saudi Arabia got their heads straight at half time. Their D’s not looking better but they’re getting realistic chances.

46:09 Saudi Arabia with a shot from 2 meters out! That looked hard to miss!

I just looked up for a second and it was a wide angle, but I think I saw the second world cup streaker to make it to TV this year. We’ve witnessed history everyone.

Half Time: Tunisia is outplaying Saudi Arabia but the Saudi’s picked up their game in response. One wheeling, midair goal from Jiziri has Tunisia up 1-0 and in control, but the right combination of counterattack, luck, and skill could bring Saudi Arabia back. 45 more minutes when we come back.

45:00 T putting one player downfield and assuming he can take two or three defenders. They’re almost right.

44:29 SA gets a shot off that sails wide.

43:17 SA and Tun. getting extracurricular on consecutive balls. I’m hearing some arabic from both sides.

42:16 SA player gets his toes crunched with some cleats. The slow motion replay makes me want to put on steel toed boots.

41:00 SA just can’t seem to get a pass at a good angle to a player in the right place. Jazizi goes down momentarily but stays in.

40:00 SA with a chance to break open at midfield, is tripped up.

38:19 Corner kick by Tunisia gets the goalie involved and the counterattacks have the camera moving like a tennis match.

36:15 Riad Bhouazizi rushes out of the wall too early and gets booked. (He also earns a world cup blog foul for having hair like D. Hasselhof)

33:42 SA’s Omar Al Ghamdi takes a flying leap onto the back of a Tunisia player. A few plays later, Karim haggui drags down Khaled and gets the first yellow card of the match. Kind of a drought compared to the rest of the tournament games so far.

32:00 SA’s counter attack is not that dangerous, if I were on Tunisia I would be trying to score 6 goals today.

30:22 SA’s got this “kick it around in front of Tunisia and let them take it away” thing down.

28:02 Jaziri making runs and cutting at good angles. He’s trying to win the golden boot in one game.

25:21 Jaziri nearly takes the whole team. Looks like that goal got his confidence up. He was definetly tripped and the T coach is talking to the ref about it.

23:32 A Tunisia free kick pinballs off of two SA players and Zied Jaziri wheels around to put it in in the air.

22:55 Goal Tunisia!

20:06 This throw in count is a lot less relevant than I thought. Aside from the sloppy passes and erratic play the game has really picked up. SA counterattack fruitless.

18:44 An elbow to the back of the neck gives SA a free cross from the left side. They almost turn it into something but it’s Tunisia on the counterattack. namouchi goes down at midfield. He’s OK. throw in count 2.

17:50 SA stringing some passes together. Throw in count at 1.

16:30 3rd(or so) consecutive corner.

15:12 Free kick deflected by Tunisia and its an SA corner. Corner was well placed but right at a Tunisian. One more corner.

13:20 I’m going to start a throw-in count. I can’t guarantee that it will be perfectly accurate but it will be close from here on out. Free kick for SA from about 40 m.

11:55 A lot of missed passes and balls that won’t stay trapped.

10:04 SA gets close on a header after a throw-in. I kind of want them to score first and
put the pressure on the (at least so far) slightly better Tunisia.

8:30 Corner for Tunisia after a well placed cross is headed out. The cross meets with the same result after a bounce on the ground, looks like he was trying to hit the low corner.

7:00 Tunisia attacks down the left side and sends the ball straight into the leg of a flying Saudi. Not seeing much to write home about so far.

5:52 Decent pass from SA’s Sulimani after some comically bad fakes.

4:32 Looks like they have the B-squad operating the cameras tonight, we’ve got kind of a shake going.

3:08 Tunisia looking more athletic and more skilled. No surprises so far.

01:41 SA gets a take down on what would have been an open goal but the ref just shakes his finger.

00:45 First ball sent back the other way by the keeper.

00:00 Lets go Saudi’s. Give em hell Tunisia.

Saudi Arabia dropped Tunisia’s pregame gift. At least it wasn’t the keeper.

Anthems. Tunisia’s is catchy, like a little march, Saudi Arabia’s is traditional.

Saudi Arabia’s presenting their pregame trinket to Tunisia still in its plastic packaging.

Tunisia looks sharp in their all white kits. Maybe pristine is a better word… or Pure.

Looks like the fans are out in force at Marienplatz in Munich. I was there trying to watch the opening game and they hadn’t finished building the giant screen yet! I ended up watching in a shoe store and on a 1970’s TV with color problems on the street in front of a bar. I know I know, poor me, stuck at the World Cup while you toil away in your office, but I only got to see two of the 6 goals in that game.

30 min to game time and I really want this match to live up to the excitement of last game. Maybe Villa and Torres feel like suiting up?

I’m not trying to take anything from Tunisia or Saudi Arabia, I just really enjoyed that game.

My watch has 62 minutes to game time. Right now I’m enjoying a slow motion feature on Fernando Torres in German. I’m hearing German words like “artiste” and “vunderhungun-righteous” anyone else watching what I’m watching and want to translate?