Solid Nishimura in empty Tamale

at first

At first it looked like Senegal was not really interested in playing football as a team, but an early and great goal from Tunesia player Jooma worked as a wake-up call. Senegal decided they had to play together when trying to win this game. As a consequence both teams leveled up in pace: Senegal seemed stronger, Tunesia smarter. Whenever body contact occurred it was often that the Tunesians went down. Nishimura, a little Japanese himself, seemed to have more consideration with the Tunesians than with the Senegalese. Although not very obvious. There were some tough fouls, but Nishimura restored order all the time correctly.

bookings for diving

In the second half Nishimura was correct to book Tunesian player Dos Santos who tried to conceive a penalty by diving. A few minutes later Nishimura acted the same when the Tunesian Traoui went down easily. It was good to see a referee telling everybody not to trick him. At the other hand his booking of Zaiem for taking a free-kick before he had blown his whistle seemed a little fussy.

message for CAF

All together it was an entertaining match with some great goals. A pity that so little supporters were able to watch this game inside the stadium. In cases like this CAF should try to lower down the prices and give more people the opportunity to watch the sport of their heart.