by Hollywood Sports
Tuesday, Jun 30, 2026The most challenging aspect in assessing the Tunisia-Japan match in their second group stage contest in the 2026 World Cup was the impact of the Tunisian national program sacking manager Sabri Lamouchi after an embarrassing loss to Sweden.
It was the earliest firing of a head coach during the World Cup in the history of the event. To be fair, Lamouchi was not dealt a great hand — and the powers at be of this organization appear to be irrational hot heads.
The Eagles of Carthage’s previous manager was Sami Trabelsi, who led them through the World Cup qualifying stage with a W9-D1-L0 record and zero goals conceded. But after a loss to Mali via penalty kicks in the Round of 16 of the 2025 AFCON, he was fired. Tunisia was playing with a man advantage after the 29th minute due to a red card that fueled the anger at Tribelsi. By the way, Tribelsi was originally hired by these folks after his stint as a beIN pundit during the 2023 AFCON (taking place in 2024, as the 2025 AFCON finished in early January this year), where he was a vocal critic of the Tunisian manager at the time. Hiring guys out of the TV booth is one of my biggest pet peeves, and it rarely works. Lamouchi had previously been the skipper for Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest, amongst many spots in England and the Middle East. He promised to bring a more progressive style with a vertical attack, which was probably exactly what his potential bosses wanted to hear after the Mali debacle in the AFCON.
A 5-0 loss in their final friendly against Belgium on June 6th was the canary in the coal mine. Against Sweden in their opening match in the World Cup, the Eagles of Carthage controlled possession for 51% of that match — but they only generated 0.28 expected Goals (xG) from a mere six shots (only two on target and zero Big Chances of at least a 35% expected goal rate). The Swedes only generated 1.33 xG — but they were given four Big Chances, with Lamouchi lamenting that his squad committed “too many mistakes.” That opening match was considered a must-win for both teams, with the Netherlands and Japan remaining in the group.
Tunisia was prepared to turn to their technical director, Mondher Kebaier, as their caretaker for the rest of this event, but they were able to convince Herve Renard to become their immediate manager with the expectation that a longer-term collaboration will be worked out after the match. Renard is a professional manager. The 57-year-old had most recently been the national manager for Saudi Arabia before getting sacked in April. He oversaw that team’s 2-1 upset victory against Argentina in their opening match in the 2022 World Cup. He previously was the manager for Morocco for the 2018 World Cup. My notes on him for that event consisted of descriptions like this: “intensity,” “fitness,” defensive solidity,” “great coach for international play.” He was considered a Svengali for hire in Africa at the time. But what could he do in five days?
In other sports like football or basketball, it is expected that there will be some sort of short-term bounce in effort and intensity from the locker room after a head coach gets fired. But I don’t think lack of effort or intensity was this group’s problem against Sweden. They just got exposed. I was already worried about their group stage play, which did not include even one opponent ranked in the top 100 in the FIFA rankings — and four of those victories were narrow one-goal affairs. Tunisia had only won three matches in their seven World Cup appearances — and they had never reached the knockout stage.
Lamouchi perhaps tried to buy himself time by choosing a younger roster. In hindsight, not selecting captain Ferjani Sassi was too clever by half, as this squad certainly could have used the 33-year-old’s experience and composure anchoring the midfield. Yassine Meriah and his 99 career caps with the national team was another surprising omission. With Renard likely to stay on after this tournament, I didn’t think the players would check out. But what he inherited in the middle of the World Cup was a young and mostly overmatched group. In their last three matches against Sweden, Belgium, and Austria (the last two were friendlies earlier in June), they had lost all three matches while conceding 11 goals and scoring just once. The change I expected Renard to immediately make is to abandon the three-man backline and go back to the defensive emphasis under Trabesi, which includes a four-man backline. The goal now was not to get humiliated — so the powers that be get out their checkbooks to present an official after this tournament.
Tunisia got crushed by Japan by a 4-0 score. They then lost to the Netherlands by a 3-1 score. Their performance against the Dutch was admirable. But they lost all three of their matches at the World Cup while getting outscored by 10 goals. They were the only national team from Africa that qualified for the World Cup but did not qualify for the Knockout Stage.
Do the Eagles of Carthage see better results if they simply stuck with Lamouchi in this tournament? Who knows — but his retaining a few more of the veterans available to him would have likely been extremely helpful? Would this national team have been better off by simply not firing Trabelsi after the disappointing result against Mali in the African Cup of Nations six months ago? Probably — but it is tough to feel too much sympathy for ankle biters angling for jobs from the perch of their TV pundit gig.
The one thing that seems most certain is that the players on the Tunisian national team deserved better at every step of the way. Three managers in less than six months is a joke perpetuated by a bunch of clowns.
Perhaps Renard will offer them a blessing in disguise as the next four-year World Cup cycle begins for them.
Best of luck — Frank.
It was the earliest firing of a head coach during the World Cup in the history of the event. To be fair, Lamouchi was not dealt a great hand — and the powers at be of this organization appear to be irrational hot heads.
The Eagles of Carthage’s previous manager was Sami Trabelsi, who led them through the World Cup qualifying stage with a W9-D1-L0 record and zero goals conceded. But after a loss to Mali via penalty kicks in the Round of 16 of the 2025 AFCON, he was fired. Tunisia was playing with a man advantage after the 29th minute due to a red card that fueled the anger at Tribelsi. By the way, Tribelsi was originally hired by these folks after his stint as a beIN pundit during the 2023 AFCON (taking place in 2024, as the 2025 AFCON finished in early January this year), where he was a vocal critic of the Tunisian manager at the time. Hiring guys out of the TV booth is one of my biggest pet peeves, and it rarely works. Lamouchi had previously been the skipper for Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest, amongst many spots in England and the Middle East. He promised to bring a more progressive style with a vertical attack, which was probably exactly what his potential bosses wanted to hear after the Mali debacle in the AFCON.
A 5-0 loss in their final friendly against Belgium on June 6th was the canary in the coal mine. Against Sweden in their opening match in the World Cup, the Eagles of Carthage controlled possession for 51% of that match — but they only generated 0.28 expected Goals (xG) from a mere six shots (only two on target and zero Big Chances of at least a 35% expected goal rate). The Swedes only generated 1.33 xG — but they were given four Big Chances, with Lamouchi lamenting that his squad committed “too many mistakes.” That opening match was considered a must-win for both teams, with the Netherlands and Japan remaining in the group.
Tunisia was prepared to turn to their technical director, Mondher Kebaier, as their caretaker for the rest of this event, but they were able to convince Herve Renard to become their immediate manager with the expectation that a longer-term collaboration will be worked out after the match. Renard is a professional manager. The 57-year-old had most recently been the national manager for Saudi Arabia before getting sacked in April. He oversaw that team’s 2-1 upset victory against Argentina in their opening match in the 2022 World Cup. He previously was the manager for Morocco for the 2018 World Cup. My notes on him for that event consisted of descriptions like this: “intensity,” “fitness,” defensive solidity,” “great coach for international play.” He was considered a Svengali for hire in Africa at the time. But what could he do in five days?
In other sports like football or basketball, it is expected that there will be some sort of short-term bounce in effort and intensity from the locker room after a head coach gets fired. But I don’t think lack of effort or intensity was this group’s problem against Sweden. They just got exposed. I was already worried about their group stage play, which did not include even one opponent ranked in the top 100 in the FIFA rankings — and four of those victories were narrow one-goal affairs. Tunisia had only won three matches in their seven World Cup appearances — and they had never reached the knockout stage.
Lamouchi perhaps tried to buy himself time by choosing a younger roster. In hindsight, not selecting captain Ferjani Sassi was too clever by half, as this squad certainly could have used the 33-year-old’s experience and composure anchoring the midfield. Yassine Meriah and his 99 career caps with the national team was another surprising omission. With Renard likely to stay on after this tournament, I didn’t think the players would check out. But what he inherited in the middle of the World Cup was a young and mostly overmatched group. In their last three matches against Sweden, Belgium, and Austria (the last two were friendlies earlier in June), they had lost all three matches while conceding 11 goals and scoring just once. The change I expected Renard to immediately make is to abandon the three-man backline and go back to the defensive emphasis under Trabesi, which includes a four-man backline. The goal now was not to get humiliated — so the powers that be get out their checkbooks to present an official after this tournament.
Tunisia got crushed by Japan by a 4-0 score. They then lost to the Netherlands by a 3-1 score. Their performance against the Dutch was admirable. But they lost all three of their matches at the World Cup while getting outscored by 10 goals. They were the only national team from Africa that qualified for the World Cup but did not qualify for the Knockout Stage.
Do the Eagles of Carthage see better results if they simply stuck with Lamouchi in this tournament? Who knows — but his retaining a few more of the veterans available to him would have likely been extremely helpful? Would this national team have been better off by simply not firing Trabelsi after the disappointing result against Mali in the African Cup of Nations six months ago? Probably — but it is tough to feel too much sympathy for ankle biters angling for jobs from the perch of their TV pundit gig.
The one thing that seems most certain is that the players on the Tunisian national team deserved better at every step of the way. Three managers in less than six months is a joke perpetuated by a bunch of clowns.
Perhaps Renard will offer them a blessing in disguise as the next four-year World Cup cycle begins for them.
Best of luck — Frank.
