Can Etoile Sportive de Rades become first Tunisian team to win the FIBA Africa Champions Cup at home?
SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - If Etoile Sportive de Rades win the FIBA Africa Champions Cup (ACC) 2017 it would be a game-changer for Tunisian teams in the history of the competition.
This year's ACC has opened on Monday, December 11 and finish on December 20. And both Etoile Sportive de Rades and Union Sportive Monastirienne will try to keep the Tunisian flag on the top step of the podium against ten other clubs from seven African nations.
Two local heavyweight sides - Club Africain and Etoile Sportive du Sahel (ESS) - have previously hosted the ACC, yet the trophy ended up in someone else's hands.
Tunisian teams' struggles to win at home started in 2008 when ESS - the first Tunisia team to host the ACC - attempted to win the top prize of FIBA Africa's top competition in front of home fans.
At the time, Angola's Primeiro D'Agosto - FIBA ACC's most successful team with eight continental titles - proved too much for ESS, winning their fourth of eight titles.
Five years later, ESS had a second chance to redeem themselves, and again, D'Agosto took home the top prize.
A year later, Tunisia had not one, not two, but three representatives at the 2014 edition of the ACC. Hosts Club Africain were joined by Etoile Sportive de Rades and Union Sportive Monastirienne. And again, you guessed it. Angolan side Libolo took the trophy home.
So, this explains the rivalry between Angola and Tunisian clubs.
However, and despite the Angolans' astonishing ACC record, and given Tunisia's current circumstances in the African basketball panorama - Africa reigning champions - I thought this could be the year of change for local teams.
Hosts Etoile Sportive de Rades, for instance, count on nine Tunisian internationals, head coach Adel Tlatli - the head coach who helped his country win their first FIBA AfroBasket in 2011 -, and the home-court advantage factor.
Yet, not everyone agrees with me.
I suspect that the Angolan club teams will continue to show their dominance at this level. Though the Northern African teams from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria will continue to stake their claims. Going to be a great tournament.
— Coach Liz Mills (@Coach_LizMills) December 10, 2017
Julio, it’s alright you can include Libolo. 😀🤣 I won’t question you. I think the inclusion of Warner & Ivshyn in the Ferroviario de Beira side makes a case for the Mozambican side. We’ll surely see close games.
— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) December 10, 2017
While Libolo - who finished in the Second-Place a year ago after a close defeat to hosts Al Ahly of Egypt - are the only side to have won the trophy among this year's ACC contenders, they would have to overcome's Etoile Sportive de Rade's desperation to make history. And that makes this year's ACC, an unmissable event.
If neither Libolo or Etoile Sportive de Rades win the ACC 2017, who else could do it?
My bet would be Morocco's champions Association Sportive de Sale, although they tend to be terribly inconsistent when it matters most.
Over the last two ACC editions, two different Moroccan sides (AS Sale and FAR Rabat) finished in third, showing how wide open the ACC title race has become.
Etoile Sportive de Rades, Libolo or AS Sale? Who will laugh last?
Julio Chitunda
FIBA
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