Tunisia made the World Cup? Oh yeah, I knew that!
By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer (& Schwan's USA CUP Media Director)
Every day during Schwan's USA CUP, presented by PUMA, we publish a daily newspaper, the Soccer America Tournament Edition. I used to do most of the article writing for the paper, but as we've expanded our media activities into new areas like video (Kick TV!) and added more media staff, I find that I'm spending more time managing people than words. But today I gave myself an assignment.
So I grabbed my sunglasses, tape recorder, note pad and team rosters and headed out to field D4 to write an article about our 15 boys team from Tunisia and the four Minnesota players guest playing on the team. Arabic is Tunisia's official language, but French is widely spoken, so I took one of our French interns Adrien Bequart along to translate for my interviews.
I immediately met Nejizbidi Zbidi, Vice-President of Union Sportive Monasti, the sport club the team represented. Turns out he spoke excellent English, so I was able to release Adrien back to his real job at the tournament, field services. Mr. Zbidi was very cordial with his time, even answering my questions while the game was going on.
Left: My new friends from Tunisia, ready to teach me some World Cup history.
You can read my full article in the newspaper, or online, so I won't repeat the details. But during my interview I did have one of those "oops" moments that a soccer journalist should avoid at all costs.
I asked Mr. Zbidi many many questions about the city of Monasti (tourist city on the Mediterranean), the club (formed in 1923), and asked him to paint a picture of soccer in Tunisia (their pro league has 14 teams!)
Then I innocently asked whether Tunisia had ever qualified for the World Cup.
"Yes, four times," he said. "lncluding last year."
I knew that, I really did. Or not.
We try so hard at Schwan's USA CUP to be good hosts to our international guests. So Mr. Zbidi, I'd like to tell you that at the next World Cup, in South Africa 2010, Tunisia's my team!
It's called a make-up call.
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