Raja Club Athletic 2 - 2 Olympique Asfi

Benzarti barely avoids a disastrous opener for his return to the Botola Pro

It was to be a tumultuous night in Casablanca for Raja fans in their opening game of the season against Olympique Asfi. For Raja, ambitions are sky high this time around, after a record breaking mercato in terms of new signings and the return of Tunisian coaching legend Benzarti at the helm of the squad, the objective is pretty clear: win the title. The expectations for this match as a result were obviously very high.

On the other side of the equation, a tough challenger in the name of Olympique Asfi. A squad that has finished last season in a very strong fashion. Unbeaten in their last 8 matches, they made the correct decision to hold on to their manager, Egyptian Tarek Mostafa, and didn’t lose too many key players during the summer transfer market.

As a result, the team resumed exactly where it left off last season, sharp and well-drilled, the whole unit looked in great physical shape despite this being their first game of the season. They used that tool to their advantage in this match, with a 4-2-3-1 mid block that was expressedly conceived to press and take on Raja’s players in midfield, suffocating them whenever the ball reached them, and leaving them very little space to maneuver.

Each OCS player was generally responsible for one man, and Mahrous and Rhailouf were particularly crucial in this role, taking on Benguit and Zrida in the middle and causing them a lot of issues as a result. The consequence was a frankly impressive stat of 63 (!) total interceptions for Olympique Asfi. One of the highest values ever recorded against Raja in the last few seasons (just behind the 68 interceptions figure from their last clash last season interestingly, which had ended in a 3-2 victory for the Casablanca side).

Raja was not able to rise to the challenge in the 1st half, and were guilty of a record number of misplaced passes throughout the match. At times, it felt like we were stuck in a possession loss loop, with the team sometimes giving away possessions up to three times in the space of a couple of minutes.

This led to plenty of offensive transition situations for Olympique Asfi. They were not afraid to send bodies up front every time they recovered possession, and thanks to their quick players such as Diarra, Naji and especially Mourabit, they managed to convert two of those situations into goals, very early in the first half.

Both goals came from Raja’s players inability to deal with the press. In the first goal, in a pure 1on1, Mourabit steals the ball off an indecisive and nonchalant Nahiri, and does brilliantly afterwards to push off any challenge, using his body and his strength to finally deliver the assist to Nejjari. On the second goal, It is Benguit that gets dispossessed of the ball by Mahrous in a very similar sequence, launching away Mourabit who will eventually deliver his second assist of the night.

Below you can see how close Asfi players were instructed to stick to the Raja players.

This of course is a gamble, as you rely on the defensive quality and overall stamina of your own players to make the plan work, and you can easily put yourselves in dangerous situations if one or two of your players are eliminated in 1on1s. Raja managed to beat this press quite a few times, especially on the right flank which worked much better than the left. The combination of Habti dropping to midfield, alongside Madkour continuous runs and Zrida’s quality on the ball, allowed for Raja to get into the penalty areas numerous times in this fashion. Definitely one of the positive points for the Casablanca side in this match. As often is the case though on the right side when Madkour is playing, the final product was lacking.

Still, Asfi’s gamble was well worth it, and they got more than their fair share of transition situations. They were also helped by what I can only refer to as Benzarti tactics. A faith so blind in the capabilities of his own players that leads to possible easy numerical superiority situations for the other side. Below you can see how 6 Raja players are high above the ball line while the ball carrier is pressed - which will quickly turn into 8 players once Asfi do recover the ball.

Raja were frankly lucky to get one back in the first half, a silly Mourabit foul in the penalty area that could have been entirely avoided. At 0.4 non penalty xG after 45 minutes, they were trailing Olympique Asfi in that metric despite holding on to most of the ball, and getting into the penalty areas multiple times. 11 penalty area entries in one half is not too shabby, but converting these into actual shooting opportunities was a real struggle in this half.

As a result, Benzarti made a couple of quick changes in the second half and the team looked a lot more balanced. In came Hadraf and Forsy in place of Bouzok and Habti respectively, and a few minutes later, Benguit also made way for Makahasi.

Raja looked way more in control in the second half, and conceded a lot less concrete chances, despite still giving the ball away cheaply at times. (0.12 xG against in the second half), this will most likely be the blueprint on which they will have to build in the future.

They got a goal back quickly from a (non existing) corner kick, thanks to Harkass quality in the air. Asfi were using 1on1 marking throughout the game, not only in open play but also in set pieces, but when dealing with players with high quality in the air, this sometimes ends up backfiring, as was the case here.

From there, Raja kept pushing but the intensity level dropped quite a bit and the Casablanca side took less risks in terms of numbers sent up front. With the game being played at a lower rhythm, Sebbar settled in more and managed to thread a few good passes towards the left of the penalty area that could have led to an eventual winner had Hadraf or Nahiri finished better. The game eventually ended in a 2-2 draw.

Benzarti has now quite a few challenges in front of him. First, Asfi has shown a type of patron to other teams on how to put pressure on his side. With Benguit’s relative tendency to lose possession in midfield, the Tunisian coach will have to find creative ways to deal with this fact, a bit like how he decided to drop Hassouni deeper in his previous stint with Wydad, or just drop him from the starting lineup altogether.

Secondly, he will have to find better ways to use the qualities of his number 9, Axel Meyé. The latter didn’t win a single duel in this match (even though his role as a target man was useful on a few occasions). Méyé often tried running into the space between the two defenders, but it rarely worked out for him.

On the other hand, when he played with his back to the goal, and combined quickly with his midfielders, he often allowed the block to progress further into Asfi’s side of the pitch.

Some decisions will also probably have to be made regarding the personnel on the left side. Both Bouzok (2 duels won, 8 lost, 1 dribble made, 1 touch in the penalty area, 0 xG, 0 xA) and Nahiri (14 ball losses) were very disappointing, and it will take a lot more from them if the Casablanca side wants to compete for trophies this season.

Finally, he will also have to deal with the fact that some teams’ quality has definitely improved in comparison to his last time over in Morocco, especially in transition. Sending a suicidal number of players forward might not work as well as the last time around.

Overall, this was a very interesting opening game for both teams, plenty of lessons to learn. Asfi will feel hard done by the refereeing to not come out with the three points but they can still be satisfied with a very high quality performance in terms of tactical discipline and ability in transitions.

Raja on the other hand will feel better about their performance in the 2nd half, surely a base on which to build for the following matches.

Man of the match: Mohamed El Morabit (Olympique Asfi)