Narcisse Moustapha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AS DGSSIE will make the call about Hassan Hissein this week. US Moursal have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
SquadWords at US Moursal training over how hard people work
SquadSaleh Bechir has become a man the manager trusts
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. US Moursal will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Idriss Bechir was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
AS Etat Major will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. US Moursal were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between US Moursal and AS Etat Major, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Brahim Abba and US Moursal agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Mbaiguedem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
AS Algoy will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. US Moursal were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Narcisse Moustapha provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Saleh Mbaiguedem, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Moursal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Saleh Mbaiguedem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Moursal can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Brahim Mbaiguedem and US Moursal agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Hissein is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Moursal can pretend not to have heard.
Brahim Abba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Youssouf Oumar has come up in conversations US Moursal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Mbaiguedem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. US Moursal will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Mbaiguedem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Narcisse Moustapha has come out of that comparison in the side, and US Moursal have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Mbaiguedem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. US Moursal told Brahim Abba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Marked 7.21 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, US Moursal had the best player on the pitch.
Squad20 Dec 2027
The division's best last weekend was a US Moursal man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Narcisse Moustapha was the best thing in any of them.
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Saleh Mbaiguedem, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Saleh Mbaiguedem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Narcisse Moustapha. 2‑0 against AS Algoy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Brahim Abba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Brahim Abba has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Moussa Abakar obliged against AS Etat Major. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is US Moursal.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saleh Bechir did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A 2‑1 win over AS DGSSIE, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Mbaiguedem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Moussa Abakar has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Stars Jeunes Talents tried to reorganise, US Moursal did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.