The USM Alger Chronicle
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Houssemeddine Ghacha scores twice — 8.14
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Sep 2026
USM Alger turn down Enyimba for Oto John
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ricardo Mathias, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.36
A mark of 8.36 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market7 Sep 2026
Hamza Boualem puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ala Eddine Limane is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Graduation day at USM Alger
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ali Ghazal falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
USM Alger get the job done against Paradou
A 3‑1 win over Paradou, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
USM Alger supporters have found a favourite in Ricardo Mathias
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ricardo Mathias 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.
In brief
- Market Abderrahmane Atal steps up from the USM Alger academy
- Market One of our own: Sofiane Bennacer joins the USM Alger first team
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Ghiles Guenaoui