  The rapid expansion of the fireball created in a heavy-ion collision causes
strong departures from local equilibrium. Such effects are especially important
in the very early phase of the collision, bringing a substantial pressure
asymmetry. We investigate effects of this early stage pressure asymmetry in a
kinetic model without boost-invariance. In the kinetic evolution the pressure
asymmetry results from the competition of the longitudinal expansion and the
kinetic relaxation. Unlike the transverse flow, the directed flow is found to
be very sensitive to the equilibration rate and the pressure anisotropy.
