OMG ! More goals in French league !

Discussion in 'France' started by Catel, Sep 25, 2011.

  1. Catel

    Catel Member

    Dec 18, 2006
    Lyon, France
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    208 goals have been scored in 79 matchs this season. This thread is opened after an Auxerre 4-1 Sochaux !

    That makes an average of 2,633 goals per match for the moment. In the moderne world of business football where pleasing a large number of fans is the most important thing, that number is only... average. In most European main leagues, this average is from 2,5 to 3. (best is Estonia, worst is Azerbaijan)

    But for France, after ten years - and more - inspired by the 90's Calcio and 98' Aimé Jacquet's 4-3-1-2 World Cup winning squad, this is exceptional.

    In fact, since the 85/86 Championship season, the best goals per match average was reached in 2000, and it was 2,572. Irony: the League trophy was won by Monaco and its newbie coach Claude Puel. :eek:

    I had opened a similar thread 2 years ago. We already had "Return of the revenge of the goalies" and were parading with our costly star recruits, Lucho, Lisandro and Heinze.

    What happened ? Did we find the secret Greek treasure hidden by the crook government and buy scoring machines and a few dozens of new Platinis ? Seems not: the best strikers of the league are Bafétimbi Gomis and Alain Traoré, best assistant is Mathieu Valbuena.

    Sure, Qatar St Germain are now kings of petroleum and Javier Pastore costed as much as FC Sochaux alone. They scored 14 goals and took 7. The same for Lyon, who bought for 5M€ of Ligue 2 players.

    It was not a question of players (again, look at Estonia. Ahem). It was a question of mind spirit and management of the richest clubs. If Marseille and PSG are in a perpetual crisis, we should not be surprised that Lyon wins the league with a 15 points lead, followed by Matt Moussilou's LOSC.

    More important, the presidents know that they're late in the big battle of the football world show. They're seeing that the entire planet is watching Blackburn 4-2 Stoke City -- even if both teams are worth, well, no more than Caen or Nice. Institutions are working for the 4 or 5 last years on a change of spirit concerning tactics and youth training. Until 2004 yes, we had only "big strong Black" players in our young teams; things are now more moderate, even if a strong reformist motto keeps to claim "if Xavi and Iniesta had been French, they would never have become professional footballers" (it is not false).

    Now look at our coaches. How many of them are not against the 'beautiful game' thing ? I'd say approx. a dozen of them. Only two others are devoted to the "ugly winning" (Deschamps and Casanova).
    Tactics are generally more opened, and speeches are getting more evoluted than "let's be defensively strong, win the challenges and maybe we'll have a bit of luck on a counter-attack".

    Teams that play badly are now more punished than rewarded. A few years ago, Franck Dumas' Caen or Jean-Marc Furlan's Troyes were relegated despite playing a pleasing game. Now it's Monaco and Le Mans...
     
  2. lefutur

    lefutur Member+

    Sep 2, 2004
    Brooklyn, NY US
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Interesting thread. I wonder how much Montpellier contributed to that goal average until PSG put the 3-0 shellacking on them.

    I think Ligue 1 has a lot to be proud of these days. Good exciting football, an actual multi-horse race for the title unlike some "better" leagues *cough EPL cough*, and a very good level of quality throughout the table.
     
  3. StarrMatthieu

    StarrMatthieu Member+

    Dec 15, 2007
    USA/FRANCE
    Club:
    Paris Saint Germain FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    vive la ligue 1
     
  4. Catel

    Catel Member

    Dec 18, 2006
    Lyon, France
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    In regards of standards, the best league is the German. They have everything. Including unexpected champions every two years (this year Bayern will win...). They just lack a bit a glamor. Hey, they're German.
     
  5. SportBoy333

    SportBoy333 Member+

    Jun 27, 2003
    The entire planet isnt gonna be watching Caen vs Nice even if they score 10 goals a piece. Also because those 2 teams you mentioned are in the EPL, they can sign international players that people recognize and Caen or Nice can not sign those kinds of players.
     
  6. Catel

    Catel Member

    Dec 18, 2006
    Lyon, France
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Of course not. But maybe French viewers will be more interested in Caen-Nice than in Stoke-Blackburn. I'm not joking. We were heading to this. Take 30 French kids in 1990: they wanted to watch Marseille, Paris, Monaco on TV. Take 30 French kids in 2010: they want to watch Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal on TV.

    And foreign viewers who watch Stoke-Blackburn COULD be curious to see the highlights of this Lyon 5-5 Marseille... :p
     
  7. SportBoy333

    SportBoy333 Member+

    Jun 27, 2003
    More goals in nice but I want more people in the stadiums. Maybe more goals will help that. Montpellier and Toulouse need the most help there. Montpellier are playing so well but I dont think their attendance has increased much from where it usually is.
     
  8. lefutur

    lefutur Member+

    Sep 2, 2004
    Brooklyn, NY US
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    There's always a lag between success and more fans in France. Look at Lyon, they won 7 back to back championships and they are still slowly approaching a fan base that could compete with either PSG or Marseille.
     
  9. SportBoy333

    SportBoy333 Member+

    Jun 27, 2003
    Lyon fill up over 80% of their stadium on a regular basis which is good. Montpellier and Toulouse are closer to 50% which is bad. Auxerre too but they are in a small town. Same thing for Sochaux. Nice I give a free pass to because their stadium is so bad.
     
  10. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France

    Well...We're talking about Lyon there... :rolleyes:






    Castro long reply by guignol in 10

    9

    8




    :p


    I'm perfectly conscious that as a SRFC follower, it's the pot calling kettle black...But hey, we've got no championships yet so...
     
  11. SportBoy333

    SportBoy333 Member+

    Jun 27, 2003
    Lyon are already the 3rd most popular club but they cant climb any higher. Its ok because they already blew past teams who used to be more popular than them like Lens, St. Etienne, Nantes, Bordeaux. They only have to worry about Lille surpasing them and I dont think it will happen unless Lille keeps getting stronger and stronger and OL somehow collapses. Lille have already surppased those above teams as well. Lille have players people want to watch, Bordeaux for example are a boring team that has no one people want to watch. Nantes, Monaco, and Lens are toiling in mediocrity in Ligue 2 and St. Eteinne are below Lille due to inept management and ownership.
     

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