I am sure Lyon wont have a problem inviting him at Gerland, Aulas is a political animal And the VIP box at Gerland is nice indeed, JMA comes and says hello to everyone there. (Been there as Arsenal lone supporter there for a Champions League game.)
a lot of people wonder why he's not mayor but why would he want to stoop to being mayor when he's already king?
Some updates from the french league . After 5 matches Lyon seems already promise to another title only PSG could stop them i think, they have just defeated Juvisy 4~0 away with Schelin scoring 3 goals in her season debut ...... I didn't watch the game but some friend told me that it was a very nervous game with 4 yellow card and many other fault .....particularly a harsh one commited by Soubeyrand on Viguier..... Anyway, once again Necib proved that she is useless in a big match , Patrice Lair ,lyon coach , she was replaced for "tactical reason" after only 29 minutes by Dickenmann , then Lyon scored 3 goals.....
but will draw all the conclusions i want, is that the idea? the outstanding feature was that the field was so waterlogged as to be practically unplayable: had it been either a men's pro match or a district affair where travel distance is not so daunting they probably would have postponed. i feel that more than anything was responsible for louisa being useless, and also for the number of fouls and cards. i don't claim my opinion is gospel... but at least i saw the match. i'm not in PL's head but when he's outright displeased with a player he lets it be known to all and sundry and h didn't look like he was particularly angry with louisa when she came out (although she was visibly crushed). note also that this wasn't lotta's D1 debut since i saw her score a brace against RAF... i think... unless i'm just saying the first thing that comes into my head. as for who can catch OL, i think la paillade has the best shot but only because they have just the two points to make up, whereas PSG has 4 which means they need to beat lyon twice. in those head-to-heads MHSC has the (very slight) advantage of playing lyon when the fenottes have had 4 days' rest, PSG has what amounts to an advantage for them in that they play at home in november and come to gerland in the spring, and will certainly progress as the season wears on. next season i expect a battle between these two clubs for the title, this year it's a bit early.
guignol , So what is your explanation then ?.......In your opinion why a coach decided to substituted a player after 29 minutes ? .....The waterlogged pitch excuse is an insult to your own intelligence guignol .....so why Louisa and NO ONE ELSE from either team ? Come on Guignol , ne defends pas l'indefendable.......
he didn't take her out because of the pitch directly. he took her out because she was getting nothing done and the state of the pitch was the biggest cause of that. not being able to adapt her game to conditions is a weakness in itself but it wasn't a case of "big match" nerves; the two biggest matches of the D1 season last year were the return meetings with juvisy and PSG and she was very good in the one and WOTM (for real, not D8 WOTM) in the other. i've seen PL really tear into his girls both on the pitch and coming off, really shockingly abusive, and apparently (not able to judge from TV images but people i know who were at LL don't mention anything like that... but they say she was really affected (some say crying) and maybe pat decided she didn't need a chewing out on top of that.
sone nice snapshots of the Juvisy-Ol match. I've posted the link elsewhere but the set is really good... http://www.fanslyon.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/134 sequence 13 to 16 is worth looking at for anyone who thinks corinne franco is just a pretty face. she's a scrapper! number 51 w/ louisa and doc amprino is heartwarming too.
Great photo: http://www.fanslyon.com/piwigo/galleries/Saison_2012-2013/Feminines/D1_5e_J_Juvisy-OL/Juvisy_OL_19.JPG
strangely your link doesn't work for me but this which looks identical does http://www.fanslyon.com/piwigo/gall.../Feminines/D1_5e_J_Juvisy-OL/Juvisy_OL_19.JPG
one hour until the biggest match of the season : PSG-OL. the biggest so far and unless paris wins, bigger than the return match will be, because even a draw leaves PSG with more ground to make up than they can accomplish on their own; a lyon win for all intents and purposes decides the title (already!) and a big lyon win, like against the other two direct opponents for the title, indicates PSG is still another couple of transfer periods away from really threatening for the title. the keys are in this picture. even if OL is still (in my humble and hopefully objective opinion) somewhere between a quarter and a half-cut ahead of PSG in individual talent, above all they still have a huge advantage in team experience, so a lot depends on how well farid benstiti prepares this match. then there's the duel between shirley cruz and amandine henry, not so much head-to-head as the desire and drive they represent and how that will permeate the play of each team. PSG will be ultramotivated of course. but OL will also be pumped up as they only get (or need to get) for a handful of matches a year.
une-deux announces these lineups: PSG Veronique PonsJessica Houara - Annike Krahn - Sabrina Delannoy (C) - Saïda AkherrazeShirley Cruz - Aurélie Kaci - Linda Bresonik - Kheira HamraouiLindsey Horan - Kosovare Asllani OL Sarah BouhaddiCorine Franco - Laura Georges - Wendie Renard - Sonia Bompastor (C)Louisa Necib - Camille Abily - Amandine Henry Elodie Thomis - Lotta Schelin - Eugénie Le Sommer
a very tactical first half with a half-dozen half chances for lyon, a couple of rather noncommital outside shots for paris. PSG very dense around their goal, neither of their strikers really seen yet. they're waiting for a counter opportunity but lyon, also being patient and tactical, isn't giving them any, and likely won't as a draw is a good result for them. paris will have to do something diffferent if they hope to win, and the 2nd half will hopefully be more open.
PSG came out in the second half playing about 10 meters higher up the field. necessary because anything they might have got going in the first half just had too far to go to worry anyone; insufficient because OL had no trouble at all very quickly putting paid to anything they started anyway. the extra space mostly benefitted lyon who got more, and more interesting, play between the parisian lines; even so it took a penalty to open the score (handball by delannoy on a shot from tonnazzi, converted by amandine henry). whether lyon would have scored anyway is about a 50-50 argument in my book, but PSG scoring never seemed even a remote possibility; at 0-1 the play was still in favor of lyon, perhaps even moreso. bouhaddi finished the match with no saves and no balls won in the air; PSG got one corner and no FK's close enough to present a direct or even indirect danger. symptomatic : horan scratched for balls at the end just like she did in montpellier, but whereas there it led to a comeback draw and near victory, this time she was just a candle in the wind. asllani? asllolutely inexistant. bresonik showed some flashes of talent but was more dominated than dominating. cruz and hamraoui were the best parigotes, but still too little to worry henry, abily and the lyon back four, some of whom were always available to get involved in the midfield struggle. in hindsight 0-1 is not a bad outcome. even if PSG was unable to make lyon doubt for a minute, i think if benstiti had it to do over his strategy would still be to hang on and hope to nick one at the end. it would have taken a big helping hand from either fate or the officials, but anything else could very well have led to a fate similar to what la paillade experienced in gerland last week. the gap is still there.
All in all, a bit disappointing match, even boring most of the time. Lyon clearly had ball possession but seemed very cautious, particularly in first half. They didn't combine a lot in attack. Either they were unable to do it - and that would mean they are less collectively inventive than in the past (we already saw it against Montpellier in spite of the 6 goals, four of them being scored thanks to individual performances and 2 on set pieces) - or it was due to PSG's organisation. I would say both. If Lyon was so-so, PSG was too much passive. Very well organized in defence, rather solid in defensive mid-field but uninspired offensively. Bresonik was far from her usual level. Hamraoui had a good game but played more defensively than usual. She finished her match injured after a severe shock with Henry. PSG played without Laure Boulleau and that was a real and obvious handicap. Shirley Cruz had to leave the pitch after being injured (it looked a bit serious at the time). Horan and Asllani, yes, were invisible, either too close from one to the other, or too far. Seeing the ball possession and the goal opportunities (let's say three for the match vs none), Lyon could deserve this short victory. The thing is that the victory came with an extremely severe penalty. To give an idea, it's exactly the same "handball" than during USA-Canada in Olympics Game. The only difference being that here it was not a FK but an open action and a shot by Laetitia Tonazzi. Sabrina Delannoy quickly turned her back (then facing her posts), her arms against her body, in a protection movement. I think it's too bad and a shame that such an important match - with such a decisive result for the rest of the season and the title - was concluded with such a bad decision. Almost no doubt that Lyon will grab its 7th title in a row now. Maybe the last one, as it was for the Men. Every story reaches an end someday and future seems to be more on PSG's side for the next season but also on Montpellier's who won 6-0 today against Vendenheim with three goals by the wonderful Hoda Lattaf and with such a young team on her side.
Lyon scored 53 goals after 9 matches , that's mean almost 5 goals every match...... Abily is the league top scorer with 13 goals ,Tonazzi 8 goals,Le sommer and Thomis 7 goals, Schelin 6 ,Otaki 4 ,Necib the star of french football , always a starter in her favourite role got......0 ..... Asllani is at 7 , Horan 6 and Delie 9. People ,journalist , and even Bompastor, are saying that Lyon is almost already champion....I am not sure, in my opinion Montpellier and PSG could beat them when they'll meet again.
Yes the much vaunted parity in the league doesn't exist. The 2nd and 3rd teams might be getting better, but they are still division 2, Lyon is division 1, and everyone else is division 3 or less.
judging nécib by the goals she scores is dishonest. and even the louisa haters around here (she's not really a fan favorite here) are saying she had a good match in paris. could MHSC or PSG beat OL in the return match? not impossible. but it will take more than one of them winning for lyon not to take the title: all three of the non-minnows would have to get results and two of those matches are in gerland. the math gets non-euclidian. much vaunted parity? what much vaunted parity? if you've heard such talk about the french league it's about the men, and there it's a gold-plated fact. no one in france says there's anything like parity in fem D1, au contraire.
Actually many here and on Womenssoccerunited like to talk about parity. They like to say that it isn't a done deal every year for Lyon to win the title, that Montpellier and PSG can win it. I always point out the Lyon is an allstar team, and while the players are very good and very skilled, having a good year scoring 20goals, 30goals, 50 goals for Lyon is not as impressive as someone scoring 17 for Malmo, Tyreso, Goteborg, Frankfurt, Potsdam, Wolfsburg, etc.
I never read any post on WSU saying that "it isn't a done deal every year for Lyon to win the title". But I do think that the gap between Lyon and the others (mainly PSG and MHSC) is tightening, which is a bit different. Lyon will likely win its 7th title on a row (even if I won't swear it and I found Sonia's words a bit arrogant and not like her) but - imho - that could be the last one, as it happened for the men (OL's). Any cycle reaches its end someday, that's life, isn't it ? Last year, Lyon won at the last step only, people seem to have forgotten it... If they keep improving (and they will do) PSG on one side, and Montpellier (if they keep their young talents at home and recruit, let's say two big players) have both future on their side, I think. On your reflexion about the number of goals scored in one season according to the various leagues, yes, I agree with you.
Any one have input on how Horan looked this season in france? did she hold her own? Was she good? Is there big potential?
Her stats are not bad, 6 goals in 7 starts, plus a game as a sub. She is slightly overweight due to her injury prior her arrival and she missed the pre-season fitness work. She is learning French as well. I think she si getting used to PSG style of play and her teammates as well as living in a foreign country which is not easy at her age.