AS Monaco thread [R]

[jeff070]

adu starting for as monaco friendly against juve!
Freddy adu est dans les premiers onzes de l'equipe monaco contre la juve!

[StarrMatthieu]

AS Monaco beat Juventus on penalties in a friendly played tonight at the San Filippo stadium of Messina, and Gianluigi Buffon made his return in goal after a long injury lay-off.



Juventus 1-1 AS Monaco


Juventus and AS Monaco met at the Stadio San Filippo of Messina for a prestigious friendly as both sides prepare to resume the league season following the winter break.
The Bianconeri played with a team close to their strongest XI, with Amauri, captain Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, Nicola Legrottaglie, and Mohamed Sissoko all starting, while Gigi Buffon made his return between the sticks after a lengthy injury-forced absence. Monaco, meanwhile, played with a second-string team full of youngsters. Freddy Adu and Serge Gapke spearheaded the attack in a 4-4-2 formation.
Amauri made himself dangerous for the first time in the 7th minute, when he controlled the ball nicely on the edge of the area and fired a shot, which was well saved by goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier.
The young stand-in keeper, who was deputising for Flavio Roma, produced another superb save two minutes later on a dangerous header by Amauri.
It was all Juve at the start of the match, and on the half hour mark Del Piero came close again with a low left-footed shot on an assist by Zdenek Grygera that went just wide of the post.
Against the run of play, it was the French side who took the lead in the 35th minute, when Legrottaglie clearly fouled Adu and a penalty was awarded. Midfielder Jerko Leko took it, and easily worked it past Buffon.
Juve had a final chance in the first half when Del Piero’s precise free kick in the 46th minute was tipped over the bar by Ruffier.
During half-time, coach Claudio Ranieri opted to make no less than nine changes to his side, leaving on only his two central defenders, while Monaco coach Ricardo Gomes only made two changes, bringing in Djamel Bakar for Gapke and Yohann Thuram-Ulien for Ruffier.
In the second half, Monaco looked like they could hold on to their lead, as they mostly sat back to defend, but Juve came close in the 66th minute through substitute Sebastian Giovinco, who fired a cracking shot from distance that hit the post.
Just when it seemed it was all over for the Bianconeri, they grabbed an equaliser at the death when another substitute, Vincenzo Iaquinta, hit a nice first-time shot on a through ball by Cristiano Zanetti that beat Thuram-Ulien.
There was no extra time, and the game was decided on a penalty shoot out after the 90 minutes. The only miss came from Paolo De Ceglie, who saw his shot saved by Thuram-Ulien, so the “Trofeo Cittá di Messina” went to AS Monaco.
Starting XIs:
Juventus: Buffon; Grygera, Ariaudo, Legrottaglie, Molinaro; Marchionni, Sissoko, Marchisio, Nedved; Del Piero, Amauri.
Monaco: Ruffier; Modesto, Mongongu, Adriano, Mangani; Sagbo, Leko, Pokrivac, Diaz; Adu, Gapke.

[guignol]

it's curious they say ruffier was "standing in" for roma, who has only played four matches this season, and those when ruffier was injured i believe... ruffier did get the job originally due to an injury to roma but he's won the starting job outright now.

note that thuram-ulien is the cousin of lilian.

[AfrcnHrbMan]

How did Gapke do? He was supposed to be part of the hot french up and coming strike force but I haven't much about him lately.

[leepui]

Bonjour,

I am a big fan of Park Ju-Young and has been desperately looking for the official name and numbers to print on my AS Monaco shirt.
I found that they are available at the official online boutique
but the problem is, they only mail to France...

I was wondering can anyone here do me a big favour ---
buy from the shop and mail it to me
I am willing to pay for all the mailing and handling cost

Please kindly reply or PM me

Merci beaucoup

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Leandro Cufre is joining Hertha for 500.000 euros.

Why so cheap? I know his contract was expiring, but I thought he was doing well for Monaco?

[NicolasN.]

Leandro Cufre is joining Hertha for 500.000 euros.

Why so cheap? I know his contract was expiring, but I thought he was doing well for Monaco?

His passport was revoked due to Italian investigation over fake passport in the Calcio therefore he was suspended by the French league since Monaco do not have any non-eu player spot left (Adu, Park, Pino, Adriano).

He was probably ASM best left/right back but only because of the poor quality of the other players on that position in their roster. In my opinion, he is really mediocre. He was linked to PSG as a back up for Armand or Ceara. It's not a bad thing that he isn't coming, though. It wouldn't hurt Monaco to sign a left and a right back, but they don't have enough money to do so...

[SportBoy333]

Sporting director Marc Keller has confirmed contact with Shevchenko and Steve Savidan. It would be a huge double blow if they could get both those guys. Looks like the club is back in business. Yay !

[AfrcnHrbMan]

no way! I thought they had no money, and their sporting director was going to get sacked.

[NicolasN.]

no way! I thought they had no money, and their sporting director was going to get sacked.

Actually, Keller was fired when De Bontin came to Monaco and now that he left Monaco, Keller is back.

[pepinointer]

pino will continue in MOnaco?

[SportBoy333]

pino will continue in MOnaco?

I havent read any recent rumors about him.

[SportBoy333]

Djimi Traoré (29 years old) LB was signed from Portsmouth on a free transfer and signed a 2 year contract. He's played for Laval, Liverpool, Lens, Rennes, Charlton and Birmingham. A true journeyman it seems so I dont know what he can give this team but he's not too old yet.

[TRICOLOR BRASIL]

Hi everyone,

I'm brazilian and my team, São Paulo, just hired Ricardo Gomes as the coach after firing Muricy Ramalho (who made us brazilian champions 3 years straight).

Although he is brazilian, little is known here about his work as a coach. What is being said here by the press and by the São Paulo supporters is that he is no coach for a team like São Paulo, for lack of expressive titles in his carreer. Most supporters are rebelled, actually.

He even had awful passages in Flamengo, Fluminense a few years ago, and couldn't qualify our olympic national team to the 2004 Olympic games. So, I can say the few things we remember about him aren't very good.

I believe Monaco supporters can give me more deep informationa about this man, if he is any good, if he knows how to work with youngsters in a football team, if he is a tactically gifted coach, etc. What are you thoughts on him? Does he have any chances to succeed in the biggest team in Brazil?

[SportBoy333]

Very defensive minded manager. If you have the players then he should succeed. Monaco was a very young team and his results reflected the talent of the team. He refused to play young Freddy Adu but he gave oppertunites to the other young players. Tactically gifted no, he plays way too safe.

[guignol]

i think bordeaux fans could tell you even more about him...

the club gradually and very astutely built him an EXCELLENT team of players, but he always played with the parking brake on. if he had stayed girondins wouldn't have been champions for a million years.

[Aveirenses]

http://www.record.pt/noticia.aspx?id=3dc48250-5822-443e-8127-a3160e298cac&idCanal=00000044-0000-0000-0000-000000000044

Apparently 4 unnamed AS Monaco players have contracted the swine flu.

"All precautious measures have been taken as the initial signs of the flu arise. They don't present high fever and their general health conditions don't cause any alarm."-Philippe Kuentz

[SportBoy333]

This club is going down the toilet. Nancy is trying to poach one of our best players(Park). When teams like Nancy are trying to take your best talent then you know times are bad. In the old days we could sign Bordeaux, PSG and Lyon's best players and now we cant even get their scrubs. My how times have changed.

[Sons of Thunder]

This club is going down the toilet. Nancy is trying to poach one of our best players(Park). When teams like Nancy are trying to take your best talent then you know times are bad. In the old days we could sign Bordeaux, PSG and Lyon's best players and now we cant even get their scrubs. My how times have changed.

Well look on the bright side Park immediately rejected the offer and is staying with Monaco :)

[SportBoy333]

Park is good but we still need another forward and names have been mentioned but nothing so far. I read Mollo doesnt want to extend and hes a player they need for the future.