Pre-Season Friendlies '07

[Gotham PSG]

While we have a thread dedicated to the Emirates Cup, there is nothing for the 4 or 5 friendlies scheduled in the following month in the lead up to the start of the o7-o8 season, until this.

It began today, and we beat Creteil 2:0, on two goals of Frau and Diane
It is important to note that the first goal came with an important assist from young Loris Arnaud, while Diane scored on a long ball from Frau

[Gotham PSG]

Some postgame comments:
http://forum.psg.fr/fr/news/show.php?id=12103
http://forum.psg.fr/fr/news/show.php?id=12104

Paul Le Guen (Entraîneur du PSG) :
« Nous avons réalisé une bonne première période avec la maîtrise du ballon et des conditions climatiques délicates (vent latéral). Malgré ces conditions difficiles, nous avons accompli de bonnes choses. Il faut également reconnaître que nous avons baissé de rythme en seconde période, mais c’était intéressant de voir ce que les jeunes pouvaient apporter. Loris Arnaud a réalisé un bon match, nous allons réfléchir si nous le prêtons ou si nous le gardons. Sylvain Armand a eu le brassard de capitaine en première période. Quant à Youssouf Mulumbu, il l’a eu en seconde période car c'est un meneur auprès de la jeune génération. Marcelo Gallardo devait participer à la rencontre, mais il est resté à l’hôtel en raison d’un début d’angine. Au sujet de l’absence sur le terrain de Mickaël Landreau, Peguy Luyindula et Pedro Pauleta, ils seront très sollicités cette saison et je préférais voir les jeunes. Bonaventure Kalou a besoin de jouer pour se remettre dans le coup et il doit vivre au mieux la concurrence. »

Youssouf Mulumbu (Défenseur du PSG) :
« Paul Le Guen m’a confié le brassard de capitaine en seconde période. C’était une surprise très agréable, même si cela implique une responsabilité importante. J’ai essayé d’en faire abstraction afin de tenir au mieux mon rôle sur le rectangle vert. »

Didier Digard (Milieu de terrain du PSG) :
« Je me suis bien senti pour mon premier match avec le PSG. Paul Le Guen m’a positionné au milieu de terrain et c’est d’ailleurs un rôle que j’affectionne tout particulièrement. Nous avons glané une belle victoire, ce qui est plutôt de bonne augure pour le reste de la saison. »

He mostly played the youngsters

[Gotham PSG]

PSG 3-0 Dijon

Still playing lower level teams, next game should be against Troyes, who if I'm not mistaken are in L2
It's a long way until the start of the season

[ilv2]

yea, hopefully the players are working their way towards match fitness.

we first drew against troyes and then scraped by 2-1 last season, so it won't be an easy game. after that we play anderlecht.

[Gotham PSG]

From what I'm reading, the first half was really good, the second was mediocre, although it's mostly due to the original composition of the team.
Frau seems to be on fire
And it gets me confused because I'm not a big fan of his, and with all our offensive players, I can't decide which ones we should get rid of (besides Kalou)

[ilv2]

dunno, like a lot of our attackers, they're good ligue 1 level players but they won't attract attention from the big clubs abroad. which is good for us, considering that if they're french, they'll probably prefer to stay with us.

at the moment i think rodriguez will leave as his contract expires. even though i'm not convinced that he's anything more than a headless chicken, he might get a good price in the future. of course, the timeframe for this will be the summers to come, which corresponds with our current recruiting plans (sell off kalou and stock up on the defense, and maybe a striker)

[Gotham PSG]

It appears the game against Troyes was today, a little soon considering the last game was a day away


PSG 1:0 Troyes
goal by none other by Pauleta, who is already on a two game goal streak

Well the good thing, compared to last season, is that we don't lose or draw games against weaker teams, even if we play our youngsters. To top it off, no goal conceded yet.


Onze de départ : M. Landreau - B. Mendy, S. Traoré, D. Digard, S. Armand -
C. Chanthôme, J. Clément, P-A. Frau, J. Rothen - P. Luyindula, P. Pauleta(cap)

It's almost identical to the team that finished last season, so PLG doesn't seem to be disastisfied with it.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

That's not a bad lineup by any means. On another note, your reserve team drew with the France U-19 team 1-1 (check out "Les Bleuets" thread in the NT forum, as the U-19 team will be challenging for the U-19 Euro Championship starting this week), with the equaliser for the U-19 team being scored by a PSG guy (Jean-Yves Mvoto).

[Gotham PSG]

It turns out there was another game today, and it happens to be our first defeat of the season, against Tours from the national level
Tours 1:0 PSG
PSG : Alonzo – Ichalalene (Rangoly, 60e), Sakho, Mabiala, Dramé – Haddad (Pancrate, 45e), Gallardo, Mulumbu (cap.), Sankharé – Arnaud, Ngog (Boli, 60e).

PLG brought the youngsters and usual subs, to make out his mind on who to keep, and who to loan/put to sleep/sell

And looking at the lineup, I would have thought it's a Ligue 2 team

[Carefree 95]

Yet another pre-season win!

PSG 1 - 0 Aris Salonique
Luyindula 87


Landreau – Digard, Traoré, Sakho (Mabiala, 88), Armand – Frau (Ngog, 81), Mulumbu (Mendy, 73e), Clément, Rothen (Arnaud, 71) – Diané (Luyindula, 57), Pauleta (Kalou, 71)

[ilv2]

by all accounts, we were by far the better team and actually went out and played a collective game - pass and move!

[Gotham PSG]

So far the friendlies seem to have been pretty beneficial for the team, playing against lesser opponents, I'm satisfied. But they don't mean much
I believe there's just one more friendly match to play, until the start of the Emirates cup, which I would love to watch against teams much stronger than us, giving our players a great challenge before Sochaux

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

(Note: all this info comes from my cousin, who lives around Paris, and who got season tickets a couple of days ago.)

Tonight we defeated an Egyptian side, El Zamalek, 1-0, on a Luyindula penalty. Bourillon was taken down in the box, and Luyindula doesn't often miss a spot kick.

In the second half, we decided to play with 10 men, all substitutes, and continued to attack, though we didn't really threaten that much. Clément continues to impress, especially with his technique, and is certainly one of the best defensive midfielders in France by now.

Perhaps the thing to note about this game is that Zoumana Camara had a strong one, showing no difficulty in getting all the defensive schemes. He already looks better in the #15 jersey than the now departed Bonaventure Kalou.

Lineups:

Première période : Landreau - Mulumbu, Bourillon, Camara, Sakho - Arnaud, Digard, Sankharé, Rothen - Luyindula, Diané.

Deuxième période : Alonzo - Mendy, Mabiala, Traoré, Armand - Frau, Clément, Ngog, Gallardo - Pauleta.

[Gotham PSG]

are you sure?
From psg.fr I get that Bourillon was expulsed at the end of the first half for taking down a player as a last defender.
I think this was the last friendly before the Emirates cup


I am quite satisfied so far, the team looks nice, they manage to get through friendly games rather easily, and should be ready for the Sochaux game.

Just one question to the rest of you... Am I the only one who forgot about Yepes? I remembered him like five minutes ago

[hypolithe_forever]

Yepes and Rodriguez are always in holidays in Colombia and Uruguay, That's for it that we forget them. But they have to return very soon. I am not sure that Yepes will find his post in the eleven start for the next season.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

are you sure?
From psg.fr I get that Bourillon was expulsed at the end of the first half for taking down a player as a last defender.

No, oops, indeed, you're right. Didn't watch the match myself, my mistake.

I think Yepes will challenge for a spot, or I hope he will, especially after the class he showed after the Cissé incident.

Rodríguez? Meh. Overhyped, I think. From what I've seen, anyway.

I agree (not from viewing myself, regrettably) that we've looked good thus far and PLG appears to have reinstated himself as the best manager in L1, which I believe he is (though if Guy Roux is not senile yet, the argument becomes a bit more interesting). The veterans, jeunes, and arrivals appear to be meshing well, and with Rothen extending his deal, there is some continuity in the attacking third, but I think we should try to get another attacker nonetheless.