I thought I would start the thread off for the new year as the TdC is on today. As I type OM and PSG are locked in a PK battle for supremacy. The match left be a bit: but it's nice to see the ligue up and going again. By the way...Lucho Gonzalez worst pk ever? Mandanda has made to real quality stops, great shotstopper that one is.
I have to admit that the lack of transfer activity has me less excited about this season. I hope things dont get even worse in the next years.
The team didn't get as dismantled as I thought it would, and they picked up Sow. I'd be happy if they could make a deep run into europe. . This is just a bad year all around for transfers. Other than Man City no one is making any real big moves.
I think this summer is the start of teams facing the economic realities of recession in Europe (and the rest of the world). All these teams running on deficits and racking up debt simply isn't sustainable. I actually think in the long run Ligue 1 will be better off as the clubs generally are run more responsible and low budget than in many leagues. Now with quite a few new stadiums and renovations in their way, hopefully Metz, Nantes & Strasbourg getting back to the big show I think the league could rise to new levels, well in a perfect world anyways.
I'd like to see some predictions for the season. Here are mine. 1. Marseille 2. Lyon 3. Bordeaux 4. Monaco 5. Lille 6. Montpellier 7. Rennes 8. Paris 9. Lens 10. Toulouse 11. Saint-Etienne 12. Sochaux 13. Auxerre 14. Lorient 15. Nice 16. Valenciennes 17. Nancy 18. Caen 19. Brest 20. Arles
1. Lille 2. Marseille 3. Lyon 4. Bordeaux 5. PSG 6. Lorient 7. Valenciennes 8. Rennes 9. Monaco 10. Toulouse 11. Auxerre 12. Lens 13. Sochaux 14. Montpellier 15. Nancy 16. Brest 17. Caen 18. Saint-Etienne 19. Nice 20. Arles
1. Lyon 2. Lille 3. Marseille 4. Bordeaux 5. Auxerre 6. Paris SG 7. Rennes 8. Monaco 9. Lens 10.Montpellier 11. Sochaux 12. Lorient 13. Valenciennes 14. Nancy 15. Toulouse 16. St. Etienne 17. Caen 18. Nice 19. Brest 20. Arles
L1 budgets for this year according to FranceFootball. http://news.maxifoot.com/info-120716_100803/football.php Lyon 150m Marseille 140m Bordeaux 80m PSG 80m Lille 55m St. Etienne 55m Monaco 53m Rennes 45m Auxerre 40m Nancy 40m Lens 40m Sochaux 40m Toulouse 40m Lorient 35m Montpellier 33m Caen 31m Valenciennes 30m Nice 30m Brest 23.5m Arles 18m
The opening games today : Auxerre - Lorient Lens - Nancy Lyon - Monaco Marseille - Caen Nice - Valenciennes Paris S.G - Saint-Etienne Rennes - Lille Sochaux - Arles Toulouse - Brest
Nice to finally be able to sit down and watch some league football again. Some last minute predictions: Auxerre - Lorient 1:1 Lens - Nancy 2:0 Lyon - Monaco 3:1 Marseille - Caen 2:0 Nice - Valenciennes 0:0 Paris S.G - Saint-Etienne 1:1 Rennes - Lille 1:1 Sochaux - Arles 1:0 Toulouse - Brest 1:0
Yeah . In the first half highlights I saw Caen were having lots of chances . Our game was a typical match of PSG in previous seasons .. Lots of chances , leaving it late to secure the win . It's great to have domestic football back
i think herbman hit it right on the head. i would have put bordeaux lower but despite losing to montpellier i felt they showed quality. arles? at least they have nice away uniforms... even if pink is going out of style.
Could anyone tell me where I should be going for online coverage of Ligue 1? My stateside soccer sources barely cover France, if at all. It's bad enough I can't see it on TV, I'd at least like to see highlights, articles, etc... French or English, doesn't matter.
FSC just picked some Ligue1 matches!! I don't know what the coverage will be like once La Liga and the Prem start though...Also if you can get TV5 they show a premier match a week. Most of my online news I get from Ligue1 website (french or english), Francefootball.fr, Lequipe.fr, maxifoot.fr (to a lesser extent). Also of course your home team site(That would be OLweb.fr you as well ). Highlights are little harder to come by, I've been trying for a while to get a steady weekly highlight show capped. The rest is off internet streams unfortunately.
in english, the guardian had a decent blog by ben lyttleton two seasons ago, but only occasional articles last year albeit very good ones... and not a single word on french football so far this season, but it's worth dropping by to see if they get anything going. the LFP has a decent english version of their site. in french l'équipe is the revered standard. france football is actually a sister publication and the two sites carry much of the same content. they both do minute-by-minutes for all L1 matches... but for that i prefer live365. foot365 also do good match recaps and have a less staid approach than the preceding. football.fr i find useless: a forum dominated by mindless adolescents, and the site's own analyses sometimes make you wonder if they really took the time to watch the match or are just advancing their own a priori. for truly original, insightful and intelligent analysis, my favorite is les cahiers. don't let their sometimes sidesplitting diaporama fool you: when it comes to being serious they are the best. finally maxifoot newsbriefs is an inclusive, unobtrusive no-frills quick reference for stories. that's what i consult at work!
Watching a picture of a Brest player there... They are sponsored by Malo ? LOL ! This dairy company is actually located - well, not a surprise there - in Saint-Malo, at the other end of the Breton peninsula (and my almost hometown as well). Bah, let's say it's still Brittany... Anyway, welcome back Stade Brestois !
I'm not an OM hater but Niang and Ben Arfa's behavior is making me hate that team. I know its early but I think I can safely say they will not repeat as champion this year. Then it turns out they cant afford Luis Fabiano so they have to go to plan C or whatever. I havent even mentioned the idiot fans in the stands who chant for Drogba when he has zero chance of joining this team. Wow, there are so many things to hate about this club and I havent mentioned the ownership/president yet. What a completely worthless club.
it's obviously off limits saying such things in the OM forum but i'm grateful for a chance to spout off in turn. when i came to france OM was THE club, and i was living between avignon and martigues* which is OM country... but except for their europe runs i just had to root against them (ASM in those days). their fans were all so cocky and at the same time so fickle... and of course they always got all the breaks, going so far as making their own when necessary. but they were no more likeable when they were bad. in their joke years at the beginning of this century they had ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN players come in and out without sticking. and all the time no one down there would admit that OL were a better club! of course now that they're good again, the overweening pride that never left is being exagerrated in true marseilles fashion. like JPP saying last year's squad was the greatest a french club had put together since the days HE played at OM (conveniently forgetting that OM only won the CL once he had left them for milan)... sure they ended up champions, but only due to the points they took off us in close matches, and we sure didn't feel we had our best squad ever... the essien/diarra/tiago/juni teams were about 4 cuts above! and for a squad that was their best ever they sure are quick to cut it up. don't get down on niang so fast: if he had been offered the contract he wanted he would have stayed for sure; it's OM management that didn't care about keeping him. cheyrou? throw him on the pile! bonnart? ditto! brandao? taiwo? kone? abriel? all garbage. change everything! grab the headlines about getting luis fabiano... or not. and about HBA leaving. or not. or maybe yes. whatever. just like they threw the man who finally got their management on the rails into the garbage. sure, there are other clubs run even worse. but at least they don't look down their nose at everyone else season after season. * i remember pathetic martigues fans chanting when their team was getting drubbed in D1: "martigues! marseilles! ensemble on vaincra!" dollars to doughnuts we'll see the same loyalty behind arles-avignon in a few weeks.