Why was Thiriez jumping ? I don't understand what Lloris did on the goal. It seems like he wanted to come out but retracted himself from doing it.
Did anything NOT think it would be a horrible game ? This was so pedictable. OM in the Europa League so Im happy.
This article I just found is about a week old but its a must read. http://www.sofoot.com/le-foot-francais-vit-il-dans-un-monde-parallele-155642.html Yup its a parallel world for sure. You'd never see teams like Quevilly or Gazalec make a cup final in Spain, England, Italy, or Germany. It would never happen. Why does it happen in France is the debate. One thing you can do is stop giving the lower divison teams home games every time or letting them play close to home. Make them go on the road. When you let Gazelec "host" Lyon and let Quevelly "host" Rennes nearby, you give those clubs a big advantage. Yeah it was nice to see Red Star "host" OM at the Stade de France and OM did win but stop letting amatuer teams have home matches like that would lessen the upsets. You could also make the quaterfinals and up 2 leg matches like in England but Im not sure thats the way to go since big clubs already complain about too many matches.
Im excited for this match because I want to see Quevilly get stomped. I know the French are supporting the underdog but Im not going along with the rest of the crowd. Quevilly wont have the home crowd advantage and OL will be ready since they sacrificed the league cup and 3rd place is almost out of reach. I predict a 2 goal OL win. 3-1.
but you'll be relieved to know that quevilly has pretty much decided to forego the europa league even if they win.
the gambardella is the traditional curtain raiser for the CdF but i think it's time they changed and held the women's CdF instead. these days there's a lot more fan recognition for OL, MHSC or PSG women than for the CFA; france télévision would get a pretty good 17h-19h score for it, certainly well over a million viewers. an added plus is that the ladies don't tear up the field nearly as bad.
Gourcuff titulaire en finale de la Coupe de France ? De retour dans le groupe lyonnais ces dernières semaines, Yoann Gourcuff n’a pas encore retrouvé le chemin du onze de départ à Lyon. Les performances plutôt décevantes du milieu de terrain lors des matchs face à Marseille, Toulouse ou même Lorient semblent toutefois avoir amené Rémi Garde à changer ses plans en vue de la finale de la Coupe de France. Lors de sa dernière mise en place tactique, l’entraineur lyonnais a ainsi laissé entendre que Clément Grenier, moins inspiré ces derniers temps, pourrait céder sa place à Yoann Gourcuff au sein de l’entrejeu, dans une tactique en 4-2-3-1 déjà tentée cette saison. Autre victime de cette nouvelle tactique si elle devait se confirmer : Jimmy Briand, qui ne fait pas vraiment la différence devant malgré une activité énorme. Cela profiterait, en l’absence également de Michel Bastos, à Alexandre Lacazette. L’équipe probable : Lloris – Réveillère, Cris, Lovren, Cissokho – Gonalons, Källström – Lacazette, Gourcuff, Lisandro – B. Gomis [LINEUP-4-5-1] B. Gomis, Lisandro, Lacazette, Källström, Gourcuff, Gonalons, Cissokho, Lovren, Cris, Réveillère, Lloris, [/LINEUP-4-5-1] Gourcuff last chance to be pick this euro 2012
That lineup could do some damage against Quevilly. But even if Gourcuff has a huge game this will be written off as a good performance against an amateur side. He needs to come up big in the league in order for Blanc to take notice.
Pretty boring game. Neither team had tons of chances. Better than the league cup final but not miles better. Gourcuff did not have a huge game, he was mediocre.
i thought gourcuff was pretty good in he first half; in the second he faded and whether that was a cause or an effect of the whole team playing less well is hard to say. OL had lots of great chances, but blew them all except one. gomis missed three of them and that along with a relative difficulty in winning and holding onto the long clearances sent his way did his chances to go to the euro no good. lacazette had a good game and though i'm not seriously suggesting he could be a candidate for the EdF, recently he's looked as good any some other players almost certain to go (remy, gameiro). for me the best performances came from lisandro, cris and gonalons. what makes them the players of the match for me is that they played as in the second half as the first and without them we would have done a rennes.
hopefully there will be more and better pictures tomorrow. i went to the town hall ceremony this afternoon; they did it on the other side of town hall from previous years, which was probably a mistake. the place de la comédie is only about a quarter of the size of the place des terreaux which is where i (and a lot of people) went first. there were about several hundred people there when i arrived just before 4 and when an announcement was made to go around to the front it was already packed; i ended up half a block down the rue de la ré and a lot of people (especially with kids) didn't wait at all.
Btw, I read that next year the final of the CDF is going to be on June 1st which means its after the leagues are done playing and I dont know if thats a good idea or not.