Here's a match of the utmost importance. 6 points in 4 days is good, but 9 in 7 days will make make it clear that OL is for real again this year. juni practiced yesterday but didn't do the 7v7... today he'll participate fully to see if he's good for tomorrow, he says he's confident. fabio santos didn't practice, nor did anderson, müller or ben arfa. normally all of these players will be available after the internationals. the MUC started out great guns but have only 1 point from their last 3 matches and have allowed 6 goals. personal note, it will be our first outing to gerland this year and it's also a kind of derby for me since the headquarters of our company is in lemans. so victory is imperative!
It was a good sign seeing Juninho involved in the goals yesterday. He's had a rough time latley but he looks like he's starting to pick up the pace. This time last year I believed he was the best player in the world but after the Christams break he just seemed to fade away. I hope he can regain the form he showed from September to Decemeber last year. There is no doubt in my mind if he left to go to more popular league that he would be getting the same praise as people like Ronaldinho, Riquelme, Gerrard etc... Loyalty seems to be a thing of the past with most great players nowadays. Also Benzema seemsto be coming along nicely. 5 goals in 6 games if he keeps this form he'll have to be a starter in France's Euro 2008 games.
i found a nice long highlights clip for this game since i wasn't able to watch it. http://www.dailymotion.com/search/le+mans+ol/video/x2vw54_o-lyon-le-mans_sport watch as juni and govou give each other a hug at the end of the game. water under the bridge?
first tickets of the season are always special and guignol jr. expressed that feeling very well. first, the kebab was "the best he'd ever had" (even though it's the same thing from the same place) and walking up the steps to section G: "this is the best moment of all, when you go from a grey wall to seeing the sky, then the pitch, then all the crowd and the noise... it's a door to a magic place." brilliant weather, and the pitch was the nicest at gerland in years... finally the new turf takes hold and now they're going to play 3 rugby matches on it! big new banner in the south end... COSA NOSTRA LYON??? what's up with the nucléo and the lugdu's? over in the red&blues, a new show of flags: italy, ivory coast, algeria waving, portugal and norway gone, and curiously no switzerland... but of course there's brazil as always! no surprise in the lineup, but a hilarious goof up on the big screen... the first substitute shown was alou diarra, which gave everyone a good laugh. the match started well enough, OL moved the ball around well, created a lot of chances, keita pulled off a couple of amazing dribbles, but the MUC was combative and very fast on the break. after the first 10 minutes both keita and the teamwork tailed off but OL was still bringing the danger very close to pelé, and juni's header on the post on 30' looked like a taste of good things to come. the bad gones were in form... and the first 30 minutes was all brand new stuff, they put in some work this summer. Then lemans scores! against the flow of the match, sure, but seeing RVR and vercoutre get badly outplayed was a reminder that we have a very weak spot... (i'm not talking about these two in particular, in fact aside from this goal they were both very good... the real problem was that they had no help. sure, rémy lets the cross slip through his hands, but 8 times out of 10 a keeper wouldn't have had even that chance, gervinho and sessegnon had ACRES to play in.) but at HT i was still confident. based on the first half, scoring 2 was more than just a possibility. the only worry was the le mans might score again too... and of course they did, the same pair of culprits for the MUC, this time it was grosso and bodmer out to lunch. but the 2 goals in themselves weren't as worrying as the effect they had. when govou of all people lost a ball by waiting for it instead of going to it (say what you want about sid, effort is not what he lacks) things looked dark. and when lemans almost scored again just after the hour, it was just too much to take! ... gerland started whistling and booing, not something you often hear. but then the BG remembered who they are... who WE are! c'est notre fierté, ne jamais lâcher... toualalan gets angry with another stupid call by that ignoramus coué, and gets a yellow. govou gets tough and källstrom gets tougher. juni calls for some noise... perrin pulls keita. the front line is now benzema - baros - govou. and here we go! grosso pulls off a toualalanesque tackle and combines with benzema on the left, ball to juni, who sends govou in sooo sweetly... he dribbles his defender and slots in like magic. 1-2! sid and juni fall into each others' arms like brothers... which after all, they are. now lyon's showing fitness, class and desire that le mans doesn't seem likely to match. dans l'adversité, ne jamais lâcher... a whirlwind. lemans has nowhere to go but back, and the inevitable foul brings up the big question: from this distance... will he or won't he? he won't... but puts it right on karim who scores his 5th of the year! 2-2!! ten minutes ago the draw seemed impossible. now the win looks inevitable. juni runs forward, but not to hug karim! he grabs the ball out of the net, runs it back to the circle and slams it down on the spot. OL is all lined up ready to go while lemans is still milling around the goal wondering what happened. three minutes later baros has his shirt off and gerland is celebrating, if not one of the greatest matches we've ever seen, at least one of the most thrilling. and the gutsiest. c'est notre fierté, ne jamais lâcher, dans l'adversité, ne jamais lâcher, NE JAMAIS LACHER !!!!
i forgot to mention: juninho came up to the VN after the match and threw his jersey to the bad gones. it was quite a moment.
looking at the clip inara linked was great, and gives a whole different look at things. first of all, i didn't even remember toulalan being there on the first MUC goal. and vercoutre's muff looks even worse from that angle. from up in the VNS (just my luck, that goal and all of ours were at the other end) you can see he touches it, but actually he had it right in the breadbasket. how weak! too bad they didn't show juni's header in the first half, that was a good one. and the uncalled penalty thet start the clip with is pretty clear, but in real life it even looked 10 times more obvious. how the ref didn't call it is one of the mysteries of our age. it's true that govou was not exactly right in front of the goal but rools is rools monsieur encoué! here's a rundown of the three yellows OL picked up: - first toualalan for arguing; i can't remember exactly what the call was but he had a gripe coming, it was a doozy. and c'tenculé (pardon my french) pulled out the card almost before jeremy opened his mouth. - next källstrom for wasting time; sure he was playing after the whistle. there were 22 guys playing after the whistle, nobody heard your goddam whistle! next time blow, don't suck! - finally, baros for taking off his shirt... well, that one's a fair cop... and well worth it!