Safe bet that Bedoya could be the big performer for his club this season? Has their top scorer been sold? I recall he had interest from some Serie A clubs.
Yeah, he signed with Lazio on a free. Golden opportunity for Ale to play a lot again this year with Nantes' transfer ban, though they will be relegation candidates since the promoted Ligue 2 clubs are better than last year.
Last year Nantes had an ok season while Monaco was one of the best team in the country. The third promoted team was Guingamp and they won the national cup. I highly doubt that Metz or Caen will be at that kind of level. I'm not even sure about what Lens will look like. The transfer ban allowed the club one of its first off-season with some stability, so Nantes should be fine. Regarding Bedoya, Djordjevic (striker) did leave, and so did Nicolita (RM). Bedoya is probably gonna have a lot of playing time, but I'm not sure at what position yet.
You're right about the promoted teams from last year, I meant that the clubs that were relegated -- Ajaccio, Valenciennes & Sochaux -- we're all weak, so I expect Ligue 1 to be stronger this season. And Nantes started well last year but faded horribly, so it's a huge concern that they can't add new players.
Well, I'm still not sure about the level of the recently promoted teams. Also, Nantes had a rough winter but finished decently. Without the three points that were removed from the team, Nantes would have finished 8th overall. Even if the league gets stronger, I still think that teams like Nice, Evian, Guingamp, Metz and Caen will have a more difficult time than Nantes. I can even see Lorient getting threaten now that their long time coach is gone. I guess we'll see, but I'm feeling pretty confident about our chances.
Bedoya in the starting lineup as Nantes start their Ligue 1 campaign at home against Lens. Game is tied at 0-0 in the 10th minute. Soccerway has him lined up as the central attacking mid in a 4-2-3-1 During the 2013/2014 season he played in 31 league games (23 starts). Bedoya scored 5 goals, registered 1 assist, and picked up 4 yellow cards. He also scored a goal in 1 start in the Coupe de la Ligue. Nantes finished in 13th last year.
The official Ligue 1 Channel will probably post this later but WTF ... http://www.football-russia.tv/2014/08/highlights-135.html WhoScored gave him a 6.4, the lowest of Nantes starters.
It was also season kick-off day for Alejandro Bedoya and Nantes, who scored a 1-0 home victory over Lens. The US attacker was clean on the ball during his 88 minutes of action without making a big offensive impact. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...ropean-yanks-tim-ream-and-bolton-suffer-heavy
"Bedoya earned the start and went 88 minutes in the win. He completed 28 out of 33 passes and also worked hard defensively to preserve the shutout." http://americansoccernow.com/articles/emerson-hyndman-makes-statement-in-fulham-debut
http://screamer.deadspin.com/its-over-before-it-started-what-you-need-to-know-about-1616296155 Ligue 1 is the 6th ranked league in UEFA barely nudging the Russian league. Is there a way forward?
Likely to be starting in a couple of hours. One of the few Yanks Abroad this season whose position in a first-tier team is solid.
And the guy playing his position, Veretout, is having a very good game --even scoring their one goal. Bummer.
I blame you for the coach benching him. Clearly the coach was reading bigsoccer and thought we were getting too full of ourselves and wanted to teach us a lesson in humility. Lest we think that we should have any yanks non goalies starting today in the first division sides. We'll at least have one or two that might start in MLS today, maybe?
A bit different position then what Bedoya plays. Nantes are in a 4-5-1 with Veretout who's a box-to-box midfielder in the middle of the park...Bedoya is more adavanced as a CAM in a 4-2-3-1 Also lots of WC players seem to be on the bench today...could be playing catchup after missing a sizeable portion of pre-season. Bedoya I think was going to start on the bench last week until one of their players got injured just before the match.
Meh. Starting to feel like our WC players have almost all lost out in the pecking order at their respective clubs from last season to now. Hope that turns around cause it seems counterintuitive to me.