http://www.sc-bastia.com/Bastiaactualite/news.asp?newsid=14494 A long write up on a Bastia-Lyon friendly from Saturday that Bastia lost 4-1 (0-1). They seemed short as there were only 14 players in the squad although I can't find and don't remember details of who is unavailable and why. Vanney played the entire 90 minutes. For the first half he apparently was central defender in a 5-3-2 during which according to the writeup the team acquitted itself well. Vanney gets one of three specific mentions for a shot on goal not counting the actual goal that was scored off a corner. The defense is judged to have dealt well with the Lyon attacks. In the second half Bastia made only three substitutions including the keeper while Lyon made six. Vanney moved to the left wing and apparently had another good shot stopped by the Lyon keeper but Lyon took control of the match. The writeup summarizes by saying that Gerard Gill "will take from this match much interesting information before the next match at Lille. He will remember the good first half, expecially the good organization of the team, the quality of the play and the muscular play of the defense against the Andersons and the Lyindulas. He will not like on the other hand the second half and the four goals scored as a result not of bad play per see but of errors or bad individual choices." Not sure what this means for our Greg but it doesn't sound like a bad showing.
Re: Re: Vanney: 3/15 Bastia-Lyon (friendly) [R] The summary says that the six substitutions for Lyon versus the three for Bastia changed the "physionomy" of the match, whatever that is. It reminds me of the US - Italy friendly last year from the US point of view. The US had a solid first half but lost control of the game in the second half when the Italians substituted freely at half time and the Yanks didn't. I think both the US last year and apparently Bastia this year are accentuating the positives from the first half.