Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise is a club known for the feat of never having been relegated from Ligue 1, as well as producing some world class players in recent years, such as Eric Cantona, Phillipe Mexes, and Djibril Cisse. They have a Ligue 1 topping 17 full international players in their first team, and although this statistic speaks of greatness, Auxerre have been mediocre at best over the past few seasons under the leadership of much traveled manager Jean Fernandez. This season things have been different, and I’ll begin by analyzing their first team.

In terms of goalkeepers they are pretty much set. Olivier Sorin is a solid Ligue 1 keeper in the prime of his career, while Remi Riou is one of the best up and coming keepers in France. They have shared the minutes pretty evenly over the past few seasons, and this provides healthy competition, inspiring to work hard for their places.

On defense they are solid as well. Cedric Hengbart contributes significantly to the attack from the right wing and is a seasoned veteran. In the center Swiss International Stephane Gritching partners Malian International Adama Coulibaly, making a tandem with bucket loads of Ligue 1 experience. On the left we have Jean-Pascal Mignot, who has spent his entire career to date with les Auxerrois, making 137 league appearances. They work excellently as a unit and have played a full two seasons together.

The definite star of the Auxerre midfield is Benoit Pedretti. The dead ball specialist is a multi-faceted central midfielder who has played for some of the best clubs in France and has collected 22 caps for the French National Team in his career. He is also the captain and has been at Auxerre for the past 4 seasons. The other normal starters are Kamel Chafni and youngster Delvin N’Dinga. Dariusz Dudka, Aurelien Capoue (on loan from Nantes), and Roy Contout also feature, but there is little depth beyond that.

Up front Auxerre are blessed multitude of options. Ireneusz Jelen is an excellent goalscorer (33 league goals for the club in total), but the Polish international has had injuries galore since his arrival in France from Warsaw. Daniel Niculae is also a good striker, but his goal scoring is extremely inconsistent. In 07/08 he scored 11 in the Ligue, while last year he managed a total of zero. Speed demons Valter Birsa and Dennis Oliech also compliment the offense, but have had difficulties finding the net at a club level this season. Alexandre Licata and Julien Quercia, both considered to be solid Ligue 1 forwards, have seen zero minutes so far this season due to the amount of competition for a place in the starting 11.

It seems to me that the keys to this Auxerre side are the level of competition maintained throughout and the goalscoring and play making abilities of Ireneusz Jelen and Benoit Pedretti. So, why are they on top? Their summer signings were well thought out and smart, they have been consistent since that poor start to the season, and rest of the league simply hasn’t.

AS Saint-Etienne: Sainte have a very strong argument, having won the Ligue 1 title more than any other club, 10 times in total. There was also a period in which they were one of the biggest clubs in Europe, although they have no continental trophies to their name.

Olympique de Marseille: OM are another of the major candidates, having won the title eight times, over a longer period, and since consistency is arguably an important factor in club status, this provides a bonus for OM. They are also one of the richest clubs in France, and have had considerable success in European competition, winning the inaugural Champions League.

Olympique Lyonnais: They are the richest club in France and by far the most successful over the last decade, winning seven titles from 2002-2008. The international stars they have attracted along with their greater foreign recognition make them another prime candidate.

FC Nantes: Although currently languishing in Ligue 2, Nantes have also won the title eight times, most recently in 2001. Another club with a strong history in France, though they have had limited success in Europe.

AS Monaco: Although not technically in France, AS Monaco is a key element of French football. They have won the title 7 times in their 85 year history, and participated in the Champions League final in 2004. They also host a world-beating array of former players.

Stade de Reims: Quickly after of the conception of the league, Reims became the dominant force. They won six titles from 1949-62, and achieved strong positions in the European Champions Clubs Cup. However, since then the club has fallen in status, and currently resides in the Championnat National, the third division.

FC Girondins de Bordeaux: The defending champions have a fairly strong history, but their main claim to the throne would be their current form. First place in Ligue 1 and top of their difficult Champions League group.

AJ Auxerre: They’ve never been relegated from Ligue 1. If that’s your criteria, than AJA is the largest club in France. Otherwise, you’d be hard pressed to find a reason.

So, what are your thoughts? Which club is the biggest in France? If you think I’ve left anything out, tell me in the comments. This is now open for discussion.

Le Mans UC 72 0 – 1 AJ Auxerre

AJA pushed into the top three, at least temporarily, as they eked out a win against Paolo Duarte’s side, who are currently firmly in the relation zone. Speaking of Paolo Duarte, here’s an excellent interview he gave to the Ligue 1 official site. The interviewer is rather bold, asking some interesting questions, and also seems to have been reading to much Harry Potter lately, referring to Jose Mourinho as the ‘Chosen One’.

FC Lorient 5 – 0 Boulogne Côte d’Opale
(No video highlights available at the point–I have seen none of this match)
I’m going to assume from the scoreline that this match was total destruction. It’s also further proof that Boulogne are going down and Cristian Gourcuff is a half decent manager.

AS Monaco FC 0 – 0 Grenoble Foot 38

Some stellar goalkeeping from Ronan Le Crom gave Grenoble their first point of the season, and they dominated the match. A bit of a shock for Monaco, who were playing at home and went into the weekend in third place. Check out the Monaco Offside for a more complete review later.

AS Nancy Lorraine 0 – 1 AS Saint-Etienne

A wonderful goal from the quickly rising star of Dimitri Payet proves key for ASSE, and bumps a frustratingly inconsistent Nancy down to 10th place. Check out the Saint-Etienne Offside for a review.

Paris Saint-Germain 0 – 1 OGC Nice

Guess who’s even more inconsistent than ASNL? PSG of course. Last weeks victory wasn’t a turnaround, simply a performance on which to base false hope. PSG completely dominated the match, but it was Nice who put the ball in the NET. I give credit to Mounier and Remy for the beautiful cross and header. The PSG Offside will have something up soon.

Valenciennes FC 1 – 1 Montpellier Hérault SC

Did you know that these two teams were the highest scoring in Ligue 1? I certainly didn’t. Anyway, Colombians ran the show, but the result didn’t really change anything. Don’t you wish we had a Montpellier Offside?

Sochaux-Montbéliard 1 – 2 RC Lens

Lens pulled out of the drop zone with this victory and grounded Sochaux in the bottom half of the table. Be sure to visit the Lens Offside for more.

LOSC Lille Métropole 2 – 0 Girondins de Bordeaux

In one of the unexpected results of the evening, surprise bottom feeders LOSC upset Ligue leaders Bordeaux. Both sides put on displays of how to miss one on one’s with the keeper, but Gervinho’s dribbling ability eventually won the match for Lille. Visit the Bordeaux Offside for more.

Toulouse FC 3 – 2 Stade Rennais FC
Some nice goals in this matchup, TFC eventually coming out on top. APG seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch, but Moussa Sissoko seems to have no intention of stopping to let Gignac take over. Check out Dave Trotter’s review at the Toulouse Offside.

Olympique Lyonnais 5 – 5 Olympique de Marseille

Match of the century? It’s certainly a candidate. I’ll let the Lyon and Marseille Offsides elaborate.

FC Girondins de Bordeaux 1-0 AS Monaco FC

This match, which happened to be a battle between first and second (which no one would have predicted at the beginning of the season), was much less exciting than last year’s version. Planus’ tap in off a Wendel free-kick kept Bordeaux in control of the top spot and allowed Lyon to overtake Monaco and move into second place.

US Boulogne Côte d’Opale 1-2 AS Nancy-Lorraine

I believe I predicted earlier that the only direction Boulogne were going was down. I think I was correct. USBCO fell to an unimpressive and inconsistent Nancy side who were without Gennaro Bracigliano, maintaining ASNL’s top ten position, and proving that Boulogne really are nothing more than a Ligue 2 side.

Grenoble Foot 38 0-2 LOSC Lille Métropole

An 11th straight defeat for Grenoble. They’re just way to unlucky. They hit the crossbar twice in this match, while Lille scored on each of their two shots. Mickael Landreau has returned from injury, starting in the net for LOSC, and Gervinho has continued to impress.

Racing Club de Lens 1-1 FC Lorient Bretagne Sud

Check out the Lens Offside for a full review.

Olympique de Marseille 1-1 Toulouse FC
Check out the Marseille Offside for a full review.

AS Saint-Etienne 0-1 Olympique Lyonnais

This was just the kind of storybook derby that I was expecting. Former Sainte favorite Bafetimbi Gomis started on the bench for Lyon, and the match remained pretty even until Gomis was brought in late on. Only minutes later, he put in the winning goal on a volley from a corner.

Group Winners (Seeded):
AS Saint-Etienne
OGC Nice
Olympique de Marseille
AJ Auxerre

Second Place Finishers (Unseeded):
FC Sochaux-Montbeliard
AS Monaco FC
Olympique Lyonnais
Grenoble Foot 38

The draw will take place in the comments. Yes, I actually will put eight slips of paper in two bowls. Anyway, the group stages were a great success, a total of 180 votes were cast. Ready yourselves for the thrilling draw.

The games happening this weekend are…

Week 9 – Saturday, October 17, 2009
19:00	AJ Auxerre				Girondins de Bordeaux
19:00	Le Mans UC 72				Boulogne Côte d’Opale
19:00	Olympique Lyonnais				FC Sochaux-Montbéliard
19:00	Montpellier Hérault SC				AS Saint-Etienne
19:00	AS Nancy Lorraine				Olympique de Marseille
19:00	Valenciennes FC				Grenoble Foot 38
21:00	LOSC Lille Métropole				Stade Rennais FC
Week 9 – Sunday, October 18, 2009
17:00	FC Lorient				OGC Nice
17:00	AS Monaco FC				RC Lens
21:00	Toulouse FC				Paris Saint-Germain

While the table is currently looking like this:

1	Olympique Lyonnais	8	6	2	0	+10	20
2	Girondins de Bordeaux	8	6	1	1	+10	19
3	Montpellier Hérault SC	8	5	2	1	+6	17
4	AS Monaco FC	8	5	0	3	+2	15
5	Olympique de Marseille	8	4	2	2	+4	14
6	FC Lorient	8	4	2	2	+2	14
7	Paris Saint-Germain	8	3	4	1	+4	13
8	Stade Rennais FC	8	3	3	2	+6	12
9	AS Nancy Lorraine	8	3	2	3	+2	11
10	AJ Auxerre	8	3	2	3	-1	11
11	Valenciennes FC	8	3	1	4	0	10
12	AS Saint-Etienne	8	3	1	4	-2	10
13	LOSC Lille Métropole	8	2	3	3	-3	9
14	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	8	3	0	5	-5	9
15	Toulouse FC	8	2	2	4	0	8
16	Boulogne Côte d’Opale	8	2	2	4	-5	8
17	RC Lens	8	2	2	4	-6	8
18	OGC Nice	8	2	2	4	-8	8
19	Le Mans UC 72	8	2	1	5	-3	7
20	Grenoble Foot 38	8	0	0	8	-13	0

Since most of the matches in Ligue 1 happen at the same time, I’m going to make some recommendations for matches to see. Obviously you will want to see your club’s game, but here are a few others worth glancing at.

Montpellier-Herault SC vs. AS Saint-Etienne
Today, 19:00 (1pm Eastern 10am Pacific)
I’m interested in this match because it’s another proving point for both sides. Was Les Verts win over Bordeaux a fluke, or are they going to continue their climb up the table? Montpellier are the Cinderella story of the season thus far. Will they assert their position as a title challenger, or drop back into the midtable region? These questions could very well be answered in this match. I’ll be tuning in.
Probable Lineups:
Montpellier: Jourdren – Yanga-Mbiwa, Dzodic, Spahic, Jeunechamp – Pitau, Marveaux, Costa – Aït-Fana (ou Lacombe), Montano, Dernis

Saint-Etienne: Janot – Andreu, Benalouane, N’Daw, Dabo – Landrin, Fernandes, Matuidi, Payet – Augusto, Bergessio

LOSC Lille Metropole vs. Stade Rennais FC
Today, 21:00 (3pm Eastern, 12pm Pacific)
This is a battle between two of the best teams in Ligue 1 who aren’t in our “Big Three”. These are the clubs you would expect to see in the Europa League places. This season, both sides are lower than they’d like to be in the table, Lille hanging around at 13th while Rennes are barely staying in the top ten in 8th place, only a point in front of 10th place Auxerre. Expect a tense atmosphere and no more than two goals.
Probable Lineups:
Lille: Butelle – Béria, Rami, Chedjou, Emerson – Cabaye, Debuchy, Dumont – Gervinho, Hazard – Frau

Rennes: Douchez – Théophile-Catherine, Fanni, Aubey, Danzé – M’vila, Br. Cheyrou, J. Leroy – Bangoura, M. Sow, Thomert

I’ll add my two for tomorrow later, but rest assured that Toulouse-PSG will be one of them…

You may completely disagree with this list, think it’s terrible, that I’m the worst blogger ever, whatever. Tell me so in the comments. And to tell you the truth I probably don’t agree with it much either, but I compiled it in half an hour, and I feel exhausted after fixing it innumerable times. Tell me what you think.

UEFA Champions League
It was an auspicious start when Stade de Reims-Champagne reached the final of the inaugural European Champion Clubs’ Cup, only to fall to a late Hector Rial inspired comeback from Real Madrid.

French clubs continued to impress in the following years, Including another final appearance for Reims in 1959 along with numerous appearances in the quarterfinals from Nice. A period of European drought followed, without a team in even the quarterfinals until AS Saint-Etienne did one better by making it into the semifinals in 1975. Sainte continued to up their European performance, making the final in 1976, only to lose to FC Bayern Munchen by a score of one to zero.

For the next nine years the only events of note were a single quarterfinal appearance apiece for Les Verts and Strasbourg.  However, in 1985 Bordeaux famously gave Juventus a run for their money in the semifinals, coming off of a three-zero drubbing in Turin to put in two late goals at the Chaban Delmas.

In the late 80’s Bordeaux and Monaco’s occasional appearances in the quarterfinals were the only events of note, so It came as a bit of a surprise when Olympique de Marseille began to dominate in the early 90’s. In 1990, their first appearance in the later rounds, they lost to Benfica in the semi’s on away goals. The next year they went one better, making the finals against Crvena Zvezda only to suffer a heartbreaking loss. The match ended 5-3 on penalties after a zero-zero draw.

Only two years afterward, Marseille were in the final again. This time it was against giants AC Milan, in the first ever UEFA Champions League.

Nearly forty years after Reims lost at the Parc des Princes, a French club had won the European Cup. The next three years brought three successive semifinal appearances. In 1994 AS Monaco lost to eventual champions Milan (video). The next year PSG were eliminated in the last four, again by the Rossoneri (first leg, second leg). FC Nantes barely lost to Juventus in 1996, missing out on a final appearance by a goal (first leg, second leg). French clubs continued their good fortune, Auxerre losing to eventual champions Dortmund in the quarters in 1997 (first leg, second leg), while Monaco made another semifinal appearance the year after that, this time losing to Juventus (first leg, second leg). There was a short period of relative quiet after that, until Monaco shocked many by making a run to the final.

As you can see, the principality club were embarrassed by Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto in a resounding defeat. In the next few years, as you probably know, Lyon became the dominant French force in the Champions League, making three consecutive quarterfinal appearances from 2004-06, but have failed to come further than the first knockout round in the past three years.

Benoît Pedretti (Auxerre), 17th minute, against Nicolas Douchez.


Dimitri Payet (Saint-Etienne), 94th minute, against Cédric Carrasso.

(Fourth goal)

Sidney Govou (Lyon), 7th minute, against Vedran Runje.

(First goal)

Kim Källström (Lyon), 78th minute, against Vedran Runje.

(Second goal)

Park Chu-Young (Monaco), 42nd minute, against Steve Mandanda.

It’s probably between Govou and Payet, but Kallstrom’s goal was also excellent.

Who gets the prize for Goal of the Week: Round 8?(answers)

Vote Away!

Grenoble Foot 38 2-3 Montpellier HSC


OGC Nice 3-2 Valenciennes FC

Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 AS Nancy Lorraine

Stade Rennais FC 0-1 AJ Auxerre

AS Saint-Etienne 3-1 FC Girondins de Bordeaux

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 1-0 Le Mans UC 72

RC Lens 0-2 Olympique Lyonnais

US Boulogne CO 2-3 LOSC Lille


Toulouse FC 0-1 FC Lorient

Olympique de Marseille 1-2 AS Monaco FC

Enjoy the highlights!