Lyon (x) = Good, Marseille (y) = Bad. If League = Champions, Reverse Function
By: Sam | October 3rd, 2007
And the mystery continues. Lyon sucks in the Champions League, but are top in the Ligue. Marseille are outside the relegation zone on goal differential at home, but manage to beat the finalists of the most prestigious club comptetion in the world, at their stadium. Any theories?
Marseille were 7-1 to lose the match at Anfield, according to Betclic.com. Yeah, no. Eric Geret’s first match at the helm of the Phocéen boys proved a historical one, as Liverpool fell at home to a French club for the first time ever.
Lyon, on the other hand, lost their second straight 3-0 match, this time to SPL runners-up Glasgow Rangers, who made a mockery of the six-time champs at Gerland.
Totally dominated by the Scots, who got goals from McCulloch, Cousin and Beasley, Lyon came up short in every respect. The 4-3-3 concocted by Alain Perrin (who’s been newly baptized “PPH”, meaning passera pas l’hiver, meaning “won’t last through the winter”) provided 3 shots off the post, but no more offensively. Karim Benzema was ineffective, flanked or not by Govou and Baros. And Kleber Anderson? Just leave, please kay thanks.
Marseille, again, on the other hand, shut down anything Liverpool was thinking to throw at the side they had clearly underestimated. Steven Gerrard, probably traumatized by his automotive endeavour of the day past, was on a short leash held by Lorik Cana, who had shaved his head for the occasion. And then there was Matthieu Valbuena. What a goal.
Lyon, now bottom of Group E with zero points and a -6 goal differential, contrast violently with OM, top of Group A with a perfect six points, no goal conceded and two points clear of their next opponent and main challenger, Porto.
And I kid you not: Jean-Michel Aulas was not impossibly positive about the defeat! Even he, the head optimist of all optimistic optimisms, admitted shooting for the UEFA Cup spot would be more realistic and would have more merit at the moment.
And Marseille? Well, next up is Porto at home. If they can get a point out of that, they’re through for sure.
Your thoughts?
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Tags: European competition, France Ligue 1, Liverpool, Lyon (OL), Marseille (OM), Rangers, Steven Gerrard, UEFA Champions LeagueSubscribe
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Comments
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i think what we’re starting to learn is that the french style of play struggles against physical teams that aren’t ashamed to put 10 men behind the ball….and lionel messi.
its been the same story with the french national team. that attractive possession football with its precise passing and maneuvres inside the opponent’s penalty box doesnt work so well when the team you are facing simply parks a bus in front of the net. what seems to happen is that the french team is gently lulled to sleep, often trying to string together beautiful give and go’s and deftly piercing the first layer of the opponent’s 2 wall front only to bog down in the middle on the edge of the box. the french team starts to get frustrated and pushes everyone forward to try and heap on the pressure. this is usually when the non-french team scores first.
les bleus are also in the unfortunate situation of not relying ever on outside shooting so noone on the team really knows how to score that way.
with lyon, juninho basically gave up on the team approach and simply tried to score an individual goal….but to no avail although he did hit the woodwork twice.
Posted from
United States
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ALLEZ OM!!! I’m so happy!!!
Posted from
United States -
lefutur, you can interchange the word “french” in your comment with the word “Portuguese” and it still will hold true. The Portuguese sides and as we’re seeing with the Portuguese national team in the Euro qualifiers struggle to play open, free flowing posession football against teams willing to shell up and park the proverbial bus in front of the net. Very well said and agreed with 100%.
Posted from
United States -
Lefutur, good analysis of the state of French play. This saddens me, because the style is so beautiful to watch.
If you were calling up a player or two for the NT who is skilled at “outside shooting,” who would it be?
Posted from
United States -
What a great game to watch if you were rooting for Marseille or against Liverpool. Marseille played some beautiful football. They deserved that goal. I can’t believe they won without Nasri and Cisse didn’t start. Hopefully, they can qualify for knockout and make a run in the league as well.
Posted from
United States -
Laurie, thats a good question. off the top of my head i can only think of Laurent Robert who used to play for Newcastle and now plays in La Liga. he’s a free kick specialist and used to score a lot of goals from long range in open play as well. he’s been struggling lately though.
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United States
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