Matchday 4: Ligue 1 Gods still on Crack

By: Sam | August 19th, 2007

How often do you have three clubs tied for first place? And I do mean tied-tied, with the same number of goals scored and conceded. And how often are those teams Le Mans, Lorient and Nancy? Not all the time, I reckon. How often does Lyon lost twice in a row, especially at the start of the season so it makes them look particularly bad? Not too often I think. How often do six of ten matches end in draws? Only in Ligue 1. Here are all recaps of this weekend’s matches.

(1) Le Mans 1-1 Lille (8)
There you have it, Le Mans have dropped their first points of the season. The first half proved to be an exciting one, with many counters for both sides, but most finishing in the kops. Not all, though. The most important one just might have been the one that saw Ludo Obraniak deliver a perfect cross that Nicolas Fauvergue got a perfect header on to beat Pelé for the opener. Sylva made some good stops as well. The second half got on exactly as its predecessor had, with Pelé coming way out of his area to tackle Obraniak. On 58 minutes, Le Mans got a long throw that was controlled by Grafite, who scored beautifully with his heel. Opportunities perked here and there, many for Le Mans, but nothing could come of them.

(1) Lorient 2-1 Lyon (12)
How about, eh boys? Lyon loses twice in a row! This time to surprise package Lorient. The underdogs came out in front first, through a brilliant scissor volley from Marama Vahirua, who’ll be thanking Fabio Grosso for his ludicrous clearing attempt. But it didn’t mean much when Karim Benzema lobbed Audard after the equalizer twenty minutes later. Rafik Saïfi had the go-ahead goal there for the taking, but instead found Vercoutre’s crossbar. Vahirua then scored his fourth in two games to put Lorient back in front, on a swell ball in from Marin that Vercoutre judged poorly. Lyon would not be particulary bloodthirsty thereafter, and conceded their second straight loss. Lorient, now with three in a row, are tied for first place with Le Mans.

(13) Marseille 2-2 Nancy (1)
It’s like the itch that won’t go away. Marseille, who if you didn’t know are considered to be Lyon’s closest competitor, have yet to win this season. Not that they shouldn’t have won this one. Mamadou Niang, back from injury, opened the scoring on twenty minutes on a well-taken inside foot from a Taiwo cross. They even went two-nil up before the hour, through Djibril Cissé, who finished a great run and pass from Ziani. But never mind OM’s clear domination, Nancy, perfect up to this point, pulled one back through Benjamin Gavanon from the spot after a blatant foul by Cana. Youssouf Hadji equalized ten minutes from time on a well struck ball from just inside the area. Lorik Cana hit the crossbar in injury time. That’s the story of Marseille’s campaign so far.

(9) Saint-Étienne 0-0 Bordeaux (6)
When you pit a crazily scoring team against a crazily non-scoring team, you can only hope for the best. In this case, hope didn’t do much. Although Janot made a name for himself in the first half, the second didn’t have anything to offer. Basically, there’s really not much to say.

(16) Toulouse 1-3 Strasbourg (5)
Every day, at least to me, it looks as though Toulouse aren’t the right team to represent France at a European level. Exhibit A: This match. Strasbourg got the first one nineteen minutes into the match, on a fantastic team effort finished impeccably by Eric Mouloungui. Téfécé struck back fifteen minutes after, on an odd volley by André-Pierre Gignac that Cassard could have saved. Strasbourg went ahead early in the second, on a goal similar to the first one, finished nicely by James Fanchone. And whadda ya know, they would score a third, eerily similar once again, this time by Kevin Gameiro, left unmarked at the penalty spot. You’d have expected the scoreline to be the other way around, these two clubs’ spots in the table as well.

(11) Nice 1-1 Rennes (10)
A sea of red and black was on hand at Stade du Ray on Sunday to get a load of this one. They got what they paid for early on, that’s for sure. Pouplin was sharp twice in a row in the first ten minutes for Rennes, and his side hit the post on ten. It was Nice who scored first though, with Bakary Koné getting on the end of Laslandes’ through ball and slotting it through impeccably. After a lull in play afterwards, Rennes equalized through Jimmy Briand, who was the recipient of a cross touched by Lloris and who had to do nothing other than tap it in. Lloris made up for it five minutes later when he made a game-saving stop on Badiane.

(19) Sochaux 0-3 Monaco (4)
Maybe I jinxed Teddy Richert when I wrote that article about him earlier this week: It just wasn’t his day against Monaco on Saturday. To start things off, the eight-foot tall Jan Koller rose above his marker and scored from a header after only two minutes. Dalmat, who scored a beauty for Sochaux last week, hit the post just before half time. On the hour mark, it was a former Sochalien, Jérémy Menez, who scored the second for Monaco thanks to a ludicrous clearing effort from a defender, a sublime cutback and a little bit of luck going through Richert’s legs. Koller killed it with a few minutes left in the match on a simply fantastic header while devoid of any marking whatsoever. With respect to Richert, this match belonged to Monaco and Monaco’s keeper, Stéphane Ruffier, who made a couple of sensational stops in the second half.

(18) Lens 0-0 Valenciennes (7)
Don’t fool yourself now, just because this match didn’t produce any goals, doesn’t mean it didn’t produce any excitement. Plenty and plenty of chances for both sides at Félix-Bollaert, but evidently a dismal result, especially for Lens, who haven’t won yet in what was supposed to be The Season for them. Both sides missed glorious chances around the end, Valenciennes with Savidan’s lob that was brilliantly saved by defender Hilton, and Akalé for Lens who was denied by a last-gasp save from Penneteau.

(17) Auxerre 1-0 Caen (14)
It took time, but when it finally comes, all is forgotten. Auxerre, goalless till this point, are finally smiling. A dismal start to the match went by, and just after the half hour, Auxerre struck, with Toifilou Maoulida controlling perfectly and finishing from close range. Caen made a valiant effort to come back in the second half, but couldn’t do better than Jemaa when he hit the post. Forget Caen’s first match: They’ve lost the following two. Now, Auxerre can breathe.

(20) Metz 0-0 PSG (15)
Yawn. What’s up with Paris? That’s now four games without a win, and one lone goal scored. Their potential breakthrough match against Metz didn’t have any spark in it whatsoever. The only notable incident in the first half was Landreau’s big save against N’Diaye, late in the frame. The visitors showed some life early in the second half, but never came close to cleaning up. Aguirre could have scored for Metz but missed a gaping net. And that was pretty much it. Metz is still in last place with one point out of four games.