My Coupe Runneth Over: Sochaux Claim the Cup on Penalties!

By: Sam | May 13th, 2007

You have to go back over four of my combined lifetimes to see FC Sochaux-Montbéliard win their last Coupe de France. Now, after a hard-fought, not to mention intense final against Marseille, they’ve won it again. A drought that began when they undertook the defense of their 1937 triumph over Strasbourg is now over, after a victory that came on penalties against the heavily favoured OM at the Stade de France on Saturday.

It started off the way expected it to, when on five minutes, Djibril Cissé smashed in Samir Nasri’s how-the-hell-did-he-manage-that cross past Richert, who would turn out to be one of the key players in the match. The only other notable event in the first half was produced by Dagano, five minutes later, when he was a hair away from equalizing when his chip found Carrasso’s crossbar.

In the second half, Richert made up for conceding the early goal with a fine save on Niang on 60 minutes. Minutes later, Dagano also made up for his miss when he took advantage of poor marking and impeccably nudged Jérôme Leroy’s cross past a surprised Carrasso. A tense end of regulation set the stage for extra-time. Dun-dun-dun…

Djibril Cissé wasted no time establishing himself again in extra-time, as he headed in his second of the game on a perfect cross from Maoulida. With Marseille fans euphoric, Karim Ziani had the chance to silence them, but his effort was first saved by Carrasso onto the bar. No worries, though, because with four minutes remaining, Anthony Le Tallec stunned the entire stadium by scoring the fourth of the game, and the fourth from a header. Penalties? I think so.

Ziani. Sure. 1-0 to Sochaux.
Taiwo. Well, duh. 1-1.
Birsa. You know it. Sochaux up again.
Maoulida. Get the hell outta here. Sochaux 2-1 still.
Le Tallec. Gotta love him. 3-1, getting nervous?
Cana. Don’t shoot much, don’t miss much. 3-2 Sochaux.
Leroy. That’s four in a row. 4-2.
Cissé. A “hat-trick” if you bend the rules. 4-3, everything’s still possible.
Bréchet. Souvenir! Misses the net. 4-3 again.
Nasri. All tied up. 4-4!
Brunel. Can’t ask for more. 5-4.
Zubar. Richert is equal. 5-4 final.

SOCHAUX WIN THE COUPE DE FRANCE!

Sochaux, the team that’s always been between fifth and fifteenth, that never impresses anyone, you know what I’m talking about, are finally crowned once again. They will also take part in the UEFA Cup next season.

Said Teddy Richert (translated from French): Marseille is a good team and it wasn’t easy to come back. But from back there, I could tell that we were keeping up, that we were playing football the way we’re used to. We could have came back, we kept going, and finally we got there. Then came the penalties … We believed we could till the end.