All That Talent?
By: Corey |
8 Comments
Everyone seems to know about Benzema and Ben Arfa at Lyon, Nasri and Valbuena at Marseille, even Menez and Gakpe at Monaco. What people dont know though is that Ligue 1 has so much more to offer in terms of talent then just these few youngsters. Yeah, thats right, lots and lots of young talent fighting it our to be the best. After a long absence from France, I return with this post for everyone, take a look at some of the young and talented yet typicaly unmentioned names of Ligue 1.
Gabriel Obertan, Striker Bordeaux:
I like him, I do not see him play much but the few times I did I was impressed, he is quick and skilled but his finishing and crossing needs alot of work. He is also a little lightweight, so while Benzema and even Jeremy Menez seem real deals of the summer, Obertan shouldnt be forgotten either. He is more of a right winger in a 4-3-3 then a striker like Benzema, but his lanky body sure can shimmy around the field and put a show on. At 19 though I would like to see him stay in France with the rest of the incredibly large and talented pool of young French talent in Ligue 1. Another year in the oven never hurts. Here is the requiste highlights video:
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Category: France Ligue 1
Ligue Dooo
By: Corey | 9 Comments
Not to many people watch Ligue 2 outside France. And whether you can admit it or not, people dont really watch Ligue 1 much out of France unfortunately. But I think its time we take a look at Ligue 2 and see whats goin on down there.
This reads as such:
Position Team Points Wins Draws Losses Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference
1 Le Havre 47 23 13 8 2 38 18 20
2 Nantes 45 23 13 6 4 35 19 16
3 Troyes 41 23 11 8 4 30 20 10
4 Bastia 38 22 11 6 5 32 19 13
5 Clermont Foot 36 23 8 12 3 33 23 10
6 Montpellier 35 23 9 8 6 26 18 8
7 Grenoble 35 23 9 8 6 29 23 6
8 Angers 35 23 9 8 6 23 20 3
9 Sedan 33 23 8 9 6 28 26 2
10 AC Ajaccio 32 23 8 8 7 25 25 0
11 Reims 28 22 8 4 10 26 35 -9
12 Boulogne-sur-Mer 27 23 7 6 10 26 33 -7
13 Brest 27 23 7 6 10 20 30 -10
14 Guingamp 26 23 6 8 9 22 24 -2
15 Châteauroux 26 23 6 8 9 23 26 -3
16 Amiens 23 23 5 8 10 24 32 -8
17 Niort 22 23 6 4 13 20 27 -7
18 Dijon 22 23 4 10 9 16 32 -16
19 Libourne/Saint-Seurin 19 23 4 7 12 26 39 -13
20 Gueugnon 14 23 2 8 13 22 35 -13
So Le Harve are top of the table which I like because I think they and their academy need to be in the top flight. Nantes likewise, as they power their straight back up. And Troyes is hanging on to third, Bastia not far behind. Id prefer to see the islanders back up, they bring a unique (if not slightly racist) atmosphere to Ligue 1. As for the bottom, Guegnon looks destined to go down, as they are 8 points from safety, while Libourne, Dijon and Niort are all clawing to stay up. Amiens too.
I dont watch any Ligue 2 so I can not comment on the level of play this year, so what do you guys think? Later.
Category: France Ligue 1The Stupid Sending-Off To Rule Over All Other Stupid Sendings-Off
By: Sam | 6 Comments
Ever since I really got into professional football a few years back, I’d been wondering if it had ever been done, but I never in my life had heard of it happening. Until today. In a Ligue 2 match that couldn’t possibly have been more ordinary, pitting middle-of-the-pack Reims against last-place Gueugnon, the score was tied at one apiece, and Reims defender, 28-year old Alexandre Barbier piced up a yellow card on 62 minutes. No big deal.
Seventeen minutes later though, after receiving a pass from Nabil Taider and converting it to put his side up in front, Barbier got a little too carried away and celebrated his fourth goal of the season by, you guessed it, doffing his shirt and waving it around. Red! Luckily for him, the score remained the same and his moment of idiocy turned out not to have cost Reims any points.
But for getting a second yellow for taking off your shirt, Alexandre Barbier, I salute you. Someone’s gotta do it. Does anyone else have any sending-off stories to tell? They’re very much welcome.
Category: France Ligue 1France Squad Announced
By: Corey | 16 Comments
So Ray Ray Domenech looked at the stars and checked the back of the Enquirer to figure out some horoscopes and came up with a team list for the matches in Malaga, Spain next week. I say matches because the A-team will take on DR Congo while the full squad plays Spain. So thats why their are so many players called up. Being a Spain fan as well as France fan my arms are tied behind my back as to who will win, but I am impressed with the players Domenech did call up.
Goalkeepers:
Gregory Coupet (Olympique Lyon), Sebastien Frey (Fiorentina), Mickael Landreau (Paris St Germain), Steve Mandanda (Olympique Marseille).
Defenders:
Eric Abidal (Barcelona), Jean-Alain Boumsong, Francois Clerc and Sebastien Squillaci (all Olympique Lyon), Gael Clichy, William Gallas, Bakary Sagna (all Arsenal), Julien Escude (Sevilla), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Gael Givet (Olympique Marseille), Philippe Mexes (AS Roma), Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona).
Midfielders:
Abou Diaby (Arsenal), Alou Diarra (Girondins Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth), Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal), Claude Makelele (Chelsea), Samir Nasri (Olympique Marseille), Jerome Rothen (Paris St Germain), Jeremy Toulalan (Olympique Lyon), Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan).
Forwards:
Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea), Hatem Ben Arfa, Karim Benzema and Sidney Govou (all Olympique Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Stade Rennes), Djibril Cisse (Olympique Marseille), Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Jeremy Menez (Monaco), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich).
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Category: France Ligue 1Matchday 23: Cissé Is Definitely Back! Coupet Is Not!
By: Sam | 1 Comment
Sometimes things just go your way, don’t they? Ask a Marseille fan, and they won’t really know what to tell you. OM have had their fair share of bad luck so far this season, with injuries, bad breaks and questionable refereeing, but the gods must have pitied them last weekend, enough for the Vélodrome to witness the wildest ninety minutes of action it’s seen in a couple of years. To the chagrin of the not-capacity crowd in Marseille, Julien Toudic opened the scoring after roughly one hundred seconds of play. A handful of minutes later, he scored another… kind of. Though he was offside at the start of the play, he was allowed to take the ball and shoot the ball into the net just before Steve Mandanda cleared it out beautifully. The ball was in the net by about a yard, but no sir. On top of that, ten minutes later, Djibril Cissé scored his first of the match in eerily similar fashion, only this time the ball was barely over the line, but it counted, tie game. The rest is history. Remember Mathieu Valbuena, the midget who scored against Liverpool at Anfield way back when? Well, he only does it a few times a year, apparently, but man, does he do it well. Five minutes before half-time, you know what he does? He takes the ball, from thirty yards out at a forty-five degree angle from the net, and he just wallops that ball so oddly, and it looks like it’s going a mile wide, but it curls like a boomerang and somehow lodges itself in the top-left of Benoit Costil’s net. Can you say “Goal of the week by a long shot” ? And three minutes later, he does it again. This time, it’s more of a lob, but it’s a frickin’ beauty, and Marseille are three-one up at the half. Two Cissé goals and a Nasri goal later, the match is over, 6-1 final. With their goal differential all better and three points in their pocket, OM are now in eighth place, the highest they’ve been so far this season. Caen, let’s remember, had that bullet start to the season and are still sitting mighty pretty at spot number six, two points up from Marseille.
Elsewhere, the Derby du Rhône pitting Lyon and Saint-Étienne had its moments as well. With Jérémie Janot out with a shoulder injury and Pascal Feindouno squeaking into the knockout round of the African Cup of Nations with Guinea, manager Laurent Roussey was without perhaps his two best players. Alain Perrin lined up newcomer Marc Crosas in his five-man midfield behind lone striker Karim Benzema. With Le Chaudron bubbling, les Verts proved the mightier side in the first half, with Dernis hitting the post five minutes from time and in injury time, Grégory Coupet made an ass of himself by squirting a missed clearance right onto the dreadlocks of Batéfimbi Gomis, who greedily knocked the ball past the stunned keeper. In the second half, a few chances were scattered here and there, while the notorious Fred made his entry on the pitch in Crosas’ stead, and even scored a goal, albeit offside. But it all came down to injury time again, when, when the match seemed in the bag for the home crowd (it would’ve been their first win in seventeen matches against their hated rivals), none other than the wunderkind Karim Benzema, who scored his fifteenth in league play this year, quite unlike most of his goals, by deftly whipping a free-kick over the wall and past a helpless Jody Viviani for the equalizer. That goal, coupled with Bordeaux’s no-show at Lorient (see below), puts Lyon four points clear at the top. ASSE, on the other hand, are still treading water at the unlucky thirteenth spot.
Category: France Ligue 1Transfer Gossip !?!
By: Corey | 2 Comments
Lots of stuff goin on this week as the winter market is winding down, so here we go.
- Sergio Almiron has moved on loan to Monaco from Juve. Obviously looking for may playing time, he will have to compete with nobody for it, as Monaco’s central midfield could use a player like him.
- Auxerre have signed Robert Popov from Litex. He is a center back, thats all I know about him, Auxerre need all the help they can get as they sit in the relegation zone, eeek!
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Category: France Ligue 1Reviews and Previews
By: Corey | Add Comments
We had a full slate of action on Wednesday in Ligue 1, some entertaining affairs if I do say so. I enjoyed a Lyon victory over a resurgent Lorient, as the league leaders looked to return to their devasting self. I also was delighted to see Lens and Lille pick up wins in their bid to move up the table. Yet again, only one score-less draw, Caen and Auxerre (Who would have guessed that?), as Ligue 1 continues to provide goals aplenty (compared to last year or even the first half of this year at some points…). Here are all the scores:
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Category: France Ligue 1Goals of the Week 01/22
By: Corey | 1 Comment
A little late, I aplogize, I just moved into a new on campus apartment and was busy doing that the past two days. I didnt not watch a single Ligue 1 game this weekend, so these highlights are as valuable to me as anyone else. You know what else is valuable, hot water and heat, neither of which I have right now. Damn school. Anyways, because I didnt see any of the games, I gonna post all games here and which ever goal you like you vote for.
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Category: France Ligue 1Goals Of The Week
By: Corey | 4 Comments
Its back folks, Goals of the Week! Except I dont have the little poll thing from Sam yet, but write in votes will be tallied using my mathematical genius. Anyways, here are the three (sic: four) contenders for the crown:
Benzema/Ben Arfa vs. Toulouse:
I believe “exceptional” was said when Ben Arfa scored, while “Merci!” was repeated several times when Benzema did. I know the difference between a Ben Arfa and a Benzema, but these both were great so I will lump them together as 1 vote.
Diane vs. Lens:
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Your Weekend-At-A-Glance
By: Corey | 2 Comments
With Coup de Whatever action subsided, the league program roles around again, with two ties certain to catch the eye of neutral fans. The under-the-radar Nancy Boys will travel to Caen for what should be an entertaining tie between two surprise packages, while we have game between Bordeaux and Auxerre, and we have some relegation cliff hangers in the form of PSG against Lens and Lille against Metz. Ill previews the games for you from top to bottom:
11:10am Eastern Time
Valenciennes (6th) vs. St Etienne (11th) Stade Nungesser
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Category: France Ligue 1
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