Halfway Through: Let’s Have A Look At What’s Going On

By: Sam | January 5th, 2008

It’s time to look back at the first half of the season and talk about who’s hot and who’s not, who’s coming and who’s going, and what the odds are that PSG will be relegated. Go!

It’s been a good year so far for…

Karim Benzema: No wonder every club in the world is salivating at the thought of having this youngster in their ranks sooner rather than later. Quite simply, he’s scored twelve league goals so far, and makes most people say “Pedro Miguel who?”. Don’t get any ideas though: It definitely seems like his head is in the right place, and he’s focused on the now, instead of the five years from now.

Pablo Correa: If you don’t know who this is, I don’t blame you, but you should. The Uruguayan manager joined AS Nancy-Lorraine as a player in ‘95, has been involved with the club ever since, and since 2002 is the head coach. He’s brought his boys through the good and the bad, taking them up to the top flight two and a half years ago, and now he’s steering the ship that’s in second place and turning heads like nobody’s business. There really hasn’t been this much of a consistent surprise in the French league in a while, and Correa really deserves a whole lotta credit.

The younger guys: Of course there’s Benzema, but you really have to look at the other younger players in the league this year who’ve been splashing about. Hatem Ben Arfa, for one, who is the yin to Karim’s yang. Steve Mandanda, who took untold pressure onto his shoulders at Marseille and for the most part succeeded greatly, with the help of Next Zidane #1, Samir Nasri. Hugo Lloris is back from injury and gunning for best keeper honours. Tulio De Melo is a god in Le Mans, and Wason Renteria is one of the only bright spots of Strasbourg’s season so far.

It’s been a bad season so far for…

PSG: Really, it’s beginning to look like a tradition. Even with one of the bigger budgets in European football, le club de la capitale once again sucked butt to start the season, wading in the relegation zone for quite some time, and putting out some really bad performances. They’re now in 16th spot, still way low for what they should be accustomed to. On top of that Pauleta is still their top goalscorer, but he only has a meager four goals to his name so far.

Matt Moussilou: Hoping to rebound at Marseille after blah stints at ASSE and Nice, the former stellar Lille striker came up empty again, and left for Qatar weeks after he arrived. For his troubles, he was awarded le ballon de plomb (the ball of lead) by the lovably sarcastic website Les Cahiers du Football.

Bits n’ pieces:

Parallel universe dept.: At the midway point, clubs such as Nancy, Caen, Valenciennes, Nice and Lorient are in the top part of the table. On the other hand, Marseille, Toulouse, Lille, PSG, Lens and Rennes are in the other part. If anyone can prove that this makes sense, I’m all ears.

Bonnie and Clyde dept.: Remember Jack Kachkar? Oh man.

That’s all I got for today. Once again, I apologize for my shitty posting schedule. Luckily for the lot of you, however, big bad Corey (of the Real Madrid Offside fame) is coming in soon enough and together, you can bet your ass this site is going to be way better. Until then, Kosh out!