Tonight the official French football calendar commences with the Champions’ Trophy, to be played between rivals Olympique de Marseille, the winners of Ligue 1, and Paris Saint Germain, the winners of the French Cup. After last year’s first excursion to Quebec, this year the final will take place in Radès, 15km outside of Tunis, Tunisia. The match will be played at the Stade du 7 novembre, with a 55 000 capacity, which was built for the 2001 Mediterranian Games, and is named after the date the current President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became the President of Tunisia in 1987.
The rivalry, and fan problems, associated with this match are well documented, however historically OM have had the wood over PSG in Ligue 1 (OM won 27, D16 Lost 17) but PSG have the ascendancy in the cup competitions, having beaten OM in their only meeting in the League Cup (3-2 aet in the 2003/04 season) and are on a 5 match streak of eliminating OM in the French Cup, which includes their 2-1 win in the 2006 final at the Stade de France. PSG also have some history in the Champions’ Trophy having competed in it 4 times, beating Nantes on penalties in 1995 and beating Lens 1-0 in 1998, but losing twice on penalties to Lyon (2004 and 2006). Rades 2010 will be OM’s first participation in this competition.
OM have something of a problem up front in this match, with Mamadou Niang, Jordan Ayew and Brandao suspended and Morientes released, so it looks like Mali international Mamadou Samassa will be leading the line. This is actually an excellent opportunity for OM to put him in the shop window (he is transfer listed) and give Arles-Avignon, Valenciennes, West Ham, Wigan, Blackburn and Stoke City a good chance to look at him.
My projected OM lineup (with thanks to lephoceen)
————–Mandanda——————-
Azpilicueta – Hilton – Diawara – Taiwo
——————Cisse ———————
———Kabore ——– Lucho———–
Valbuena ———————– Ben Arfa
—————-Samassa——————–
I’d like to see Ben Arfa play because it may well be his last game for the club (he’s been heavily linked with German, Italian and English clubs), he’s of Tunisian descent and it would be nice to farewell him with a win. However, Dede Ayew, hot off the heels of a sparkling world cup is likely to play. On a side note I’m really happy to see Kabore establishing his name at OM, he’s really classy with superb technique. I’m not sure about PSG’s side, however they appear to have recruited well (Nenê and Bodmer), but are without Réunion born striker Guillaume Hoarau but might just take advantage of who isn’t available for OM (Niang, Brandao, Heinze (fatigue)). If I had to make a prediction I’d sit on the fence and say I can see this one going to penalties. Either way, it’s exciting that French football is back and that it is being exposed to the world (with the match being telecast in 52 countries), sadly albeit not Australia.
Filed under: Olympique Marseille, Paris Saint Germain, Preseason | Tagged: champions trophy, Olympique Marseille, Paris St-Germain, rades, trophee des champions, tunis, Tunisia | 3 Comments »
Americans in Ligue 1 : season preview
Ligue 1 will still have 2 Americans in 2010-2011, Carlos Bocanegra who moved from Rennes to St.-Etienne, and Charlie Davies who is still with Sochaux.
It would be hard pressed to say, for different reasons, that both their seasons have been crowned with success. Everyone knows what happened to Charlie Davies. He slowly got acquainted with Ligue 1 play before the devastating accident in October ’09 forced him to prematurely put an end to his season. Before that, he had shown that his pace could be problematic for slow French defenses. He scored a brace against defending champions Bordeaux and was elected Man of the Match after having martyred Monaco’s defense.
Carlos Bocanegra’s season contains more shades of gray. He was the starter at left-back for Rennes, and played the majority of the season, without impressing. The lack of a suitable replacement meant that he hung on to his position until late in the season where he was unfortunately injured. Upon returning, young defensive midfielder Romain Danzé seemed to be favored by coach Frédéric Antonetti and Bocanegra only filled in at the end of the season when there was nothing to fight for anymore.
Left back is not his favorite position, something that has shown this past season. The US National team captain was often overtaken by Ligue 1′s speedy wingers. With his experience, he was able to limit the extent of the damage but in contrast with Rod Fanni on the right, Bocanegra definitely looked like one of the weak spots of the team. His offensive production was also close to non-existent. Rennes considered parting with him in the winter transfer window, where he was rumored – already – to be headed to St.-Etienne, but Rennes wasn’t keen on investing on a substitute. Read more »
Filed under: AS Saint-Etienne, Americans Abroad, FC Sochaux-Montbeliard, Ligue 1 Commentary, Stade Rennais FC | Leave a Comment »