1. Positive results are good enough for now, but more impressive performances will need to come soon in the future.  Each player is still trying to force play with individual efforts rather than seeing the value in collective build up.  I understand the need to get used to one another and adjust to playing together, and right now the results are fine with three straight Ligue 1 wins, a feat the club failed to accomplish last season.  A penetrating individual run from Menez led to Pastore’s audacious finish, and that type of talent should be enough to keep up the positive string of results against teams like Brest in Ligue 1.
2. In his absence, it was easy to see Chantome’s value in the midfield.  Chantome is a touchline to touchline player, and to put it simply, Bodmer is not.  PSG lacked the energy in the midfield tonight that was necessary to win and keep possession.  In short, too many artists, and not enough soldiers were on the pitch for the Parisians.  Not every pass needs to be a flick or special moment – the simple pass that Chantome often provides can be sufficient.
3. It seems, in my estimation, that the boycott by some groups of fans has come to an end, or at least is near the end, at the Parc des Princes.  One of their main complaints had been that seats were given randomly in small groups of up to six, preventing larger associations from being able to sit together.  Tonight, however, a large group (I couldn’t tell which one or what their banner said) sat on the Paris side all together rather than being randomly seated in Auteil or Boulogne.

Diego, how are you and how was your first practice with the band?

“I feel fine. I really wanted to start training with my teammates because until now, I trained alone. I am learning slowly to better understand and to speak with my teammates, even if I do not yet speak French. I fit in with this group and I hope we will achieve our goals together. ”

You returned to competition this Friday with Uruguay during a friendly match in Ukraine (2-3) …

“It was my first official match since the Copa America. I played seventy minutes with plenty of pace; I also was able to score a goal. The first matches of the season are important to pick up the pace of the competition. ”

How do you feel physically?

“Good because I have done a little pre-season preparation with my former club Fenerbahçe even if I had not yet participated in a match before this meeting with the national team.”

Will you play this Sunday against Brest?

“It’s too early to say, the week is long and we must see according to the set up with my teammates. I am available for the coach and I will work every day to get ready. ”

Notes:

• PSG beat Brest 3-1 in a comfortable win at home last year on goals from Nene, Bodmer, and Giuly. On the return, the two sides tied 2-2 when Hoarau scored a deflected equalizer in the 87th minute.
• Mamadou Sakho, Guillaume Hoarau, Clement Chantome, Mohamed Sissoko, Milan Bisevac and Christophe Jallet were all listed in the club’s injury list today.

This season, I’m going to give players a number rating from 1 to 10 based on my perception of how they performed in a given match. My rating will be based on how well they’ve played based on how well I think they should be able to play. For example, if Nene and Jean-Eudes Maurice have very similar games, Nene may get a 5 while Maurice gets a 10 because an average performance from Nene would the best game of Maurice’s life. I’m willing to admit this is an extremely subjective method and would appreciate your feedback and thoughts on both my ratings and how to improve the rating system.

Salvatore Sirigu (5) — Maybe could’ve done better on Lorient’s set piece goal, but he wasn’t to blame for the poor defending. I don’t know how he could direct the defense. Does he speak any French?

Saka Tiene (5) — Tiene just isn’t that great of a player. He’s not that dangerous moving forward, and he’s pretty average at the back, too. I’d prefer Armand (suspended for the game against Lorient) because he’s a more solid defender even if he can’t really get forward on the wing much. The rumor is that Leonardo was disappointed with his performance and started looking with some urgency for a left back to add before the end of the transfer window.

Mamadou Sakho (1) — Sakho was at his worst. The only way it could’ve been worse was if Lorient had capitalized on his mistakes. I expect more out of him than any other player and he was just not on his game Saturday night. If this team is going to be able to handle the pressure of being front runners, the captain needs to take most of the pressure on himself and handle it well to free up his teammates. Sakho did not do a good job and looked rattled by the new expectations and pressure.

Milan Bisevac (6) — I didn’t really know what to expect from him to be honest. Bisevac should be a suitable companion for Sakho in the central defense. Nothing impressive from him, but no glaring mistakes either.

Christophe Jallet (6) — He was dangerous on the right wing, but none of his crosses led to clear cut scoring chances. He was always a threat and managed to get back well and defend, too.

Blaise Matuidi (2) — Matuidi did not look like Claude Makelele out there. He seemed to feel a ton of pressure and was not able to cope with it at all. He made a lot of mistakes, especially at the start of the game. He’s supposed to sit in front of the back line, win the ball, and then distribute it, but whenever he was able to win the ball, he gave it right back to the opponent. He also fouled many times when tackling in the midfield. This suggests to me that he’s just a step slow and needs to get back into game shape and speed. I’ll be patient for now but he was pretty terrible…

Clement Chantome (7) — Man of the match for me even though he was far from spectacular. Chantome was a ball of energy in the midfield, winning and distributing the ball well. He even got into the final third to help create some half chances late in the game. Matuidi and Sissoko have some work to do if they’re going to push him out of the starting XI.

Nene (6) — Nene was solid and the most dangerous Parisian going forward on Saturday night, but his performance wasn’t special. His curling left-footed effort from just outside the box was the best scoring chance of the night, but the keeper was able to push it over the bar with relative ease.

Jeremy Menez (3) — Looked lost on the right wing and lost the ball often. I expect Nene and Menez on the wings to be the French version of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery at Bayern Munich. In other words, he needs to be better.

Guillaume Hoarau (3) — I think that it’s time for Hoarau to go. Leonardo needs to sell him. I don’t have any problem with him in particular, but I think he is unintentionally the root of PSG’s attacking problems. Time after time balls are sent from the back up to Hoarau’s head. The ball movement can’t be fluid like that, and the attack needs to come from the feet of playmakers: Nene, Menez, and Pastore soon. These guys will be able to provide each other and Gameiro with (easy) chances to score after taking defenders on one-on-one and combination play. I think Kombouare should use a 4-2-3-1 and Hoarau does not fit in as the 1 at the point of the attack. Erding would be a better option coming off the bench for Gameiro. I just don’t see Hoarau having a place in this team.

Kevin Gameiro (4) — Gameiro is always a threat with his slicing diagonal runs behind the defense, but he was unable to create any clear cut chances against Lorient. I don’t think he’s completely to blame because he had to play up front with Hoarau. We saw how Erding’s personal production decreased last year when he had to play alongside a healthy Hoarau, and I think the best thing for Gameiro is to sell Hoarau.

Subs:

Jeremy Bahebeck (5) — He’s getting closer to having a significant impact at the professional level. He just needs to get more accustomed to the speed of the game. His size and speed aren’t enough any more to bully players around anymore. His touch is getting there and practicing every day with the first team will help him improve significantly.

Matthieu Bodmer (5) — Bodmer subbed in for Hoarau and didn’t make a significant impact individually, but I feel the overall play of the team improved. He could sit behind Gameiro in the 4-2-3-1 until Pastore is fit and ready to play.

Mevlut Erding (5) — A late substitution as PSG searched for a late equalizer. He brought some energy but didn’t provide the necessary spark to steal a goal and point.

Before getting latest transfer news and discussing the most recent warm up matches from Portugal, I’d like to take a minute to talk about what struck me most from my tour of the Parc.  Everything was so understated, outdated, and simple that I’m sure Mark Cuban – owner of the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks – was rolling in his future grave.  I hope it’s all right to say that.

First, the locker room seriously reminded me of the high school locker room I used when I played soccer growing up in small town northwest Ohio.  The one difference, though, is that my high school had enough seats for all the players to sit down and change in their own area.  You heard me right, there are only 19 seats and lockers in the PSG locker room for 25 players.  One of the coolest things from the tour, though, was in this tiny locker room.  A piece of the wall was signed by all the players from the 1996 team that won the Cup Winners Cup.

Next, the luxury suite was far from luxurious, even though I wouldn’t turn down an invitation to watch a game from the room.  It was simply several chairs put together in a small, rather cramped room.  From there, you could go out to seats right at midfield to watch a game.  The chairs themselves in the section, however, were not any different than the seats around the rest of the Parc.  I thought for sure the club officials were sitting on plush, comfortable seats and not thin, wooden chairs like the common fan.

The ticket office and store were renovated in 2002, but I don’t think the rest of the stadium has been fixed up since it opened on 1974.  The stadium is set for renovation in a couple years, and PSG will play in the Stade de France for one season.  Some people are concerned the team will move out to Saint-Denis and abandon the Parc des Princes.  While the national stadium is clearly a more updated stadium than the one at Porte de Saint-Cloud, I think it would be a serious mistake to permanently move the team.

Even though the Parc des Princes is outdated, it fits well with the identity of the club and its supporters.  PSG is not a club of what you may think is the average Parisian – white, baguette carrying, beret wearing, cigarette smoking snobs – and most locals don’t even like sports.  PSG supporters are typically young Frenchmen from a lower class whose family just recently emigrated from a north African country like Algeria or Cameroon.  These fans cannot afford luxury box tickets and are in fact anti anyone who can afford this type of luxury.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or space to get into everything I learned about the race and class relations in France this year, but I do hope the new Qatari owners take the time to understand and relate to their support base.  These fans prefer an old stadium within the city limits to a fancy stadium in a suburb that lacks character.

Speaking of the Qatari owners, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about them, particularly their goals and aspirations in Paris.  I’ll have a new post ready in a couple days to better introduce you to them.

Another negative is that the pitch was in terrible condition.  In the first 150 seconds, four players had fallen over without being touched.  Two minutes in, Tiené got in behind the Benfica defense, only to slip and fall when approaching the goal.  Armand slipped and slid into a Benfica player to earn his first yellow card, and then the referee made a bad decision just minutes later to send him off.  Terrible atmosphere, terrible pitch, and terrible refereeing.  But neither I, nor anyone else cared about the result – we just wanted to enjoy the opportunity to see players on the field and evaluate what PSG needs to work on heading into the 201-2012 season.

One of the most obvious observations about this PSG team is that there is a huge talent gap between the top players and the reserves.  This is seen most clearly in defense, as well as the attacking outside midfielders.  First, it must be said that Sakho is far and away the best player on the team.  He stops attackers one on one and often thwarts counterattacks on his own.  He wins balls out of the air.  He beats people off the dribble when the ball is at his feet.  And he always makes the right pass with accuracy.  Sakho is the best defender in Ligue 1, so it’s unfair to blame Ngoyi, or even Camara for that matter, for not living up to his standard.  Even so, though, Kombouaré knows he needs to find another more experienced central defender, and I hope he goes out and picks up Bisevac from Valenciennes this week.

Also, Nene is a much better winger than Maurice (but you already knew that, right?) and Clément is not a suitable replacement for Makelélé.  Maurice made no runs of any value down the right wing in the first half and he continually gave possession away needlessly.  Bahebeck showed a lot more promise in the second half with his pace, ball control, and ability to take on defenders.  However, he has to develop before he’ll be ready for the grind of playing regularly in Ligue 1.  I think he still plays a little too directly and is prone to force things sometimes, but he just needs to continue to improve.  One day, he’ll be a valuable addition to any team.  Clément, on the other hand, is a different story.  While I’ve heard from a friend who works with client services at the Parc des Princes that Clément’s a really nice guy, I’m not his biggest fan.  I don’t think Clément has much potential.  His passing is crisp and he can help maintain control over a possession game from the midfield, but he lacks the physicality to be a dominant presence.

I was at the Parc des Princes last season for Makelélé’s first game back from injury against AJ Auxerre.  He was a lot like Clément for that game – a good passer without a physical presence – and PSG paid the price because of it.  Makelélé was unable to defend well, particularly against the counterattack.  He was too slow getting back behind the ball in the transition from attack to defense, and even when he did get behind the ball he was beat off the dribble.  This cost PSG two goals and led to a home loss.

All this to say that Leonardo has three main holes to fill before the end of the summer – right winger, center back, and defensive midfielder.  These are MUSTS.  The current transfer rumors are pretty much only for three attackers: Taarabt, Honda, and Ganso.  According to L’Equipe, Taarabt should be signed this weekend after QPR accepts an offer of 17 million euros.  That means, in my opinion, Leonardo needs to turn his attention elsewhere to fill these roles soon.  Then, after that is finished, he can continue to add depth, including finding a backup for Douchez in goal.

Adding depth is a serious issue – last season PSG fell apart and could not get a result down the stretch.  The Parisians took only four points from their last five Ligue 1 games, including a particularly disappointing loss at Bordeaux and ties against Brest and Monaco.  If the players had had a little more gas in the tank, we would be preparing for a Champions League tie rather than just FC Lorient.  We saw firsthand tonight that Gameiro will be able to continue terrorizing Ligue 1 defenses with penetrating runs at defenders, but that doesn’t mean Leonardo can afford to sell Erding.  Players like Erding, Clément, Lyuindula, Bahebeck, Camara, and Armand all need to be important contributors in order for PSG to win Ligue 1 and qualify for the Champions League.

However, this transformation from a fourth place team to league champion doesn’t happen overnight.  In the end, PSG lost 3-1 to Benfica tonight, but everyone knows the result doesn’t matter at all.  It’s about slowly improving, committing to the daily grind, and focusing on the long term goal of lasting success.  Then, with this kind of commitment from the players and owners, by the end of year, we won’t be fools for “Dreaming bigger” like the new owners have asked fans to do.

Here are video highlights of all three PSG targets.

To prepare myself for my transition from Paris back to the United States next week, I went to the Parc des Princes yesterday to buy a few souvenirs to take home with me.  I left the PSG store with a scarf from the Coupe de France final against Lille (yes, I know we lost, but will I ever get the chance to make it back to a cup final again?) and a sweatshirt.  However, I didn’t get what I really wanted – a glimpse of owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi (president of Qatar Sports Investments), Leonardo, or team president Robin LeProux entering or exiting the stadium.  It wasn’t until later in the afternoon yesterday that we got the official announcement that Robin LeProux is finished at PSG and Leonardo is the new sporting director.

Paris Saint-Germain has entered a new era.  Equipped with a glamorous new director and 100 million euro budget, it’s difficult for a fan’s expectations not to skyrocket with dreams of multiple Ligue 1 championships and European success.  Earlier this summer, PSG had been linked with names like Samuel Eto’o, Dmitar Berbatov, and Gael Clichy.  But what is actually realistic?  What can we expect from Leonardo and the Qatari owners?

Leonardo made his intentions very clear (in excellent French) at his press conference yesterday.  He wants to achieve something at PSG and build a lasting success. The Parisians have already made significant moves in the transfer market this summer by getting the signatures of Kevin Gameiro and Nicolas Douchez.

Gameiro should be a great partner for Hoarau up front, while Douchez brings immediate stability in goal.  Antoine Kombouaré has been active in the recruitment of one of his former players as well, Valenciennes center back Milan Bisevac (the rumor is that the transfer fee would be around three million euros).

One thing that the new Qatari ownership has made clear is that they want to recruit foreign players and bring them to Paris.  The rumored names that are floating around just one day after the hire of Leonardo reflect this desire.  Offers are being prepared for Jérémy Ménez (AS Roma) and Lucas (Sao Paulo), and possibly these players as well:

• Luisao – a Brazilian central defender who plays for Benfica; PSG are spending the week in Portugal so it’s possible a deal could be worked out as early as Friday
• Keisuke Honda – a Japanese attacker currently with CSKA Moscow
• Adel Taarabt – a Moroccan international playing for the newly promoted Queens Park Rangers of the Premier League; he was named the player of the year in the English Championship last season

Personally, I would be really excited to see Taarabt in a PSG uniform.  However, he’s still not a suitable replacement for Claude Makelele in the midfield and I’d still like to find a suitable center back to complement Mamadou Sakho in defense.  It’s easy at this point in the season to be optimistic, though, and I guess I’ll just trust Leonardo to do his job well.  Here’s a look back at the top goals from PSG’s 2010-2011 season.

In a post-game interview with fff.fr, Mamadou Sakho said he was proud of the young PSG players and their ability to contribute and win a Cup quarterfinal. He talked briefly about the abilities of the two young goal scorers:

““Kebano is a technical player, quick and intelligent in his play and he drops the ball when needed. As for Bahebeck, he goes very fast with the ball. I also think that even he goes faster without. They are young but talented. The group will need young people. On the field, we felt the difference when they entered. They brought their freshness, their passion, their carelessness. This is a collective victory, because everyone has worked hard. I‘m proud of them. “

Kombouaré says the feud is over.  There is always tension in the locker room after games, and sometimes he just doesn’t like a player’s attitude.  They were able to turn the page, though, the next day at training.  He says Coupet is just starting today because it is a Cup tie—there is nothing more to read into his decision.  Everything is worked out and they are on good terms once again.

PSG Squad:

APOULA Edel, BAHEBECK Jean-Christophe, BODMER Mathieu, CAMARA Zoumana, CEARA Marcos, CLEMENT Jérémy, COUPET Grégory, ERDING Mevlut, HOARAU Guillaume, JALLET Christophe, KEBANO Neeskens, LANDRE Loïck, LUYINDULA Peguy, MAKHEDJOUF Florian, MAKONDA Tripy, NENE, SAKHO Mamadou, TRAORE Sammy

Le Mans Squad:

Khedairia, Makaridze – Adenon, Bouhours, Cerdan, Corchia, Cuffaut, Louvion, Wague – Hautcoeur, Narry, Ouali, Thomas – Béhé, Cissé, Dieye, Helstad, Lamah.

Where to Watch (7 PM local time):

atdhe.me

myp2p.eu

“Au Parc des Princes, la plus belle victoire c’est le respect.” This was the slogan advertised on PSG’s official Facebook page before tonight’s match. Before the game, as the players were preparing in the locker rooms, there was a small presentation on respect. While the announcer was talking, cameras caught the fans tearing down banners that said “Place au Respect.” Next, the Toulouse fans started cheering and singing during the presentation. The PSG supporters in Auteil responded by chanting “F*** you Toulouse.” As soon as the presentation finished, the Toulouse supporters set off a firework, and the whole crowd joined Auteil in their chant against Toulouse.

Even though I’ve never heard and American crowd chant profanity with such unity and force, I’m able to deal with the vulgarity and just consider it a cultural difference. What bothers me as a PSG supporter is the fact that the fans only really get behind the team after a goal. When the score was 2-0 early in the second half, everyone was unified in singing songs about the greatness of PSG. As soon as Toulouse scored to make it 2-1, the crowd turned on the team and you could really sense the pessimism and concern in the stands. Make one small mistake and you will be greeted with thousands of whistles. The team, though, as the players are getting tired late in the game, needs encouragement to push them forward, not whistles and jeers to make them timid and play on their back foot.

Let’s move on to what happened in the game today. I hate to beat a dead horse, but Luyindula was just awful once again. It’s true that Kombouaré didn’t do him any favors by putting him out on the left wing, but Peguy did not contribute anything at all to this game. His goal early in the second half was (I think) wrongly disallowed and would have killed the game at 3-0, but that was just a case of him being in the path of a terrible pass from a Toulouse defender. He looked totally lost out there.

One positive note is that the PSG attack was able to function even without Nene out on the left wing. Giuly was more involved in the attack on the right wing, and Bodmer did a great job of holding the ball up front and allowing the midfielders to get forward into the attack. Bodmer was definitely lucky to score on his deflected goal, but he played a solid game and earned his luck. Throughout the season, people have said that Nene is the one player on PSG that cannot be replaced, but I disagree. Tonight is proof that PSG is still capable of scoring without Nene.

Mamadou Sakho is a rock in the center of the Parisian defense, and I’m not sure the team could win without him. He went down injured three times in a matter of minutes tonight, but I’m hoping he was just cramping up and that the injury is not something more serious.

That’s all for now. Here are the highlights from the game: