In this friendly further proof was given of what many of us already knew, that Clement Chantome is a quality player. Hopefully this stellar performance will convince Kombouare to start him in the Ligue. Anyway, this was a great opportunity to gain momentum against quite a good side, one that perennially features in Europe from the Portugese Liga Sagres. Let’s hope that we can turn a positive performance like this into further improvement in Ligue 1. The rest of the goals from the match are below the jump.


Rodriguez

Chantome

Boli

We’ve slipped further down the table, players are failing to score, Antoine Kombouare is still employed, and Sylvain Armand has become one of the 15 most capped PSG players ever.

I’ll report on the international break for PSG as it concludes, along with the upcoming friendly against Braga.

A few quick thoughts while you enjoy that beautiful Luyindula goal and lament the fact that you can’t watch Chantome’s perfect lob over and over again.

• Chantome needs to be starting every game, even if that means leaving Maka on the bench. He was simply fantastic, contributing as much defensively as Makelele does (at least as he’s done this season) and he’s a stupendous attacker as well. The positioning he has offensively as well as his composure are remarkable for someone of his age.
• Scoring a goal the week after swine flu is no problem for someone as awesome as Jeremy Clement.
• Making a penalty against your former side is tough.
• Choosing Erding to take a penalty against Sochaux is just unintelligent.
• Peguy Luyindula has flashes of brilliance (see his goal, along with a brilliant little overhead juggle he pulled off in the first half) but mostly he’s just not very good. And if I wasn’t a PSG fan I would eternally hate him for that dive that resulted in the penalty.
• Antoine Kombouare’s job is safe, at least for another week.
• It seems that Erding really is the difference maker with this team. We’ve won all our games with him on the pitch, and haven’t won without him.  I really hope this is just chance and not a total reliance.

PSG: So, our only absentees for the match are Guillaume Hoarau (injury) and Claude Makelele (suspension). It’s nice that there are so few, although these are important players. So, for our predicted lineup:

Coupet
Ceara-Camara-Sakho-Armand
Giuly-Ngoyi-Clement-Sessegnon
Luyindula-Erding

Remember that we haven’t won since Erding was injured, and he’s back against his former club…

Sochaux: Obviously Charlie Davies is out, as is Carlao, while Nicolas Maurice-Belay is suspended. That’s good news for us as I believe all three of them are considered key players. Le Groupe Sochalien: Dreyer, Richert – J.Faty, Perquis, Bréchet, Jokic, Josse, Dramé, Stevanovic – Mar.Martin, Mikari, , B.Gavanon, Nogueira, Boudebouz, S.Dalmat – Sverkos, Butin, Privat. I honestly have no idea what they’re lineup will look like, so I’ll tell you in the comments when it’s released.

My Prediction: Remember about Erding. 2-1 for PSG.

“However, an official LFP statement said the commission had reversed the decision at Sunday lunchtime and placed the PSG squad and staff in a 72-hour quarantine to ‘prevent any risk of infection, including among the opposing team, and to avoid any serious medical complications that could occur among players if the match were to go ahead.’

‘I would like to apologise in the name of the LFP to the public, to the clubs, to the supporters and the TV broadcasters,’ said LFP President Mr Frédéric Thiriez. ‘It’s clear that the players’ health should be our main priority.’

The date of the rescheduled match has yet to be decided.”

From the LFP Official Wesite

It just can’t get any worse for this club, can it? Two of our players have been diagnosed with H1N1. Yeah, that’s swine flu, the virus that’s been deemed a national emergency by President Obama. It is believed that the players are Mamadou Sakho and Ludovic Giuly, and rumor has it that Jeremy Clement may have been effected as well, which is just wonderful considering the injuries we’re already dealing with. Anyway, tomorrow we take on Olympique de Marseille in the French Classico, the North vs. South derby, the fake rivalry created by Canal+ that has taken on a life of it’s own. The Marseille Offside has been providing great coverage of all the prematch events. Check out their preview here, after which there is little to say. Both teams are under preforming in Ligue 1, OM sit in 5th place, while we’re…erm…hanging out in the bottom half of the table…haven’t won since end of August…etc, you’ve heard it all before. Marseille aren’t doing so well in the Champions League either (Gabi Heinze is their top and only scorer), but that’s beside the point.

PSG Info:
Sakho, Giuly, and possibly Clement (although he made the trip) have the pig disease. Hoarau is out for at least five weeks with a “badly twisted right knee”, Mevlut Erding is doubtful, although he also made the trip, and Willy Grondin has a hamstring issue. And of course Zoumana Camara is dealing with his deep vein thrombosis. This makes our formation a complicated thing…

Coupet
Ceara-Traore-Bourillon-Armand
Jallet-Makelele-Chantome/Ngoyi-Sessegnon
Luyindula-Maurice/Arnaud

I’m scared. Very scared. This just doesn’t look like a team capable of holding off Marseille, who seem to be injury free…

Le Groupe Marseillais
Gardiens : Mandanda, Andrade
Défenseurs : Bonnart, Heinze, Mbow, Taiwo, Hilton, Diawara
Milieux : Lucho, Kaboré, Cissé, Cheyrou, Abriel, Mbia, Valbuena, Ben Arfa
Attaquants : Niang, Brandao, Morientes, Koné

So I would assume that means the formation will look something like this…

Mandanda
Bonnart-Diawara-Heinze-Taiwo
Mbia
Lucho-Cheyrou
Kone-Brandao-Niang

My Prediction: Last time I got it right, so let’s go with 1-0 PSG. I know, I know, I’m delusional.

Think happy thoughts as you watch this video…


Liveblog


ALLEZ PSG!

Le Groupe Toulousain: Y.Pelé, Blondel – Congré, Nounkeu, Tabanou, Ebondo, M’Bengue – N’Gadi, Braaten, Sirieix, Machado, Berson, Mou.Sissoko, E.Capoue, Luan – Gignac, Pentecôte, Soukouna.

Le Groupe Parisien: APOULA Edel, ARMAND Sylvain, ARNAUD Loris, BOURILLON Grégory, CEARA Marcos, CHANTOME Clément, CLEMENT Jérémy, COUPET Grégory, GIULY Ludovic, HOARAU Guillaume, JALLET Christophe, LUYINDULA Peguy, MAKELELE Claude, MAURICE Jean-Eudes, NGOYI Granddi, SAKHO Mamadou, SANKHARE Younousse, SESSEGNON Stéphane, TRAORE Sammy.

My Prediction:
12-0 for PSG. No, that seems a little off. Maybe 1-0 for Toulouse.

So, I’ll be doing a COVERITLIVE thing tomorrow starting a little before the match, join in, and make it as fun as the last one!

ALLEZ PSG!

highlights – MyVideo

Every International break I am reminded how few of our players represent their countries. In fact, often those playing at an Under 21 level are the standout performers.

Malta U-21 0-2 France U-21
Both Mamadou Sakho and Younousse Sankhare started the match, Sakho wearing the captains armband and Sankhare the number ten shirt. Sankhare was replaced in the 58th minute by Steven Nzonzi.

Belgium U-21 0-0 France U-21
Sakho and Sankhare again started and in the same fashion, but although Sakho helped preserve the clean sheet, Sankhare’s best efforts could not provide the spark for a goal.

Benin 1-0 Ghana
Stephane Sessegnon’s Benin side beat a heavily favored Ghana in Group D after an 89th minute strike from Mohamed Aoudou. This win does little but salvage some pride for Benin as they are effectively out of contention for World Cup 2010 qualification. Sessegnon played the full match for his 23rd senior cap.

The Latest Products of the Rumor Mill:

• The management wants David Trezeguet. Good luck with that guys. Why would we need him anyway? A Trezeguet-Hoarau partnership would fail, they each need to play alongside a creative striker.
• Roma defensive midfielder Ricardo Faty ‘dreams of playing for the club’.  That’s nice Ricardo. Makelele replacement?
• Jerome Alonzo wants to come back to PSG. Somehow I don’t see this one happening, unless he pays the club and Willy Grondin (the latter just so he’ll leave).

In terms of interviews, Stephane Sessegnon talks to the press about his temper…

Stéphane, do you think you should perhaps take a little tranquiliser before you play to help you calm down on the pitch?
“(Smiles) I don’t need any medication! I’ve always given it everything when I play football. The only thing is… it’s that you have to use that energy intelligently, control it and also control my attitude.”

Guillaume (Hoarau) recently suggested installing a punching ball in the changing rooms…
“I really hate losing and I hate injustice. That goes for on and off the football pitch, by the way. To feel good within myself, I have to reach my goals. Otherwise I really struggle to contain my frustration. Guillaume might be right, I need to take it out on something when things don’t work out because in the end, I just penalise myself and the whole team.”

Is it only football that’s gets you so excited?
“I’m like that in everything I do. When I do something, I don’t ever want to have regrets so I give it 100 per cent. However, if I’m not good at something, then I can accept it. But I always want to give it my best, because that’s how I was brought up. Obviously it’s most noticeable for me, when I’m on the football pitch. You can’t give me a nasty reputation though or start calling me a nasty player. I have character, but I cop more knocks than I deal out.”
Do you think your opponents are trying to provoke you a little more this season?
“I’ve got a reputation for being a bit of a hot head and obviously they try and exploit my weaknesses. I lot try and get me to explode and I can feel it. Sometimes it’s insults, repetitive fouls, leaving the studs in a challenge, without the referee picking up on it. It’s unfair, but I just have to learn to channel my energy to rise above it.”
You still have a one-match ban hanging over your head with another yellow card in your next ten games. Be careful not to miss out on the Olympique de Marseille match!
“I don’t even want to think about it. You can get a yellow card for next to nothing so I’m not going to start worrying about. And if I start picking and choosing my matches, then that won’t help anything either and I’ll start playing worse. Every Ligue 1 match is important, whether it be Marseille or anyone else, a win is a win and it’s worth three points.”

And another ‘We’re getting stronger’ interview from Kombou.

Other Random Tidbits:

• “The conseil national de l’Ethique ruled that Antoine Kombouaré and Christian Gourcuff were to “ participate in a ‘educational role with children to promote the values of football, most importantly respect amongst the participants.’ The participation will take place in the respective club’s local league.” This is about the whole Maka argument–it’s their punishment.
• PSG have their traditional luncheon with the mayor of Paris.  Go here if you’re interested in pictures. I feel like they do a lot of these meetings with the mayor. Didn’t he visit training a couple weeks back?
• Injured players include Traore (hamstring), Hoarau (hamstring), Bourillon (lombago), Camara (deep vein thrombosis), and Erding (shoulder)

That’s all from PSG this week, as the club did not arrange a friendly for the break.

In a matter of hours, PSG will take on AS Nancy-Lorraine in our last match before the international break. PSG have gotten two points from the last three games and are sliding down the table–we need a win from this game, but it’ll be hard to come by.

Nancy: are in 9th place, with three wins, a draw, and three losses. They have been impressive so far with their high-scoring play and should provide for an entertaining match at the Parc des Princes. Their main scoring threats are Paul Alo’o Efoulou and Youssouf Hadji, with three goals apiece in Ligue 1 play . This is their probable starting formation: Bracigliano – Chrétien, Loties, Sami, Lemaitre – S. André Luiz, Berenguer, Ca – Hadji, Dia, Féret. B. Traore, Gunnarson, Gregorini, Macaluso, and Ouaddou are injured, Calvé, F.Ayité, Curbelo, and C. Diabaté were left out of the squad.

PSG: are in 6th place with three ins, three draws, and a loss. Zoumana Camara and Mevlut Erding are still out, so our starting lineup is a bit obvious:

Coupet
Ceara-Traore-Sakho-Armand
Giuly-Makelele-Clement-Sessegnon
Luyindula-Hoarau

My Predicition for the Match:
I’m going to have to go with a 2-1 win for PSG! Let’s hear it for optimism!

Allez PSG!

]]> http://psg.theoffside.com/team-news/matchday-8-psg-vs-asnl.html/feed 7 http://psg.theoffside.com/team-news/a-quick-post-before-nancy.html http://psg.theoffside.com/team-news/a-quick-post-before-nancy.html#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:17:38 +0000 Thomas http://psg.theoffside.com/team-news/a-quick-post-before-nancy.html Well hello again PSG Offsiders, the latest news is that our official 09/10 team photo has come out!

Pretty nice looking.  Anyway, tomorrow we take on Nancy at the Parc, but more on that later when the preview gets up.  Some new while you wait…

• Kombouare is “Looking for revenge”:

“We’re looking for revenge. The players know they didn’t play well against Lorient. We had a disastrous first half. The second half was only marginally better, but we still could have won. Apparently we didn’t do enough though. So we’re feeling like we want a bit of revenge and we want to start with a win against Nancy.  I’m often pretty hard on my players, so I can’t really have any regrets. When I looked again at the first half, I felt that Lorient could have had more than one goal and somehow we managed to equalise at 1-1. Obviously the second half was a lot better and we created a few clearcut chances but we were up against an excellent Fabien Audard. We didn’t deserve any better, but now we have to bounce back and play well against Nancy, but above all, we need the three points.  When you watch our last three matches, obviously we need to win. We’ve taken two points from three games and that’s not enough. Two points from nine is very average. Now we need points, as of Saturday. There will be a good team against us but PSG is PSG and has to be ready for that. We’ll need to play well to get the win.”

• Zoumana Camara will be back in training by the end of the week.

• Mevlut Erding will be running again next week–he’s been out longer than expected.

• PSG.TV is up and running again, with a great new site which seems to be free.

• Nice interview with my favorite Brazilian right-back on the eve of his 100th official PSG game.

• And information on the Gourcuff-Kombouare media scuffle that I mentioned in the comments of this post can be found here, here, and here. That last one worries me–he better not be suspended.

That’s all for now folks, eagerly await the preview.

This match annoyed me so much (and the streams were bad) that I ended up not paying much attention to it and watching Valenciennes-Marseille, but I still have a few observations. Luyindula better get back into his groove fast or he might not see a single minute when Erding gets back. He was dreadful on Saturday. Missed tons of very easy chances, tried to dribble with his poor ball control, and clearly disappointed is strike partner throughout the evening. Hoarau is definitely improving, Giuly continues to be spectacular, Sessegnon needs to get back into form, and I want Zoumana Camara to come back soon.

To conclude, let’s have some interviews:

Antoine Kombouaré (PSG coach)

“Given the way match unfolded, I think we can be satisfied with the result. It’s a good away point. We didn’t impose our game plan and we suffered a lot in the first half. We made it to half-time 1-1 thanks to a fair slice of good fortune. Our second-half display was very good and we could have won it. We finished the match better than we started it.”

Mamadou Sakho (PSG defender)

“It’s a good point, but we can’t be happy with the way we played. Lorient caused us a lot of problems and we can’t let that happen again. But it’s still a positive result and as of Monday, we’ll be concentrating on next weekend’s visit of Nancy. On Sunday at midday I’ll be at the Jardin d’acclimatation in Paris for the Virades de l’Espoir, to raise awareness about the fight against mucoviscidose. I’d like to invite all our supporters to come and support the cause.”

Guillaume Hoarau (PSG forward)

“I think it’s a good result. But we’ve only got two points from our last three games and that isn’t good – we didn’t play well. There was too big a difference between our performance tonight and that of last weekend against Lyon. We need to claim all three points in this sort of match. We were up against a very good side and we couldn’t get into the game. We still have a long way to go. Lorient caused us big problems in the first half even though we managed to equalise. It’s good for the confidence to have scored, even if I would have preferred not to score and get all three points. We’ve got a bad taste in the mouth about how we played.”

What did you guys think of the match?