Matchday 20, Stade de l’Aube, Ligue 1 – 2012/13
Be there for your team!
On the squad availability side, Samuel Umtiti and Dejan Lovren are
back after suspensions. Grenier still has his hamstring problem. Jimmy
Briand has half-a-brain thinking about moving abroad, and
half-a-hamstring in the hospital. Bakary Kone is off to his Burkina Faso
duties for the CAN.
Otherwise, the first team lineup should be quite full of regulars,
with even Gourcuff probably making a start. I do hope Vercoutre does
better than against Epinal. Oh wait, we were to forget about all that..
Possible Team Lineups
Troyes – Thuram-Ulien – Faussurier, Jarjat, Bréchet, Othon – N’Goyi, Obbadi – Camus, Nivet, Darbion – Jean
Lyon – Vercoutre –Réveillère, Bisevac, Lovren, Dabo – Gonalons, Malbranque – Lisandro, Gourcuff, Bastos – Gomis
Sweep the painful memory of the Round of 64 defeat against Epinal in the Coupe de France under the rug.
Now then! No more side dishes to worry about. – Just main course and
dessert. Ligue 1 and Europa League, that is! For our daily bread, Lyon’s
match against Troyes tonight needs clear heads and determination. The
opponents lie in the 19th position in the league, while OL is currently
second, and potentially 1st place occupants, pending a positive result
here.
There’s a LOT happening at the OL side of things. Lisandro Lopez met
up with Manager Remi Garde, and handed over his captain’s armband,
stating the need to focus on his own form and not shouldering that of
the entire team’s, officially speaking. The armband has been handed over
to Maxime Gonalons.
The transfer window cloud looms on our heads. Aulas has confirmed a
Besiktas offer for Jimmy Briand (though he’s still not match-fit). A
future prospect in the form of Fabian Monzon, acquired just this August
from Nice, has already been loaned to the Brazilian club Fluminense for 6
months. Aulas is in no mood to relent on the “strategy to cut payroll,
whatever the sporting cost may be” line of thought. To add to our
anxieties, Bafetimbi Gomis may well be out to a Premier League club this
month. Yes, this month. JMA has also been reported by the media as
having said if Gomis doesn’t want to leave the club, OL may sell
Lisandro Lopez.
This may be an interesting experiment to future sports/business
historians to gauge the effects of selling your best assets at the peak
of your sporting momentum. But it needs no mentioning that I
categorically hate what is happening here. This is the downside of
having to report to your public shareholders.
Troyes is a team struggling to get out of the rut. They feel trapped
in the relegation zone no doubt, already 6 points adrift of the 17th
place. And though the team has scored in every one of the last six home
games, Lyon needs an imperious performance worthy of its credentials and
reputation. Continuing whatever it has been doing in the first half of
the season should be enough.