Welcome to the "Frog," my little piece of cyberspace to talk about my passion - le foot (or soccer for my North American friends) especially anything around French football. Of course I will have some guest contributors that might want to discuss other aspects of footy!
I support Les Bleus, Arsenal and PSG but really just love watching, analyzing and following the beautiful game.
"You have to trust your teammates, always. If not we are lost."
So the defending Ligue 1 champion continues to sell off their best players. With Giroud and his 21 goals leaving this past summer to greener pastures of the EPL and Arsenal, now their young central defender Yanga-Mbiwa is also heading off to the EPL. He will be playing for the Magpies of Newcastle. Side note, the Toons are starting to get a real French flavor - Debuchy having come over this transfer season as well. They will join Cabaye, Marveaux, Obertan, Amalfitano and Ben Arfa in the north of England.
Might have looked good in Arsenal colors
But back to the defending Ligue 1 champions, they have also tried to sell off their best midfielder - Belhanda. Of course there is noise out of the south of France blaming the players and their agents for running from the club. The reality is that Montpellier is a small, regional styled club. The fact they won Ligue 1 was based in large part on their youth system and their ability to develop home grown talent. Everything came together last season to see them win the title. Let us not forget that they were in Ligue 2 not too long ago either. With their current fire sale, I think they might be heading back to Ligue 2 in a few seasons!
I think that Montpellier missed out on an opportunity, had they held on to their talent. Maybe even looked to add some mid-level talent they could have had some success in Europe. Maybe even fantasized of coming out of the group stages at the Champions League, or at least being competitive in the Europa League. Instead they seem to be treading water, hoping to stay up in Ligue 1, had no ambition in Europe.
Alas, this is endemic of Ligue 1, at least any team not named PSG or Marseilles - cannot afford to keep players once the club finds success (look at what happened with Lille).
Oh and...hey Wenger...why didn't the Gunners make a bid for the central defender???
What an ending for Ligue 1, not as crazy as what happened across the channel a week ago with Manchester City, but still a crazy ending. With Montpellier only needing a draw away to already relegated Auxerre and PSG needing to win versus Lorient and hope that Auxerre pull of the upset, it made for a tense last day.
Enjoy it while you can..
It started off well for PSG with Auxerre some how going up 1-0 versus Montpellier...and then all hell broke loose. Toilet paper, tennis balls and other objects rained down onto the Auxerre pitch from idiotic fans protesting the storied French side's relegation. This caused delays, teams being pulled from the pitch and questioning whether or not the game would continue.
Meanwhile, PSG decided to once again make things difficult and give up a goal to Lorient while watching their golden boy Pastore miss 2 chances. PSG finally woke up and found a way to a 2-1 victory, but because of the shenanigans in Auxerre the game was delayed so PSG was able to watch as Montpellier fought back themselves to a 2-1 victory. With that, the club from the south of France are crowned Ligue 1 champions. PSG only have themselves to blame. All one needs to do is look at the 6 dropped points versus Nancy, shouldn't a club of PSG's stature and aspirations be able to at least split the games against a club that was in a relegation battle most of the season?
PSG has announced it will increases its budget by 50m Euros to 200m Euros for next season, putting in the same neighborhood as the likes of Intern Milan. Clearly they are going to look to make inroads in the Champions League. But they must also demonstrate a greater ability to manage a championship - and cannot drop points uselessly.
On the flip side, I fear that Montpellier will suffer from its success. They stand to lose some of their key players heading into a Champions League campaign...might be ugly.
Congrats to Montpellier for winning Ligue 1, enjoy it while you can!
Ligue 1 goes into its winter break with the same leader it had to end last season - Bordeaux. Not really a big surprise considering Laurent Blanc's side was able to retain its core prior to starting the new season: in particular ensuring that Chamakh remained with the squad, who was heavily recruited by the North Londoners.
Here are the standings as we head to the winter break:
What is surprising are the two clubs in the other Champions League spots - LOSC and Montpellier. Okay maybe not a huge surprise that LOSC Lille is contending, especially considering their recent run - scoring 23 goals and conceding only 3 in the last 6 matches (all victories). Which included a 4-3 defeat of Olympique Lyonnaise. Armed with the strongest attack in Ligue 1 - 37 goals for, as well as two of the top 3 goal scorers in Ligue 1 - their Ivorian Gervinho leads with 11 goals to his account. Their defense is not too shabby either, backstopped by the former PSG keeper Landreau and the defender Rami, add to this the defensive midfield play of Mavuba and you have a very balanced and dangerous squad. Can Lille make a run at the title, I think so. They have some nice veterans in Frau, Landreau and Rami as well as some up and coming talent in Gervinho and Hazard. They might still be 1 or 2 veteran players away from challenging Bordeaux, but they will not go away quietly in the second half of the season. Montpellier, on the other hand, is a surprise. It would be hard to fathom the freshly promoted side to do much more than fight for their spot in Ligue 1, but instead they have surprised many sides, including a famous victory against Lyon 2-1. I guess I should not be surprised since they were able to come back and draw against PSG in the opening game of the season after going down to 10 men...they have shown this fighting spirit through out the campaign. They are composed of many players you would need to google to know who they are...but they do have some hidden gems like the French U21 player - Karim Ait Fana. I do not think they have enough star power to stay in the lofty position they are currently holding. However if they get to the Europa League the season will be widely successful.
The other surprise, more negative, is the madding inconsistency from the former Champions - Lyon. Granted it is difficult to imagine a club with the level of turn over they have endured over the past seasons - Essein, MDiarra, Abidal, Malouda, Benzema, Ben Afra, Juninho, Fred, Alou Diarra, Coupet and Squillaci to name a few, it is a challenge to maintain a high degree of success. Granted, Lyon are still only 4 points from second place, so nothing to panic about. However, conceding 5 goals to Marseilles, 4 goals to Lille and 4 to Nice is not the sign of a team ready to take back the title from Bordeaux. I think Lyon remains a work in progress. They do have a future star in Pjanic as well as a solid youth in Cissokho and Gonalons and the French #1 keeper in Lloris, so there are some good pieces to build around. However I think they will need 1 to 2 more seasons before they can aspire the the lofty goals of past. Surprisingly I think they have played very well in the Champions League, leading what was a very difficult group only to lose out on the #1 spot on the last day.
Best Match: Speaking of Lyon, my vote goes to the crazy 5-5 match with Marseilles. Of the 10 goals, maybe the last Marseilles goal was "cheap" otherwise all quality strikes, fantastic runs, great individual efforts...just a crazy and fun game...some highlights:
Best Player: There are some good candidates - Gourcuff is having a solid first half guiding Bordeaux to a strong 1st place and second on his team in goals. Gervinho I already mentioned is leading the entire league with 11 goals and helping put LOSC in second place. But for me the best player, the one that is playing well and is the most important for his side is the already mentioned Pjanic. He only has 3 goals for OL, but his overall creative play clearly is what is driving Lyon, I think without him Lyon would find themselves further down the table. He will become and already is one of the most sought after young players from Ligue 1, while I hope he stays with Lyon for many seasons, I cannot imagine how he will not be heavily pursued by the likes of Chelsea, Milan or Manchester United. Too bad France could not convince him to represent Les Bleus...which they attempted to do after he had played for the Luxembourg youth sides and is now a full cap Bosnia international.
Best Manager: I will have to go with Laurent Blanc. Yes an easy pick, but the way he has managed both domestic ties as well as the Champions League...and add into that the constant speculation of whether or not he will be asked to manage Les Bleus or if he will replace SAF at Manchester United...demonstrates that he is a strong manager with a bright future.
So what about the second half? I think much depends on transfer window...and more for what might be leaving than coming in. If Chamakh heads to the Premiership I think that Bordeaux will have a much more difficult time holding on to their spot. If Blanc can hold on to their roster they will be very difficult to catch. If PSG can get healthy - aka Hourau - they will surprise some in the second half. It will be interesting to see if Lille can keep up their form, I think they will. OM have much to prove, they might need to add some veteran talent in the transfer window to bring some consistency.
Second half should be very interesting, but in the end I think the Winter champion will be the league champ.
Ugh so frustrating, PSG playing a 10 man Montpellier with over 60 minutes in the match, get a 1-0 lead and then decide to pretend they are Les Bleus and give up a last minute goal off a set piece. PSG looked very dangerous for the most of the second half, granted they had a man advantage, but they demonstrated an ability to attack, string passes together, defend counter attacks, and overall looked dangerous in front of the goal. Sessegnon was pulling the strings, Guily was dangerous on the wing, and Erdinc looked very dangerous up front. The Franco - Turk created himself a number of threatening opportunities in front of goal and was unfortunate to have not put a goal away. The main area of frustration for me was PSG's inability to put in a second goal after dominating the match. They seemed satisfied to have a 1-0 lead with a one man advantage, rather than going for the coup de grace and getting the second goal PSG sat back....and got burned.
I realize it is the first game of the season, and this game was on the road. So any time you get a point from the road you need to be satisfied. But when you play a team that was in Ligue 2 last season and have a 1 goal lead, late...you need to bring home the fill 3 points! And please put a defender on the far post!!!! It does leave a bad taste....
Ah great defending....come on! Last minute of the match, PSG should have had every player DEFENDING!!!! Then again Coupet should be very accustomed to this, since Les Bleus could not defend a set piece for him either.
