Lucky us!  We get three Classico features in a single season this year as Marseille and PSG the respective Ligue 1 and Cup of France winners battle each other for the first trophy of the season.  And while the Champions Trophy doesn’t bring the most glory- it is still a title to add to our legacy and having a title under our belts going into Matchday 1 in the league would be incredible!  But to do that will be hard with three of our strikers (Niang, Brandao and J.Ayew) suspended for card accumulation last season and Mbia being left out of the squad as punishment for temporarily going AWOL.

The good news is that Hatem Ben Arfa is in the squad – and before you all groan and start throwing insults his way- for all Ben Arfa’s faults, he has consistently turned it on against PSG.  He also has additional motivation given that the game is in Tunisia (where he has a lot of ties and families) and this is likely his last game for the club.  It shall be interesting to see if Hatem can beat his own record for the fastest goal scored in the Champions Trophy- any bets?    

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do a full preview today- but here are a collections of articles I recommend to prepare for the match today!

Ligue 1 Cheat Sheet: Get caught up with Marseille and PSG’s preseason activities

Ligue 1 Talk Preview

OM.net Preview (Warning:  In French)

Goal.com Preview

Tom Williams Preview for AFP

No has been the reoccurring word for OM in the summer
transfer saga. No you cant come back, no I won’t go to Liverpool,
no I wont extend my contract, no I wont come back for practice, and no
I wont play for Marseille. Our last “no” is in my opinion our biggest
concern as we are having an extremely difficult time finding a
striker. I have heard nearly everyone on the market being linked with
a move down south. From the overpriced Brandao esque Gilardino who
outright turned us down (thank god), to Huntelaar who tip toed around the fact
that he’s too good for Ligue1. It now seems no one wants to come
here. Unless of course you believe the reports of Drogba being lured back and
taking a HUGE pay cut , one can dream right?

So what exactly is the problem? Well to be honest I don’t know what
Anigo and Deschamps are looking for in a striker. In my opinion the
two were set on a certain type of player early on in the summer,
whomever the initial target was (cough cough Jimmy Briand), they are
now out of the picture. Now it just seems that Marseille will consider
just about anyone. The last thing this team needs is some prima dona
over the hill striker with some sense of entitlement. Give me a player
with the workmanship of Brandao but with a higher scoring rate and
I’ll be happy.

Now with the failure that was Morientes, I believe that Deschamps will
be under a great deal of scrutiny when it comes to landing another
forward. Because lets face it this time around if we want to progress
past the group stages of the Champions League, and not to mention
defend the title we need a more varied attack. Whatever our budget
for a talented hit-man may be, it is definitely far higher then in recent years.
Going by the names alone, it seems we are prepared to throw some serious cash around.
I just sincerely hope the we don’t squander the opportunity and sign a dud. As always tell me
your thoughts in our troubles landing a new striker. Is it the most important
position that we need to reinforce? Lastly out of all the players linked with OM,
who would you like to see the team land?

Another departure, another striker. We all knew this was coming no big surprise about this one right?. After all the very contract Morientes was signed under was put in place just in case he well… flopped. I think we’ve done an adequate job discussing the absence of Morientes on the pitch, I just wonder whats next for Fernando? I don’t see him staying in France because lets be honest he only came here on DD’s request. His wage demands would turn away most of the small clubs and put it this way, if we cant find a buyer for Brandao then Fernando has no chance in Ligue 1. Perhaps a return to Spain or abroad to the Americas? According to Fernando’s agent, Mexican side Club America have shown interest, especially after their own striker Salvador Cabanas was injured with a gunshot to the head.

Now as someone who’s been a fan of Morientes since I was a child, I’m disappointed to see him leave OM. I still expected the Fernando that wowed Madridistas at the Bernabeu and perhaps it took me to long to realize that was no more. However what never changed about Fernando was his workmanship and attitude. He never complained about his lack of play, and even at the very end proclaimed his desire to stay and redeem himself to OM fans. Now while Marseille and Fernando part ways, I still wish Fernando the best and hope he rediscovers his goal scoring ways.

Many of you may be aware of the Bonnart debacle that has been going on since the end of the season. Laurent has wanted more money and OM brass don’t want to budge on their offered figure. The resulting stalemate has led Deschamps and company to seek a right back replacement for the stubborn Bonnart. A whole host of names have been mentioned in the past few weeks such as Fabio Aurelio, and Juliano Belletti (both washed up veterans if you ask me). However it seems that the search for a right back replacement is now over as young Ossasuna fullback César Azpilicueta has put pen to paper and signed for OM! The highly rated right back had attracted interest from the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City but was persuaded by Deschamps to take his skills to the Velodrome.

I personally think this is a great signing for us and when you look it the alternative players on the market, Azpilicueta is a player with his best years ahead of him not behind him. It also shows that Deschamps wants nothing to do with the table scraps of larger teams when it comes to over the hill players. I will admit that I have seen very little of Azpilicueta’s play in Ossasuna but the fact that such a young player was part of Vicente del Bosque’s provisional World Cup squad, reveals what a talent he truly is. Reportedly the deal has cost OM around 7 million euros, a real bargain if you ask me. Now that we have our fullback replacement out of the way, I can only imagine that Deschamps will be putting all his efforts into landing us a quality forward. So far so good…

Hi guys sorry I haven’t been adding much to the site as all football news is strictly world cup and rightfully so. I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all the best to all of our internationals as the World Cup is now under way. As I write this, the France game starts in less then an hour and who knows, maybe Valbuena and Mandanda will get a start? Because we all know that Steve would have never let that goal in by the Chinese right? Besides our representatives in les bleus, we have Heinze representing Argentina, Andre Ayew for Ghana, Mbia for Cameroon, and of course Taiwo for Nigeria. So I hope all our internationals find success (so long as it isn’t against Spain which is who I’ll be supporting), stay injury free, and represent their nations to the fullest extent!

Ahhh the Middle East, where players go to retire with some dignity (and at the same time earn some big $$$). Bakari Kone’ adds himself to the list as he has just agreed to a three year deal with recently promoted Qatari side Lekhwiya. We all new this was coming and honestly a move to Asia does not surprise me at all. As our club is moving forward and looking to become serious contenders in both in Europe and at home, players like Kone must be pushed aside. Of course Kone’ is no stranger to the Qatari game as he spent a season playing for Al-Ittihad back in 2002 so by no means is he going into unknown territory.

So how will Kone be remembered at the Velodrome? Well of course we will all remember his tenacity, sheer speed and exceptional agility. But what I will remember the most is all the falling he did on the pitch. All too often Kone would have a game where he could not go more than 10 seconds without being knocked down by an opposing player. At times I felt sorry for him and other times it was just frustrating to watch. In the end though Kone had done his time at Ligue 1 he’s made a name for himself, became an Ivorian international and has been an aspiration for all short men throughout the world. Now its time to seek new challenges elsewhere and I wish him the best of luck. For now lets take a look at some of the shining moments of Baki Kone…

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Ligue 1 Talk is putting together a series of podcasts for season reviews on the teams in Ligue 1, including OM! It would be great if the Marseille podcast had a huge presence. One of our most dedicated commenters, Justin, who participated in the podcast a few weeks ago will be joining me- but I’d love to open up the podcast to anyone else who wants to critique, celebrate and get nostalgic over Marseille’s amazing season!

The Details

Time: 11AM EST/5PM Paris

Way to Connect: Skype (Dave Trotter from Ligue 1 Talk records our conversation through Skype- its free and easy to download)

Discussion Topics

Highs of the Year
Lows of the Year
Best Player
Disappointing Player
Players in general
Coach
Game of the Year
What is needed for next year
Thoughts about next year

Podcast Release Date: ASAP – typically Dave gets them up between 24-48 hours after we record them.  If there is technical problems and stuff he has to edit out (usually my fault) then it can take longer..

Let me know you are interested by commenting on this post and providing your actual email for me to contact in the provided section.  Don’t worry, your email won’t be posted to the public and you won’t receive additional spam!  If you can’t make the call, but have something to say about one of the above topics- feel free to include that in the comments as well and we will try to make sure those comments are discussed as well…

Okay guys so this is a new type of post I’m doing here and you guys are going to help out with it. It’s pretty simple, all I want for you to do is share your most cherished OM moments of 2010. Of course it goes without saying that winning the title makes everyone’s #1. What I’m looking for is specific goals, plays, wins, signings, whatever! Post them in the comments section (also if the moment is on youtube leave a link so I can include it in the main post!) and in the end we should have the defining moments of this season. So I’ll start off with two of my favorite moments this season:

But first, lets just get this out of the way: 2010 Champions!!!

The infamous Niang hat trick: I’m sure like many others I was surprised to know that our captain never managed such a feat and this was indeed the first of his career. While all three goals are beauties, that header is just something else…

Acquisition of Lucho Gonzalez: Something I want to go into more in-depth when I do my season review but to sum it up: It took a while for him to get used to the French game but when he did, he really made an impact with a total of 6 goals and 11 assists.

Last goal of the championship season:

Taiwo unleashes the thunder against Lloris to clinch the win:

OM 3-1 Rennes:

Niang schools the Milan defense:

The Unfortunate Milan tie:

The 5-5 match against Lyon. One of the greatest games I’ve ever seen:

Not being able to find any footage of the Lucho shirts in Paris, I think this should suffice!

Well those are my moments, what are yours? Post them below and give a little reasoning behind your choice(s). In the end we’ll have a nice collection of events to remember from such a historical year!

Niang celebrates scoring his first goal of the season vs Grenoble on Matchday 1- will he secure his scoring title with another goal today?

Wow, I can hardly believe that it is the final day of the season – it really doesn’t seem to that long ago that I had just joined The Offside crew at the start of the season.  And how far we have come since my first post- we’ve gone from defensive failures to the Ligue 1 trophy..

But before I become super nostalgic about the end of the season, we have to win this last game against the Ligue 1 whipping boys:  Grenoble.

MATCH BACKGROUND

This section will be short and sweet this week as there really isn’t much an interesting history between these two except that they met on the opening day of the season.  It was a great way to start things off:  a win, a clean sheet and goals from both Niang and Cheyrou.

Basically since that day, OM has won the league with a goal difference of +31, winning 13 of their 18 home games and managed to do it (most of the time) with style and flair.  Grenoble, on the other hand, sit at the absolute bottom of the table (20th in Ligue 1), have a goal difference of -28 and lost 14 of their 18 away games.

To be honest, the exciting stuff is scheduled for after the game- when the party starts to celebrate the team’s Ligue 1 title.  It turns out that France just declared its first case of alcohol poisoning- who wants to bet a few more of those cases turn up in the coming week?  I jest- The Offside does not condone or encourage binge drinking- we encourage you to celebrate, but be safe kiddies!

THE OPPOSITION:  GRENOBLE

As I mentioned before, Grenoble have been relegated for a while (since April 10th)- but they have put up some descent results in the last few weeks.  They beat next year’s Ligue 2 competition, Boulogne, 2-0 last week and in the previous weeks managed to draw with Lens and beat PSG 4-0.  In fact they’ve only lost 1 match in their last 5- so they seem determined to end their Ligue 1 days with some pride intact.  And what better scalp is there to take than the league winners at home to ruin their celebrations?

Unfortunately, Grenoble doesn’t have their full squad at their disposal, having succumbed to injuries.  One boost they have received is the return of defender Francois Marque which makes things a bit harder for Niang to secure his Ligue 1 Scoring Title…

TEAM UPDATE:  MARSEILLE

It’s pretty amazing that OM is ending this long season with almost a full squad at their disposal.  The only abscences are from suspensions- which will keep Brandao and Mandanda from taking part in the last game of the season.  The team selection will be interesting- as Deschamps has said he wants the players to “take pleasure in this last match.” But, he warned that “the party is beautiful, it is ideal to get things going on the ground first” – great advice as a lose would certainly put a tiny damper on things.  The question is, will Deschamps stick to his standard group or allow the players who have something to prove for the World Cup to demonstrate their abilities?  And as someone mentioned in the comments- will those players play it safe (to avoid injury) or take the necessary risks to show what they can do?

Niang will definitely be hoping to get a starting berth so he can solidify his scoring title.  He currently stands in first place with 17 goals- ahead of Lorient’s Gamerio (16 goals) and Lyon’s Lisandro Lopez(15).  And while the Scoring title wont entirely heal the wound of losing to Lopez in the French soccer awards- its a start!

STARTING XI PREDICTION:  Andrade; Kabore, S. Diawara, Mbia, Taiwo; Lucho, Cisse, Cheyrou; Valbuena, Niang, Ben Arfa

Now the sad part…as this game may be the last game for a few players.  Nothing is certain yet, but I expect Kone, Morientes, Rodruigez (who may be retiring), Taiwo and perhaps Ben Arfa may be moving on.

Brandao gave himself a much needed makeover when he cut off his long locks this week- can’t say I’ll be sad not to watch his sweat drenched split ends bounce around as he misses shot after shot next season.

It would be interesting to know what caused him to finally undergo such a radical change- perhaps the French sense of style and fashion has finally rubbed off on the boy from Brazil?  Regardless, we won’t see Brandao’s do in action until the 3rd match day of next season as he was suspended for an extra 3 games for his flying elbows.  Keep in mind he was already suspended for this weekend’s game.  So, he will miss the Champions Trophy (versus PSG, the French Cup winner) in Tunisia as well as the first 2 games of of Ligue 1 next season.