Marseile 2 – 1 Caen, the debriefing…

By: Magnusson | August 26th, 2007

This was a tough and long week in Marseille. We lost our keeper to a ruptured achilles tendon. Then Albert Emon decides to be really tough on the “leaders” and makes our captain an example by putting him out of the group for poor performances. Apparently this “coup de gueule” he gave early tuesday had everybody shook. He alledgedly tolfd them to give their all out there no matter what and some players got their egos bruised. This is what it’s gonna take if we want to become a fixture in the first three spots at the end of each season.

He decided to make “the Albanian Stallion” Lorik Cana our captain for this game. Now I like Habib Beye as much as the next guy (even more than the next guy since he was captain of the senegal national team) but he’s been playing injured for six months last season and had less vacation than most when he went back home to play for the Afican Cup of Nations qualifiers in Dakar. So I think it’s better for Albert Emon to sit him out now and let him rest until the Paris Game next sunday where his leadership skills will be indispensable. Valbuena, Mbami and Oruma were also asked to stay in Marseille and Gragnic was put on the list for the first time this season as a reward for some great performances during the preseason wins. Niang and Nasri were back from National Team call ups even though both are still not physically able to play entire games.
We went to Caen with a new disposition and experimenting Laurent Bonnard on the right side (this could be very interesting during the African Cup of Nations when both Taiwo and Beye are gone) and he once again gave complete satisfaction. Our envy was different and the team showed very early on that they came to win and we could have scored many times during the first half but Niang missed two chances (with his hurt leg but still) and Ziani lost his confrontation with Caen’s keeper. So we had to wait the 44th minute and a Julien Rodriguez header for Marseille to take the lead.

When we came back from the locker room, Marseille showed the same envy and Cissé became somewhat extremely dangerous when he moved to the left and let Niang in the middle being fed balls by Ziani and Nasri. That spontaneous formation gave instant results at the 54th minute when on a service by Samir Nasri, Djibril Cissé outspeeds the defence and gives a ball for Nasri first who was too short and the ball came to Niang who, with his usual class, handled it very nicely and scored in an empty goal.

Marseille 2-0 Caen. And everybody starts to think aboput the Nancy situation again. The players themselves since they don’t stop attacking. And Mamadou Niang is close to doubling his personal score with a header but it proved too weak to be dangerous.
After the 65th minute, Caen started to be less scared of outr team and tried new things. This is when Albert Emon decided to let Zubar in for Nasri (yes you heard it right. He played midfield and played well!) and Zenden for Ziani. Marseille was giving Caen tit-for-tat on the attacking front with Zubar being himself very close to scoring the third goal with a too powerful left cross. At exactly this moment, “the Steve Mandanda show” began.
Our young keeper proved himself to be worthy of all the praise and hype by giving three or four world class saves during the span of four minutes, from the 69th to the 73rd. Even pushing one of the tentatives by Deroin on the bar. He was able to keep us out of trouble and earn the respect of everyone in five minutes. I truthfully knew he was good because of the U21 games I saw but I didn’t expect this much maturity and authority over experienced defenders Givet, Rodriguez and Bonnard. This kid is going places for sur but we’ll have to see how he’ll do in the Vélodrome wednesday night.
Marseille controled the game in the midfield and tried new things by replacing Mamadou Niang with Vincent Gragnic, hoping another midfielder will help Djibril Cissé score the goal he deserved so bad yesterday for his unselfishness. BUt sadly Djibril hurt himself trying to shoot one ball and had to limp until the end of the match. His elongation will cause him to miss Wednesday’s game agaist Nice. In the last three minutes, only three Caen players seem to be still believing in thier sides victory, Gouffran, Samson and Deroin. These three men showed the most initiative and it paid, although a little late at the 92nd minute, with a very nice goal by Samson on a Gouffran service. The U21 national team leader showed why Paris are hoping he signs with them as soon as Diané is out of there.