OM-Toulouse: Match Review

First, thanks to Thomas for setting up the live blog during the game (as well as the later Lyon vs. St. Etienne game) and for the fans who were able to join us.  I hope the rest of you can make it in the future.

Let’s start with the pre-game festivities.  The game, which played on Halloween,  allowed the fans to show some of their festive spirit.

Before the match, both teams were given time to warm-up on the field– giving the press the opportunity to catch Gignac showing us what happens when he is caught thinking too hard. 

On a more solemn note, a moment of silence was held in order to remember and honor Robert Fabi, a former leader of the OM Association who died in mid-October.  Robert was certainly a life-long supporter of the club- he joined the association in 1960 and had been a board member of the organization since 1983.  Best wishes to Robert’s family, particularly his widow, Jacquie.

Now, on to business.  This game was important– for both Gignac and OM.  Gignac has cultivated a reputation of being an OM-killer.  Last year he managed to score a double and three years ago he scored the winning goal while playing for Lorient.  For OM, winning this game would have allowed them to maintain the momentum they established when they beat Nimes (2-1), Zurich (1-0) and Nancy (3-0) two weeks ago.  Unfortunately, it appears that any momentum that they had was disrupted by the cancellation of the PSG game.  So, lets look at the match in detail.

The Play-by-Play

At the end of the game, the players and staff were probably kicking themselves.  Not just because they lost, but because they lost when they so easily could have won.  From the start of the game, things seemed to be going our way– starting with Niang being pulled down by the Toulouse goalkeeper, Yohann Pele,  in the 8th minute.  Pele was quickly dismissed– and OM had the opportunity to play over 80 minutes with an extra man.    So, did OM take this opportunity?  Of course not.

For the next half an hour, Toulouse maintained their stubborn defensive strategy which OM could barely pierce.  But, of course it gets worse before it gets better, as Toulouse managed to pierce our defense and score.  To be fair to Mandanda, Moussa Sissoko’s free kick was beautiful.  It would have taken an amazing save to keep that ball out.  Of course, amazing keepers are suppose to make amazing saves– but I will cut him some slack and say that this was a reasonable goal to concede.

The good news is that OM seemed to have become energized by being down a goal.  They constantly looked dangerous, but rarely were dangerous.  The offense pushed forward, but couldn’t finish if their lives depended on it.  Lucho, in particular made several close shots which hit the posts or forced a save from the substitute goalkeeper, Olivier Blondel.

Unfortunately, Lucho’s hard work came to an end when he was injured by a tackle from Dany Nounkeu at the 64th minute mark.  Poor Lucho– he really hasn’t had an opportunity to show the fans he is worth all the money the club spent on him this summer, but that hasn’t stopped the fans from getting impatient with them (including myself, I will admit).  He couldn’t even walk off the field– it is always scary when a player has to be stretchered off.  He was replaced immediately by Kabore, and later in the game they showed footage of him being taken to the hospital in an ambulance.  It has been reported today that he has a bad sprain which will keep him out for up to four weeks, though he is expected to undergo more tests Monday to determine the actual extent of the injury.  That means he will definitely miss out on playing Zurich at the Velodrome this week and he may also miss the game at the San Siro on November 25th.  As of now, it looks like he should be back for the Real Madrid game at the Velodrome in December.

Even with Lucho injured, OM continued to push forward after the break, and had a penalty claim dismissed by the referee after Blondel made contact with Valbuena in an amazing save.  What are my thoughts on the penalty claim?   No chance the referee was going to dismiss two of their goalkeepers in the same game– especially if the call was questionable (which it was).

Now, to give credit where it’s due- Toulouse did manage some impressive defending (Heinze, Diawara– take notes!). The OM players appeared to start getting impatient and rash– and at one point it looked like one of Brandao’s high kicks (while bringing down the ball) kicked a defender in the face.  Luckily, the replay showed that it was not his head– only his chest.  And right when I started to get annoyed with him– Brandao scored.  All isn’t forgiven, but it is a start.

After scoring the equalizing goal, OM had several close chances.  Gignac was forced into fulfilling defensive duties as he had to block a Kabore attempt from the line. Brandao almost had a double two minutes from full time which Blondel again managed to save.

For video highlights, visit Thomas’s quick Saturday review here.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

We had some great chances and flashes of great plays, but in the end we couldn’t close the deal (again!).  I think for most of the game, we looked like the better team.  If we had lost all three points, I would have been devastated, but in a lot of ways Toulouse really did win.  To be able to come to the Velodrome, play with 10 men for over 90% of the game, to be ahead for more than half of the game and leave with a point– not too shabby for them.

Sometimes after games like this, it is easy to focus on the negative and even easier to write off our season– after all if we couldn’t beat a team under these conditions, then how can we expect to win titles?  And there are a lot of negatives fans could complain about– the coach staff’s inability to motivate the players, the constant injuries to players, the lack of finishing, the defensive errors and on top of that some of the players don’t even seem capable of putting on the right shirt for the game.

But despite all of those things, I think there is a lot of hope and potential in this team and its management.  If we were Toulouse, we would be happy with a point…but we aren’t Toulouse.  We are the biggest club in France. Sure, we have gained a reputation the last few years for under-performing (especially in key games), but that doesn’t mean we will always play like that.  The silver lining of this whole situation for me is the fact that we have a lot of potential we aren’t tapping into yet.  At least we are a team that has a lot of growth potential– and there is still a lot of time between now and the end of the season to figure out how to use it.  Of course, it would be great if Deschamps, his staff and the team could discover this in the next couple of days– especially since the 10 matches we play this month will be key in both our domestic and European campaigns.  But, even if we don’t find it on Tuesday or next weekend against Lyon, it won’t be the end of our season and it certainly won’t be the end of the world.

Looking Forward

As I mentioned before, OM has a decisive 4th match in their European group on Tuesday against Zurich at the Velodrome.  To prepare for this match, they had a light training this morning and will meet again tomorrow to train before the pre-Zurich press conference.  Regardless of the result on Tuesday, we won’t have any time to gloat or sulk as we will have to immediately jump into preparing for our away game against Lyon.  Despite the injuries to Lucho , Cheyrou (who should be back on Tuesday, I believe), Rodriguez and Rool I think we have a strong chance of not just winning both these games– but crushing these teams.

I’m ending this post with a little fan inspiration–Aux Armes!  Allez l’OM!

Category: French Ligue 1, Match Review

Tags: Brandao, fan chants, French Ligue 1, Gignac, Halloween, lucho gonzalez, Match Review, toulouse, Velodrome

Subscribe   The Offside RSS Feeds

Print

Share