There can only be one Olympique…

By: Magnusson | November 10th, 2007

Great! Just what we needed! The heavyweight of the Ligue1 if ever there was one. L’Olympique Lyonnais will be receiving L’Olympique de Marseille in what will be, no matter how low our ranking is right now, THE most talked about and watched match of the weekend if not of the season. The two Olympiques are France’s representatives in this year’s UEFA Champions League have had, as you know very dissimilar seasons so far and everybody is just expecting Marseille to be mauled at the Gerland. I’m pretty sure -or at least I’m praying really hard- that our players will be playing as hard as they were this tuesday not to get humiliated over there.

Olympique Lyonnais – Olympique de Marseille
Sunday November 11th @ Stade Gerland in Lyon
09.00 PM on Canal+

You know they say how kids in kindergarden hit on the girls they like because they don’t know how to properly express their feelings yet? Well this is how I feel about Jean-Michel Aulas and Pape Diouf. They just have this odd relationship of love and hate that I can’t really explain myself. Both these men are beloved in their clubs and by their fans because they have an “I will do anything for my club” attitude but they’re not really popular ousitde those circles. That is a lot more true for Jean-Michel Aulas who communicates a lot less diplomatically than Pape Diouf most of the time. There hasn’t been a week in years where these two have not been exchanging amabilities.
They go at it before the games the same way Gary Payton and Michael Jordan would have in their heyday. These conversations via newspapers have become even more entertaining than the games themselves.
This week doesn’t make exceptions. Jean-Michel Aulas came out swinging in l’Equipe and said

“I dug out some press clippings from the beginning of the season and apparently Marseille has the better team and have had the better recruitment. So Sunday will be extremely difficult for us.”

This was said in a very funny way to poke fun at the press that was already predicting Lyon’s first trophyless year in a long time. Pape Diouf didn’t seem particularly worried or worked up about the declarations, quietly replying that:

“Jean-Michel Aulas is playing his part when he makes such a declaration. If I understand him correctly, he was talking about the early predictions this season that were placing OM and OL at the same level. We know Jean-Michel Aulas and his way of doing things. Just look at the Champions League. He’s only been talking about the UEFA Cup to prepare his coup because you all know that he only thinks about the Champions League and the Knockout Stages. So for him to prepare the match against OM the way he did perfectly fits his character.
We will go there without taking notes of his comments because for us this is not the most important. Wether it is Lyon, Nancy, Strasbourg or Bordeaux, the objective can only be to take pick up points here and there. We shouldn’t be focusing on the fact that it is Lyon and that we are predicted not to get any points there anyway. This is not our state of mind nor our way of thinking. Going to Lyon also means going to pick up some points.”

Ah! These two just may have lost the flame they had the seaons before when they were bickering over Franck Ribery and the passion just seems to have been lost recently. I mean, Aulas didn’t have to go far to harm us since Marseille is already 19th of the Ligue and 20 points behind. He was uncharacteristically gentle with us
But maybe Karim Benzema can give him a few ideas. One of the Generation 87 leaders with teammates Hatem Benarfa and our very own Samir Nasri teasingly said

“Samir wants us to play together one day. He can come to Lyon if he wants to. For me personally, I’m great in Lyon, in the best club in the country and one of the European greats. If he decides to come to Lyon, that would be great. He is a good player and I get along with him great.”

Hey! Look at little Karim Benzema trying to destabilize his French NT roommate (that was news to me too) and P.E.S. partner. Nice! I like it when players tease each other just before meeting one another. They’ll have all the time in the world to talk it over when they are in Clairefontaine next week. We all know the only way for Karim and Samir to play together is if “La Casa Blanca” decides to pick them up both in the summer of 2009. In the meantime we’ll have to settle for National Team matches.
Samir and karim like playing together and Samir gave him a dozen assists when they were in U17 and his first goal as a french international. They are friends but won’t play together in France. That won’t happen, period.

Speaking of Samir Nasri, He will be celebrating his 100th match in the Ligue 1 and he just turned 20. What an accomplishment when you see the many injuries he’s had in the past. In comparison, Karim Benzema has played 53 games and Hatem Benarfa a measly 41. I’m sure we won’t care when they retire with a few World Cups, Champions League trophies and Euros under their belts but damn these kids are precocious. It seems just like yesterday when the kid everybody was talking about replaced Bruno Cheyrou at the Bonnal in Sochaux. His first match at the vélodrome was against Lyon a week later and he was playing left midfielder. We won 1-0 that night and Fabien Barthez was back to fabulous Fab that night. Samir was already on his way

Let’s get back to the game though. Marseille has obtained two wins and a draw at gerland last season but were humiliated 4-1 in the Vélodrome. Things are not the same this year. What was really great about our last season is that our team had soul and leaders and a style of play that was the most pleasant in the league. Not only were we playing to win, we were playing beautifully. Joga Bonito if you will. This year, after Franck Ribery left, Habib Beye , Mickaël Pagis and Toifilou Maoulida followed suit. We made a mercato that is still on paper pretty impressive but has yet to give us any other real satisfaction than Steve Mandanda . Our recruits are apparently shook by the fans and aside from a few encouraging games, we have yet to see how we will not be relegated at the end of the season. The most intriguing being our ability to completely throw a game in a few minutes.Joga Feio if you will…

Now marseille will go at the gerland without any pressure. Of course we need the points but this is Lyon. It would be foolish for us to believe otherwise. Wouldn’t it,
Well, there is always hope and Lyon are tired. Not that we’re much better but we just seem to be on a physical high right now. And never mind the two losses we sustained, our way of playing has been more and more attractive to the fan that I am. We lost to Porto but dominted that game outrageously but Lyon had to fight the last two games. Against paris, in what is one of the best games this year, they struggled til the last minute, same thing against Stuttgart this wednesday in the Champions league. Jérémy Toulalan will not be reporting for duty and Alain Perrin wants us to belive Karim Benzema won’t be playing sunday. Sure Alain, they said the same thing about Ronaldo. One thing is for sure, we won’t go there and offer no game. As much of a defensive player Eric Gerets was, his style of coaching is pretty offensive-minded. We might as well play these guys on our strengths rather than rely on their weaknesses and hope they get tired. Kinda like what Paris managed to do for 80 minutes at the Parc des Princes.

Our squad is quietly getting out of the infirmary with only Karim Ziani still injured. Jacques faty will be up to the task and so is Mamadou Niang. His injury on tuesday was just consecutive to a contact but he’s fine. Gaël Givet, whose back is still hurting said he would rather train outside and gain some playing time with his partners than stay in being treated. Everybody should be fine when we come back from international break. I’m not talking about Carasso though.

The group for the match has been communicated

Goalkeepers: Mandanda, Hamel
Defenders: Givet, Rodriguez, Taiwo, Bonnart, Faty, Zubar
Midfielders: Oruma, M’Bami, Cana, Cheyrou, Nasri, Zenden, Valbuena
Strikers: Cissé, Niang, Arrache, Ayew

Marseille could be playing with the same exact lineup as in Porto with Ayew Pelé still taking over Djibril Cissé’s spot and allowing Mamadou Niang to wonder a little bit more. Given how prolific Niang has been lately (scoring four times in the last five games), it is a great decision to let him be our first offensive option.