Well when I said expect a physical game I didn’t expect it to be like this! That being said I’m happy with the way we are playing Milan are having a hard time holding down Brandao and Niang. Yet our defense is certainly not up to par. Taiwo is having a hard time containing Pato, and Heinze seriously needs to step it up at this point I’d rather have Hilton out there. The rest of our guys are doing great out-muscling Milan every chance we get. If things continue as they are now then we can get a win out of this. Our pace is just too fast for Milan to handle. Close the gaps in the defense, have Lucho continue to feed Brandao and Niang and we will pull away. I just hope that Mandanda is okay as losing him would be a huge blow for us.

Sorry for getting this pre-game post in so late but today was hectic to say the least. Well I’m sure everyone by know is aware (spoiler alert!) that Liverpool have been knocked out *sobs.* Liverpool had their judgment day, well today its ours. I remember joking with a friend when the Champions league draw first happened that in the end Marseille and Milan would be separated by one point . Fortune telling aside, it seems that every time I am writing an article I find myself saying this will be our most important game of the season blah blah. Looks like we have another end all be all match ahead of us.

We all know how we got in this position, but I want everyone to think back to match day one. I remember it like yesterday getting home early to enjoy the new campaign in Europe. A team built by DD, a team with guys who had been to the final with Monaco – battle hardened veterans who had seen it all. On the other side a Milan that seemed to be lost without Kaka’ a team destined for Seria B glory. In fact going into that match many thought we would get the upset. I even remember the bookie odds for that match (no I will not disclose how much money I lost on that day). Well on that day the only battle hardened veteran that showed up was ol’ man Inzaghi a hard to swallow 2-1 loss.

Here we are today, Bordeaux and Lyon are waiting for us at the finish line egging us on to go 3 for 3 Ligue 1 style. Its just to bad that for Lyon and Bordeaux their race was downhill where ours is a marathon up Mount Kilimanjaro. Okay all joking aside I will say this I am an OM fan but I’m a realist. With the teams I support I never let fanaticism take hold to the point that I don’t consider the odds and whats at stake. I mean if you want a lesson in humility try being a Mets fan. The time to beat Milan was at Match day 1 that was our “Blitzkrieg” if you will. Now winter has set and Russia err I mean Milan is much stronger now and we going to have to deal with as Deschamps put it the strongest attacking force in Europe.

So what does this mean for us tomorrow? Well we are playing a team that has been on the up and up for sometime and not to mention playing them at home. Okay so I may be coming off as a pessimist but I’ve been watching my fair share of Milan games and its as if they have reinvented themselves. They do however have one thing going against them – some key injuries. Borriello, Flamini, Gattuso, and Jankulovski are all sidelined and will not feature in today’s squad. For our side injuries are: M’bia had that ankle sprain in the classico and Julien Rodriguez is still ruled out.

Defense of course will be key tomorrow that means no stupid challenges and I’m talking about Diawara. I hope that Deschamps utilizes a 4-4-2 tomorrow with Niang playing second striker. Causing all sorts of trouble like last game. Of course have Lucho as a sole attacking midfielder. Remember Lucho was absent last time we played Milan, and his presence will give a huge boost to our midfield both in offense and defense. For tomorrows game expect a overly physical 90 minutes out of both sides. Brandao has been doing a decent impression of a Mac truck so Milan’s defense will have their hands full trying to stop him. I only hope the refs don’t come down to hard for Brandao’s aggressive style of play.

Bottom Line: We lose tomorrow and yet another year will go buy where we fail to deliver on the European stage. Remember DD took Monaco to the finals he knows how to win big in Europe. To our credit our group hasn’t been easy but this is what the Champions League is all about. Look Milan lost to Zurich and we bent that team over 6-1 so there is no reason why we cant pick up 3 points. I remember hearing two analysts joke that Marseille were done in the Champions League after our loss to Milan. No one is giving us any credit but we are still in this. If we come out advancing to the next 16, it won’t be luck or by accident it will be because of the commitment and teamwork that we all see week in and week out from OM. So lets hop for something positive tomorrow. After all history is on our side.

No not the shity Steven Seagal movie but what happened to us in the Bernabeu. After watching the game a second time I believe the loss fairly belongs with Deschamps underestimating Madrid. In what universe do you start Abriel over say Ben Arfa, Valbuena, hell even Kabore? Now in my last post I said I thought Morientes was in shape -fit for this match yet I never imagined he would have started this game. I sincerely hoped we would have gone the way of one forward for another man in the midfield. Does anyone think we would have done worse if Ben Arfa or Valbuena had started over Morientes? Two players that are undoubtedly faster and have more of a defensive edge? Enough of me ranting lets get into player performances. Certain players today I admired, its just to bad the majority of them were wearing white (Ronaldo =p).

The Good:
Bonnart: Played a very physical game and really gave Madrid a hard time.

Niang: Had to make his own chances and did what was expected of him. The one and one opportunity in the first half was unfortunate. For the rest of the game he certainly was a looming threat to Madrids back four.

Lucho: Great passing I think its safe to say he is back in full form. Albeit it was hard to create chances with so many of our guys forced back, but still a good showing from him.

Heinze: He certainly was busy today and was one of the reasons we were even at the half. Earlier in the week he had admitted at being nervous returning to Madrid. In my opinion he seemed cool and collected.

The Bad:
Morientes: Literally a ghost on the pitch. I don’t have much to say because he simply didn’t do anything.

Diawara: At least he knew he made the mistake taking out Ronaldo in the box. However he was only given a yellow for the incident. So had he not made the atrocious challenge on Benzema, he would have never been sent off in the first place.

The So So:
Mandanda: Hear me out when I say he didn’t have that bad of a game. His performance in the first half was textbook goalkeeping. If only he didn’t jump over Rolando’s shot who knows what might have happened with the score. Bottom line – good fist half unlucky second.

Taiwo: Certainly displayed his strength on the pitch but rarely made it forward enough to create any chances.

Abriel: Yes he was outclassed today but at least he was persistent in his efforts.

Cheyrou: A lot of inconsistency from him. At times he was brilliant, but all to often he squandered excellent opportunity’s with sub-par passes.

Mbia: Great in the first half playing a very physical game however in the second half he broke down.

In the end we tried to go toe to toe with Madrid and were burned. Too much strain on our defense and we finally cracked. Reiterating my main point, we should have played the lone striker and opted for Ben Arfa or Valbuena in the midfield. Their speed would have been crucial especially in thwarting Madrids counter. All to often Abriel was overtaken forcing Diawara and Heinze into action. The end result was Madrid frustrated the hell out of our defenders and Diawara got himself sent off. All is not lost though, as Zurich picked up a surprise victory at the San Siro today. Essentially we are still in this competition except now are backs are really against the wall.

Hello to everyone I’m Rich and new to The Offside. Introductions aside lets get down to business and talk about the upcoming match at the Bernabeu. I follow both teams pretty evenly but I desperately want to see Marseille come away with points on this trip. Lets face it, if we want to keep our dream in Europe alive we need to get something from this bottom line. Looking back at our first CL match against Milan, we were a team still struggling to find our footing. Arguably the only part of our squad that had come together was our back four. Lucho was still coming off injury, Morientes said it himself that he was nowhere near 100 percent, and Brandao was simply running around the pitch knocking into people. Flash forward to our past game against Valenciennes, and I firmly believe that this team is as prepared as it can be to face Los Galacticos. Here’s why its important to remember that this is our first loss. It was bound to happen and its not as if we didn’t put up a fight. So now we have that off our shoulders we can fully concentrate on Madrid.

What plagued us in the beginning of the season was our inability to score goals (does anyone remember the horrible draw against Rennes?). Weeks ago Niang was the only one at the team scoring getting very little outside help. Now players like Lucho and Morientes seem in form and even Brandao is contributing (albeit with assists but its baby steps with Brandao). From the Madrid point of view this is a side that scores often and plenty. I’m going to be a realist here and say there is no way we can go punch for punch with this team. What I’m saying is we can’t play to their style,if we do then it’s over (cough cough Zurich). For you boxing fans out there think Ali vs Foreman, for those unfamiliar I’ll explain. When the two fought Foreman was the clear favorite, he was younger and stronger than Ali. Yet during the match Ali literally put himself up against the ropes allowing the stronger Foreman to continuously hit him, in fact Ali welcomed the barrage. After rounds of being on the defense and taking hit after hit, Ali countered ferociously. The exhausted Foreman having wasted all his energy, could do little to stop the counter resulting in Ali’s surprise victory.

Transform that to football terms – if we play a defense oriented game against Madrid, abandoning the 4-3-3- that Deschamps loves in exchange for a 4-2-3-1 we can achieve a tie and perhaps even victory. Allow Madrid to play into a defensive trap so to say, does anyone remember Chelsea last year at Camp Nou? Same principle simply frustrate the hell out of them defensively. Let Niang play alone up front, we know he has the speed and versatility to handle it. Putting Brandao in say in a 4-4-2 will be a waste, he will be outclassed by the likes of Albiol and Pepe I guarantee that. Our usual back four of Bonnart, Diawara, Heinze, and Taiwo will suffice. For our midfield have Lucho play AMF, Mbia and Cisse play the defensive role. On the sides have Cheyrou take the left side while giving Valbuena the right. I opt for Valbuena simply for his speed and play maying abilities over say Abriel or Ben Arfa.

Analogies and skepticism aside this is going to be the hardest match we have played the entire season. Agree or disagree but Madrid is perhaps the best team in the world right now. It will take all we have and then some to get a good result. When we went against Milan we were the underdog. Yet there was a minority that said Marseille may draw or even even win. The mood now though is that we have no chance to pick up jack squat. With so many expecting nothing from us we literally have nothing to lose. So lets make some headlines come Wednesday and surprise the football world. Play to our strengths and we just might come away with something.

Though his transfer destination does not affect OM on the park at such, it’s repercussions

With a wealth of big-club options at his door, which avenue should Mr Ribery embark on?

1 Follow the trend of recent years and head to the money pile that is aka the English Premier League to sample some Earl Grey (or a trademark Fergie earful if Manchester United was to be the destination), or possibely add to the growing list of former Ligue 1 players at Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea, or may I say – Roman Abramovich’s.

2 Join the Real Madrid circus to mix with football’s who’s who in Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Raúl, Casillas; And Most importantly, please Olympique de Marseille fan and current Real Madrid advisor Zinedine Zidane who has made no secret of his desire to see Ribery pull the Los Blancos shirt.

3 Replace Thierry Henry at FC Barcelona. A French-for-French swap. I don’t see Samuel Eto’o leaving despite the recent claims from his agent, and club honchos.

4 Remain at Bayern Munich and allow Louis Van Gaal to mould a new-look team around his play, rather then join a team with an established playing set like FC Barcelona.

5 The wise and safest option: return to Olympique de Marseille and help the club in its bid for European, Ligue 1, French Cup conquest.. and ultimately World domination

All jokes aside.

I strongly believe that a move to Spain would be most advantageous for our friend – and given his style he would fit into the Spanish game like a glove.

A mental depiction of the eloquence that Ribery is known for coupled with the creative flair and power of Kaká and Ronaldo respectively.. . If you disregard the financial pulling power that was required to acquire these names, and the final two season’s of Florentino Perez’s first tenure as club President – then the prospect of a Kaká, Ronaldo, Raul, Ribery combination is simply ming-boggling. Not to mention the possible purchase of fellow Frenchmen Karim Benzema.

As Olympique Marseille fans – do you have any preferences over Ribery’s next destination?

Over and out.

P.S Arent we all a little dissapointed that done of the expected signings materialised over the weekend?, I guess I’ll just have to keep twitching my thumbs.. *fingers crossed*

You may ask “Why the pessimism? My answer is simply that it has been a reoccurring scenario that comes and goes in periodical cycles as frequent as Berlusconi makes the Italian tabloids – each instance teasing heartened Marseille fans like myself.

In the past, nothing has ever developed out of the speculation besides endearing words from the Côte d’Ivoire international himself; directed at the Marseille club and its supporters. Though pleasing to the ears of the legion of sky blue fans, its been nothing but friendly communication from Drogba.

Just weeks since Drogba’s latest admission of his affection for Marseille (June 10th) comes a rather ambitious and undoubtedly fan-pleasing ploy from the man ready to step into the Marseille Presidential role vacated by Pape Diouf.

In the wake of the recent administration tragedy that is Diouf’s departure from the organisation – Jean-Claude Dassier, his imminent replacement (Diouf is irreplaceable) has declared a desire in re-attaining the services of the Ivorian goal-getter as he plots his assault on the transfer market in a attempt alleviate frustrations from disenchanted fans after the club’s unpopular decision of ousting Erik Gerets and Pape Diouf.

“Everybody wants it (Didier Drogba back at Marseille). We will see if it is possible and if we can afford it.”

But the question remains; will a Drogba-to-Marseille move ever eventuate?

And if yes – will we witness Cindarella (Marseille) reunite with her Prince (Drogba) in the near future?

Personally – I’d rather not listen to any further Drogba-to-Marseille rumours as all it does is remind football followers the Globe over of the French league’s financial inferiority in contrast to its English and Spanish counterparts.

And with money, or a-lack-of being the variable that determines a club’s level of proficiency or mediocrity – any news linking Drogba to Marseille should remain encapsulated until there is any likelihood of the player’s signature. In my belief that is for the better of the club’s reputation.

Saying that, the ambitious yet honest attempt from OM fans exactly a year ago prior to this date here in raising cash for the re-acquaintance of Drogba is truly inspiring and shows the fans hunger for silverware.

Incidently – Drogba’s one-time strike partner at Chelsea Andriy Shevchenko, currently returning to the West London outfit from a uneventful loan spell at former employers AC Milan has been linked to a move to Marseille. If wage demands are anything to go by, Shevchenko’s astronomical earnings will all but send OM into overdraft!

By the way, this is my first blog entry for this page, nice to meet you all! – I hope to re-acquaint myself as regularly as possible throughout the duration of the coming season, and hopefully beyond. Alongside Magnusson’s leadership I’m adamant that we can form a prolific partnership that likens itself to a possible Eto’o-Drogba combination we all wish for at l’OM. *dreams*

The french veteran came in free of charge from Rennes for the next six months after Guy Lacombe decided not to use him anymore (he has only played six games this season). When it was clear that he wouldn’t be used much more in the second half, José Anigo proposed his name to Eric Gerets who immediately said yes. Sylvain Wiltord has played in a lot of great clubs and definitely has the experience and weight in the locker room that can be lacking sometimes. His experience will be priceless. Not to mention the fact that he always has been exemplary in his preparation and physical fitness.

One of the things we can really worry about is the fact that he hasn’t not played a whole lot this season and could potentially take a little time to adapt. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.
For the record, Sylvain Wiltord will be wearing Samir Nasri’s old number.

After Robert Louis-Dreyfus’s incendiary comments from Wednesday, Pape Diouf also came out in the national press to let it be known that he was hurt. The President expressed his astonishment after reading the owner’s interview and reluctantly answered through La Provence to what he believes to be an unfair treatment. The President first expresses how disappointed he is to hear this from the press after seeing the owner last week. And then he lets us in in the power struggles that exist in the club. Robert Louis-Dreyfus’s communication expert, Vincent Labrune, aka The weezle, has longed for his job for a long time, and is now making a play for it.

What surprised Diouf and anyone with half a brain is the timing of this all. It could have been understandable when we were 19th last season, or when we were “out of the loop” three match days from the end, but now? When the club is winning points again and a new energy is being felt. It doesn’t make any sense.

To respond to his attacks on recruitment, Diouf defends his own results, pointing that when he arrived, the club was deeply in debt and that three years later we are making a lot of money. More importantly, ever since he came, we are back on every single level of decision when it comes to the Ligue and are out of courtrooms.

Speaking of Alex? His salary was a lot higher than Djibril Cissé’s. Gourcuff? It’s easy to talk about him nopw but Ben Arfa and Koné were much more coherent buys this summer. Podolski? Bayern was O.K. but the player doesn’t want to leave Germany. Adriano? He costs 1 million a month, making him the biggest salary with no insurance of performance.

This interview is very interesting. Pape Diouf states once more that he doesn’t need the money (It’s true, he was the biggest sports agent this side of the Premiership (Eto’o, Drogba, Desailly, Nasri, Dugarry…) and reminds everyone that he won’t be clinging to his chair. The man has class, can’t be doubted.

Now to Vincent Labrune, he sent a message, you don’t run Marseille from Paris, but from Marseille. This proved true many times over when Yves Marchand, Christophe Bouchet and others tried to take the daily plane from Paris to run Marseille half the time.

As for Eric Gerets, he too thinks these attacks are unfair. The Belgian technician,, in a short interview with RMC Radio, expressed the poor timing of the whole thing and stated that he believed Pape Diouf to be hurt but believes he won’t resign.

On December 2nd 2008, UEFA’s chief of communication William Gaillard said that it was “facetious to say, as we have heard, that it was the UEFA that asked for the banners to be retired. This is not how we operate and we have no power over the spanish police.” Basically, the spanish policemen took it upon their own to just tear down visiting team’s banners in order to… We actually don’t know why they did it! This banner has been going throughout Europe for twenty-four years and especially In Spain for the last four seasons. It is particularly puzzling to see that these policemen just decided it was their responsibility to take those down and beat up a few supporters in the meantime.

All in all, that night was one of the worst in recent history. Taye Taïwo, Steve Mandanda and another west-indian journalist, Thierry Trésor, of the local LCM news channel were greeted with monkey noises, racists insults and other amabilities spanish stadiae are known for. Mathieu Valbuena even got insulted by Javier Aguirre. But all that would have been fine(well, not fine but you know what I mean) if not for a supporter wrongfully arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for alledgedly pushing one policeman in the back and hitting another one with a chair. Of course there was no proof of this.
Santos Mirasierra (in the yellow hat) is a captain of the Ultras and has been for quite some time. One of the more famous supporters, who holds both french and spanish citizenships, Santos was documented as trying to be an interpret between the police officers and the supporters and is clearly trying on pictures to keep everyone’s heads cool as the Guardia Civile was charging.

NOw this blog has never been a place for something other than football. I decided after much thought not to go after Zenit St Petersburgh when Ronald Zubar received bananas while training on the sidelines and UEFA gave their stadium a slap on the wrist after an entire stadium’s racist chants. UEFA needs to grow some fucking balls. Here is a situation where a man who has travelled throughout Europe for the past 27 years to supports one team and who has been known to keep a cool head in very heated situations. A Marseille supporter, familiar enough with every fan group in this country that even the most anti-marseillais section of the Parc des Princes decided to put up a banner for the man out of his reputation. This man was wrongfully accused and was sentenced based on Televisiopn footage and the testimonial of two policemen trying to cover for their own radical actions while an entire stadium was chanting nazi chants.

UEFA first sentenced the Vincente Calderon to punich those nazis (”Sieg Hitler” is still a nazi chant right?) even though the players had nothing to do with it. But since the UEFA has no balls and michel Platini is still scared to come off as pro-french, they decided not to apply said suspension.
To scapegoat someone is hardly new but this is just a disgrace to that whole country and to their judiciary system. To hear Santos’s family cry out of frustration because of the translators incompetence (As I said before, they hold both citizenships and are bilingual) in translating the different french witnesses was heartbreaking.

The outcry in France has been unanimous as everyone saw the pictures and know OF Santos’s personnality. From Zinédine Zidane («They are retaining him when he hasn’t done anything. What they are reproaching to that man is far from the truth!») to Didier Drogba(“I still don’t understand why Santos has been emprrisonned for this long and most of all how he could have been sentenced to this long a sentence. This is totally disproportionnate! I am totally behind Santos and I want his family anbd him to know that my houghts and prayers are with them!”) and Franck Ribéry (“This is incredibly tough for that man, because he’s invested a whole lot in the club, this was a guy who came with a lot of pleasure in order to root for his own team. I know Marseille and their fans very well and I can assure you that they are real fans. This sanction is tough, three and a half years is a lot. I’ll be the first one to do anything in my power to make sure his sentence is lighter”), to most fan sections across the country, everybody has been sending in their support to the club and the family. Now all we can hope for is that Santos gets his wish and comes back to France for the rest of his sentence.

This affair has been a national matter in Spain where the Prime-Minister came in defense of Madrid’s crowd (the same one that was then sanctionned by UEFA for racism) saying that they “knew” how french fans could be (I didn’t get the memo!) while in France, in an attempt not to create problems with Spain, our ministers said they would not express themselves in the press and let the diplomacy handle those matters. Good job guys, really.

Anyway, at this point, i’m just venting and ranting as I’m particularly frustrated. My goal was to say that the better idea would clearly be to postpone this game somewhere else because let me tell you, Marseillais fans are hurt, outraged and the feeling of injustice is dominant. Nobody would want any retaliation to happen so I believe this Tuesday’s game should not take place.
Peace.

Steve mandanda was last season’s real revelation, its unsung hero if you will. he became our number 1 keeper and is now France’s too. It is why I’ve been particularly disgusted when the press decided to start lynching what they adored yesterday.

After two weeks and three consecutives matches (Caen, Tunisia and Paris Sg) where he was deemed “responsible ” for goals for the first time in his career, a campaign was launched. The pro-Lloris people started highlighting the fact that Steve was taking more goals than last season and that Lloris seemed better.

Well it was for me a relief to read last tuesday’s France Football where it is stated that statistically, Mandanda is by far the best keeper in the Ligue 1.
Indeed, Steve did 159 blocks in 13 games which places him i first position, followed by Christophe revault (117 in 13 games), Nicola Penneteau (95), Ruffier (92) and Letizi (83). This is as much a testament to his talent as it is to the lack of skill in our defense. our achilles’ heel is out defense, nothing new but if there’s ONE player who sure is doing his job, it’s Mandanda. Same thing with the NT, where even Phillippe Méxès can’t seem to play well and Gallas has been looking phantomatic lately. I really believe steve to be the best in the League by far, Lloris and Douchez being both extremely talented but clearly behind.

We’ll see how it goes since Mandanda is once again in top form, having been elected player of the Match in our game against Lille. Tonight he’ll be at Anfield and will be sollicited for sure. I believe he can help us get a point or more.

Anyway, here’s the video: