Marseille gets the job done…

By: Magnusson | February 13th, 2008

On their first European match of the year, the Marseillais team had to face an always hard to manoeuver russian side of Spartak Moscow. In what will be one of the hardest weeks Eric Gerets has faced yet, Marseille started with a diminished squad (Julien Rodriguez and Ronald Zubar, added to Karim Ziani) and some returns (Samir Nasri, Jacques Faty ad Mamadou Niang coming back from the African Cup of Nations. He played against Nice but he seemed tired at the end of that match).
Gerets started up with a 4-4-2 that seems to be finally getting the job done with Steve Mandanda defending the net once more, a line of defense with Laurent Bonnart on the right and Taye Taïwo taking back his spot over Juan Angel Krupoviesa (that has been the case ever since he came back from the Afcon as well, looking like a new player despite Nigeria being more than disappointed with their run) on the left side of the defense. In central defense, Gaël Givet, who has been part of the four Marseillais called up for the France A’ squad (alongside Cissé, Nasri and Mandanda), was paired with Jacques Faty, coming back as well from injury in his second straight consecutive match. Just in front of them will be Lorik Cana and Benoit Cheyrou locking up the midfield. The Captain has been one of the early satisfactions of the season and Cheyrou is finally looking like the man Manchester and Liverpool were jocking so hard when he signed for Auxerre. He’s been having a renaissance after a few hesitant outings and looks sharp as ever in there.

Also in there would be Samir Nasri coming back after being injured in the France A’ match against The Democratic Republic of Congo last wednesday (that injury made him miss the derby against Nice thgis weekend) and now right-side starter Mathieu Valbuena. Up top, as expected were Djibril Cissé and Mamadou Niang whose friendship will be more than precious to the team I believe.
When the game starts, it becomes difficult to believe that the russian side is still in their pre-season as they make it virtually impossible for the defense and Cana or Cheyrou to get balls to Nasri and Valbuena, let alone Niang or Cissé. Around the fifteenth minute, Taïwo serves us one of his meteoric free-kicks that end up a few centimeters from the right-post of Pletikosa’s cage. Just two minutes later, the russian midfielder Mozart shows us his own left-foot abilities and kicks a powerful shot that could have changed the face of the match. After a few minutes of very pleasant display from both sides, the russian left-winger Maidena tries his own luck at a free-kick and misses a pretty dangerous shot at the 25th minute.

In the continuation of that action, Samir Nasri gives us another display of what his season should have been (you know if you don’t count the multiple injuries, the meningitis-like virus and his own over-eagerness to come back) and gives Djibril Cissé a beautiful cross that leaves everybody dumbfounded since the blond-bearded man headed it so hard only an exceptional keeper could have saved it. Pletikosa is just that, having a very strong left hand, denying us once more the net.

It’s at that exact moment that it seemed pretty clear that should Marseille keep pushing, the goal we were looking for would come sooner or later. And that’s the moment both Valbuena and Nasri choose to step their respective games up and technically surclass their opponents.

But from that domination, it became a little more flagrant that our defense and middfield was not giving out forwards enough balls. The russians started playing counterattacks and were damn good at it too. Brazilian forward Wellington coud have scored if his strike was not so weak aftyer an interessting run at the 32nd minute. That would be the last time we’d hear from him in a long time.

The rest of the first half is all Marseille and righfully so. The Vélodrome started pushing as if it was not half-empty. Around the 35tth minute, Jacques Faty served Djibril Cissé with a great ball that the reborn killer crossed too far right. This was the first time in the game that Faty had a note worthy play, being the obvious weak link on the Orange team. Still not totally fit, that was understandable on his second game in four days. Aside from a shy attempt by Valbuena at near the end, both teams went quietly in the locker-rooms and Jacques Faty knew he was done for the day.

Back from half time, Charles Kaboré came back in his place, Lorik Cana sliding to central defense as he does so often with the Albanian team. Kaboré paired with Cheyrou would bring some much needed pounds to that midfield that looked less mighty with Cana and Cheyrou having to cover for Faty.
Kaboré proves himself to be the instant impact-player Gerets was looking for as he became the de-facto Kapellmeister of the team allowing Nasri and Valbuena to be real loose with their defensive tasks.
Marseille seemed like the only team playing at the time since the russians switched strategies, maybe because they’re still tweaking theirt team and stuff. They decided to play with their entire team in their side of the pitch, and that strategy looked like it could work. Indeed, even with Marseille obviously being better, they did not seem to mind leaving us the ball. Djibril Cissé was the man getting themore balls out of that hole situation, getting countless balls his way from Niang, Nasri, Valbuena and Cheyrou.

At the 50th minute, he is offered a pass by Mamadou Niang and that shot misses the cage by a hair. Less than five minutes later, he’s alone running towards the goal and very intelligently waits til the last minute to flick it over the keeper but maybe waited too much. That well though-out play could have been a symbol of the match if the it had ended scoreless.

Three minutes later, in an attempt to get Cissé, the tattoed boy stretches as wide as he can to get the ball and gives it back to Samir Nasri who tries to center it back to him. The cross that looked to high for Djibril Cissé was perfect for Benoit Cheyrou who scored one of the first headers of his career and his first goal in the Vélodrome in a European competition. The deliverance was instant. and the Marseillais didn’t let their guard down and kept attacking.
At the 68th minute, after afew other tries, Benoit Cheyrou crosses it in the direction of the box, and finds a Taye Taïwo who has never been so high in his life and scored a powerful header to double up the score in less than seven minutes.
At that point the only important thing was to make sure the russian did not get to score and keep the hope alive at home next week. And the team did an amazing job.

At the 79th minute, Djibril Cissé and Mamadou Niang are both covered by the russian defense and go alone to face the keeper. The french international, who would have deserved to score for all of his efforts decided to give the ball to his senegalese counterpart and Mamadou Niang scored what may have been the easiest goal of his career (even though LOrik Cana’s Cross on suinday gave him an easy goal as well). The two buddies went to the corner to make sure they were still up on the HOV choregraphics with the “Roc Boys” handshake. It was good to see them happy after all the turmoil and all the hate Djibril Cissé has gone through and how all the press wanted to pit them one against the other. The kids made me proud.

After that third goal, Gerets knew he needed much ecxperience and got Wilson Oruma and Bolo Zenden in on the party. The two veterans made sure to keep the ball in the russian zone and could have both scored or made score in the last minutes.
Smooth sailing till the last whistle blow. 3-0 ain’t too shabby of a pillow if you consider the Luzhniki Stadium can host 90.000 people when full. I doubt it will be full but we all remember Dniepopetrovsk (is this how it’s spelled?) and russian sides should never be overlooked in winter.
Marseille can now focus on Paris….

THE GOALS