St Etienne 2 Sochaux 1
By: Jonathan |
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Sorry, I got the time of the game wrong in the last post – it was at 19h, not 21h. Oops! Anyway, the main thing is that St Etienne won it, even though the visitors, by all accounts, had the better of the second half. Manager Laurent Roussey was really disappointed with the way the match ended, commenting later that “if we play like that, our main aim should simply be making sure we stay up, as soon as possible.” Brief highlights here:
You have to say that penalty decision was almost as generous as the one that went against St Etienne last week. Apparently the guy who scored it, Pascal Feindouno, could be off to a club in the United Arab Emirates. Unlike many other players, he doesn’t try to hide the fact that the key reason for the move would be money. “Three million euros a year, it’s incredible!” he said, with €€€ signs flashing in both eyes, possibly.
Category: St Etienne Team News
A new record
By: Jonathan | 2 Comments
There was more evidence of St Etienne’s popularity yesterday when the club revealed that it had sold 17,419 season tickets for 2008/9. This beats the previous record of 17,144, set in 2005 when les Verts had just achieved their best league position (6th) for many years. Last season, of course, they finished 5th and qualified for the UEFA Cup, meaning that this year the club will get its first taste of European competition since 1982.
According to ASSE chief executive Vincent Tong-Cuong, the club will not be selling any more season tickets, as that would be unfair to supporters from other parts of the country who cannot make it to every game. “St Etienne is one of the best-supported clubs in the country,” he said. “The current capacity of Geoffroy-Guichard (35,525) does not allow us to meet demand. We have to limit the proportion of season ticket holders to roughly 50% of the stadium’s capacity.”
St Etienne will be looking to reward the faith of those season ticket holders tomorrow, when they play their first home game of the season against Sochaux. Kick-off is at 21h French time. They will be looking for a decent result to wipe out the disappointment of last Saturday’s defeat at Valenciennes, where they lost 1-0 thanks to an extremely poor penalty decision:
Category: St Etienne Team NewsJanot to Lille?
By: Jonathan | 2 Comments
Goalkeeper Jérémie Janot could leave St Etienne before the end of the month, according to French national sports daily l’Equipe. Janot missed part of the 2007/8 Ligue 1 season through injury, and when he returned to fitness, he could not regain his place in the side from Jody Viviani. He is not prepared to remain second-choice, the paper said.
His destination? It could be Lille, whose keeper Tony Silva has moved to Trabzonspor in Turkey. Although Lille’s current first choice is Grégory Malicki, manager Rudi Garcia would like him to have some competition and he knows Janot well from his time on the coaching staff at St Etienne. Lille’s Belgian striker Kevin Mirallas, currently on duty with the national team at the Olympics, could be a part of the transaction.
Category: St Etienne Team NewsGeoffroy-Guichard Mark II?
By: Jonathan | 3 Comments
St Etienne could move to a new stadium in the next few years, according to club president Bernard Caïazzo. In an interview with local paper Le Progrès, he said it would be better to start from scratch than to redevelop the current arena, the legendary Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. “It’s difficult to turn old into new and we can’t play 2-3 seasons in front of 20,000 spectators while the stadium turns into a building site,” he said. “We already need special permission to play our European games there.”
The only sticking point is the usual one – money. Who would pay for a new stadium? Geoffroy-Guichard (nicknamed “The Cauldron”), originally built in 1930 and renovated for the European Championships in 1984 and the World Cup in 1998, belongs to the local authority. Asking taxpayers to foot the bill is out of the question, and for the time being at least, there is no sign of a private investor.
If the club were to get a bigger venue, filling it would not be a problem. St Etienne are one of the best-supported clubs in France and have more than 17,000 season ticket holders. Geoffroy-Guichard currently holds over 35,000 fans – but in the mid-80s, before all-seater stadia became the norm, attendances were close to 50,000.
Category: St Etienne Team NewsYoann Gourcuff at Saint Etienne?
By: Richard | 9 Comments
According to Le Parisien it’s possible (although, admittedly, they also go on to say that it has little chance of coming to fruitrition).
The former Rennais & France U-21 international would fit in incredibly well at Saint Etienne, and it seems there is room for him.
Who knows?
Let’s file this under hopefully, but probably not.
Category: St Etienne Team NewsASSE — Lens (delayed match)
By: Richard | Add Comments
Lens is fignting to stay in the top-flight, so this shouldn’t be that much of a challange on paper, but Lens is always tough, and they have a better away record than we do.
PSG fans should be pulling for us too.
You should be able to see the game here.
If we win this game, we’ll move into 5th spot.
Actually, even if we tie the game, we’ll be in 5th spot.
Lens’ situation is a bit more tricky, and they’ll stay in 16th with either a win or a draw.
With a loss, they could drop, as Lens, PSG, Toulouse, and Strasbourg are tied at 35pts.
Tricky stuff.
Allez Les Verts!
Category: St Etienne Team NewsSaint Etienne 4, Le Mans 1
By: Richard | 1 Comment
Great news;
Saturday, Saint-Etienne played the 31st match of the season (it’s important to note that both Saint Etienne & Lens are a game behind) against a powerful Le Mans team.
Former Liverpool striker Anthony Le Tallec put Le Mans ahead in the 32nd minute with a lucky goal. Midfielder Geoffrey Dernis (who had the best game he’s had all season) scored twice in the 42nd and 63rd before setting up Bafetimbi Gomis for his 11th goal of the season in the 56th minute.
This, combined with the game behind, puts Saint Etienne in a very good position.
Currently 9th (43 points) — if you (optimistically) factor in the extra three points that would come form a game-behind-victory, they would climb to 5th (46 points).
(I know, I know — always the optimist, but I’ve been right so far!)
Here are the highlights
Now for the numbers;
The first table here is the regular standings as of yesterday.
(31 games played, 43 pts)
If you look at overall goals scored so far (next table), we’re in 5th spot with 37
finally;
the embarrassing one; we’re at the very top of the “away losses” table with 11
Category: St Etienne Team NewsJosé Mourinho signs on as ASSE Manager(!?!!?)
By: Richard | 8 Comments
I just read this article online about Mourinho signing today to manage Saint Etienne next season. This is totally incredible, and completly unexpected.
I’m so happy and confused.
It seems Laurent Roussey was wanting out next season, and Mourinho jumped at the opportunity to, in his words “manage such a legendary team such as Saint Etienne”.
I had no idea Bernard Caiazzo had this kind of money to spend, but I’m totally happy.
All I can say is “wow!”
Category: St Etienne Team NewsNo Game No Gain
By: Richard | Add Comments
So we don’t play this weekend, which will probably see us drop a few spots on the table, but don’t get discouraged, dear ASSE fans!
Janot (who has been out for over two months with a shoulder injury) is back, and played the entire first half in our friendly against the Congo DR on Thursday.
That’s right, we played a friendly against the Congo DR on Thursday, and won 3-0, thanks to first-half goals from Ilan (5) and Guarin (10), and a goal by Nivaldo (59) in the second half. Anyway, Jérémie Janot seems elated to be back, and gave this interview to the Saint Etienne official website.
We have a home game against Le Mans next week, who has been in terrible form lately (I know I won’t offend anyone by saying this, because there’s no Le Mans blog) they haven’t won a game since their victory over Valenciennes in mid-February. (I’m not kidding — look it up) and with Janot back, and a confidence-building game against a team that’s 70th on FIFA’s international rankings, I think we’re in good shape.
Category: St Etienne Team NewsAuxerre 1 — ASSE 3 and our European chances
By: Richard | 4 Comments
Well, let me start off by saying that I was wrong.
Totally wrong.
Pedretti played (initial reports were that he’d be out)
More importantly though, we scored four goals! (albeit, the first one was in our own net)
Pascal Feindouno had an incredible game (I counted seven chances) and was rewarded with an 81′ goal.
We were down 1-0 at the half, and kept taking chances the entire time.
Here are the two better of the goals.
1-1
1-3
Now;
call me crazy, but it seems (don’t laugh) a European place is not outside of the realm of possibility for us.
(I said don’t laugh)
We have 8 matches left against the following:
1. Home vs Le Mans (6th)
2. Home vs Lens (17th)
3. Away vs Sochaux (16th)
4. Home vs Lorient (8th)
5. Away vs Metz (20th)
6. Home vs Lille (7th)
7. Away vs PSG (18th)
8. Home vs Monaco (13th)
Put in that perspective, it seems that we could finish the season strong. Our three ramaining away games are against teams that are in danger of being relegated. Le Mans & Lille are always tough. Lens and PSG might be backed into a relagation corner by the time we face them, so they’ll either be dangerous, or totally self-destructive, and have given up. But, all-in-all these are winable games.
I know you’re reading this and giggling to yourself, but I think it’s possible.
There’s still a faint glimmer of hope, and if I’m wactching games mid-week next season, I’ll at least be able to say that I knew we’d make it.
Category: St Etienne Team News
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