Caen 2 St Etienne 0
By: Jonathan | September 16th, 2008Well that’s it I think, the start of the new season is now officially a disaster for St Etienne. Five games, four defeats and only two goals scored has left les Verts in the relegation zone, pretty much the exact opposite of where pre-season expectations had placed them. (Not quite as bad as Spurs in England, who have spent big, talked big and been rewarded with last place in the league, but that’s another story, which I will leave to my English colleagues on The Offside.) Manager Laurent Roussey says he is “trying to be calm”, but that must be pretty difficult when you have just lost your third match in a row and, adding to insult to injury, your team has had not one but TWO goals disallowed. That followed the ludicrous penalty awarded against St Etienne in the first game of the season at Valenciennes.
I haven’t seen the incidents in question – two Gomis goals ruled out for offside, apparently – but I have seen Caen’s goals, and all you can say is that once again, St Etienne’s defending was very poor. On both occasions, Viviani pulled off a save (you could argue that he might have done better) and each time, the Caen forwards reacted quickly to knock in the rebound while les Verts just stood around ball-watching. You can watch the goals here. Roussey defended his players, saying they had done well and had simply been the victims of more bad refereeing, but these guys need to sharpen up, and fast. They have their first UEFA Cup game on Thursday and they won’t be making much progress with defending like this. Progress in the UEFA Cup looks like their best chance of securing European football next season, as they already look unlikely to qualify through the league. Is it too early to say they have a relegation battle on their hands?
UPDATE: The ref has admitted that the second Gomis goal should have stood and maybe the first one too. Credit to him for that, but it’s not much consolation for the Stephanois!
Category: St Etienne Team News
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