Round 1 of the Champions League tie between Olympique Lyonnais and FC Barcelona takes place today at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, kicking off at 2:45 (EST).
Les Gones. Blaugrana. Claude Puel. Pep Guardiola.
These two clubs met last year in the group stage, with a 2-2 result in Lyon and a 3-0 Barcelona victory at the Camp Nou. What awaits them this year in the knockout stage, with Round 1 today and Round 2 on March 11th? In their domestic leagues Lyon has been dominating all competition and holds a 6-point lead at the top while Barcelona have struggled slightly but still remain in first place by 7 points.
The talk coming into this match has definitely been the "poor" form of Barca, who drew 1-1 with Real Betis and lost their derby match against Espanyol 1-2. But this is the Champions League, where Barcelona have a far better record than Lyon. Although the latter club have played in the European competition for the past 6 years, they have never been to the final while Barcelona won in 1992 and 2006 (where, sadly, they defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Stade de France) and finished 2nd in 1986 and 1994. In this year's competition, Barcelona are the leading scorers as a club, although Messi and Benzema are tied with 5 goals each for individual honors.
Lyon gaffer Claude Puel has made an attempt to downgrade expectations by publicly stating that he feels Barcelona are the best club in the world. To his own team, however, he has stated that they should focus more on their own strengths rather than those of the Blaugrana, noting that both Benzema and Juninho are capable of changing any match. On the opposite side of the pitch Messi will be hoping to play as well against the French club as he did against Les Bleus in the February 11th friendly between Argentina and France.
Lyon come into the match without Clerc and Reveillere, so I would expect the following line-up:
Lloris, Gassama, Grosso, Mensah, Boumsong, Ederson, Toulalan, Makoun, Juninho, Keita, Benzema
Barcelona are missing Abidal, Iniesta and Milito, so I anticipate the line-up as:
Valdes, Alves, Sylvinho, Puyol, Pique, Toure, Keita, Xavi, Messi, Eto'o, Titi
My prediction? I see a 1-1 draw at the Stade de Gerland today, with goals coming from Juninho and Messi. Round 2 will see a 2-0 Barcelona victory, with goals from Eto'o and Titi.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Champions League Preview: Lyon v. Barca
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Racism Abounds
On March 3rd and 4th, the Unite Against Racism conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland. The conference is a partnership between UEFA, the players' union FIFPro and the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network designed to deter racism both on and off the pitch. Sadly, this can't come soon enough..jpg)
Although Lyon were happy with their 3-1 victory over Le Havre to cement their place atop the Ligue 1 standings, the game was marred by John Mensah (seen above) receiving 2 yellow cards. The reason for his angry play on the pitch appears to be the racial insults hurled his way by a Le Havre supporter, who was eventually arrested in the 55th minute.
The entire Olympic Lyonnais club has rallied around the Ghanaian defender. Gaffer Claude Puel has stated publicly that he should have substituted Mensah when it became obvious that the player was psychologically affected by the racist taunts. In addition, club president Michel Aulas noted that the taunts began during warm-ups and were directed towards Kader Keita, Frederic Piquionne and Karim Benzema as well as Mensah, but that the latter seemed to bear the brunt of the "monkey noises" that were made.
Really? Monkey noises? Why can't people just make Titus Bramble jokes?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sydney Govou Does Not Deal Well With Draws
Because it's French vodka, see?After the nil-nil draw with Olympique de Marseille, Ligue 1 leaders Olympique Lyon were slightly upset that they had failed to take all 3 points and increase their lead over their 2nd-place rivals. Apparently, French international Sydney Govou took it harder than most, as he was arrested for drunk-driving later that night.
"A test showed the striker had 2.6 grammes of alcohol per litre of blood, which is more than five times over the French legal limit of 0.5 grammes."
Do your own conversions - either way he was 5x over the limit! Govou's license was immediately taken, meaning that he had to take a cab to training this morning.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Good, The Bad, The WTF
As tough as it may be to believe now, just over 20 years ago, Olympique Lyonnais, otherwise known as Lyon, was floundering in Ligue 2. It took the efforts of two men to get them out of there and on their way to the seven consecutive Ligue 1 championships the team currently enjoys. The first of these men is Jean-Michel Aulas, who invested in the club and took over as president. Upon taking over in 1987, he stated his intention of reforming the club into a French power within 15 years.
The second man who had much to do with Lyon's ascent from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1 is, I kid you not, Raymond Domenech. That's right, the man who manages by the stars and thought a post-match news conference after being eliminated from the Euros was the best time to propose, used to be a pretty fine coach. Under Domenech, Lyon won Ligue 2 at the first try. The team solidified their Ligue 1 place next season and, in 1992, finished fifth in league, guarenteeing a European berth.
The upshot is that in 2002, or 15 years after Aulas took control, Lyon won their first of seven straight Ligue 1 titles. Mission accomplished, I'd say. Go buy yourself a banner.
Okay, now that all of that has been explained, I guess I should tell you why I went through all of that. You see, these are the shirts the Lyon wore in their first seasons back in Ligue 1, and I think they are kind of swell.
The one thing I'm not so sure of is the dual chevrons on the front. I am a fan of Bordeaux's look, when it's simple. One solid colored field with a contrasting chevron in the center. This seems to be a ripoff of that look. Future incarnations of OL shirts would not have the chevron on there, and I can't find compelling evidence of it being a traditional look. Odd that the team would copy something so uniquely defined by one team in the same country.
As for that shirt sponsor, it would appear that is has something to do with the Departement that Lyon is the capital of. I'll let The NY Kid fill in the blanks on that one. One thing I can fill in the blanks on is that whenever I look at the pictures here, I instantly hear Bill & Ted with a French accent. "Le 69, dude! (insert guitar solo)"
All in all, I really do like these shirts. I'm not a big fan of the contrasting reflective material of the shirts. I'm not a damn crossing guard, why do flash photos of the shirt make me look like one? I would choose the red one over the home white, but that's just me. Consider this one of the rare Goods that we just don't see enough from this era.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Lyon don't play nice
While we were all captivated yesterday by the games which British teams failed to win, a pretty stunning comeback happened. Lyon, playing at home, went down 0-2 to Fiorentina by halftime. While Arsenal struggled to make up for a cheap PK, Lyon roared back with two second half goals. It must have been a stunning comeback with lots of hard work, right?
Not so much, it would appear. Lyon's first goal came at the benefit of a Fiorentina injury. The man was down, and Lyon maintained possession and scored. While it would be despicable enough if the injury was up field, Fiorentina's injury happened in their own box. Instead of playing the ball out, Lyon used the prone player to beat an offside call and score.
There is video at The Offside. You can watch the goal and the aftermath, as Fiorentina take umbrage with Lyon's interpretation of Fair Play. If any of you could provide a translation of the Italian announcers (DONE!), that would be much appreciated.
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