All the Preview You’re Gonna Get, Or: Even More Ospina!

By: Martha | October 24th, 2008

“Je suis un gardien de but. Oui?”

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Cid (17 stitches in his head), Adu, Asamoah, Barul, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

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So, word on the street — by which I mean the big French football papers — is that, after spending the week thinking hard and carefully examining all his keepers, Antonetti’s decided to go with Ospina tomorrow against Bordeaux. Awesome.

The kid performed impressively under immense pressure last weekend, and gave the eagerly optimistic among us no reason to throw out our hopes that the club my just have found a worthy successor to Lloris. Plus, ability aside, Opsina has a great attitude, his French is improving, and he’s reportedly hugely popular with his teammates (something which, amazingly, started before he spoke any French at all); he’s got all the easy stuff covered and, if Antonetti is ready to go with him again, it’s safe to assume the footballing part is there, too. (Even if Ospina does play, though, the gaffer wants us to know that it doesn’t mean he’s first choice for good quite yet. So, you know, no counting chickens yet and all that.)

* * *

Other news from this week:

•Needless to say, since there’s a match going on, the strike isn’t happening. That’s nice.

•Diakité and (of course) Cyril #1 are both at their card limits and will miss the midweek match at Caen. Additionally, the club have been fined €1000 for scofflaw supporters who used fireworks at Monaco. (That amount, by the way, is 100 times, give or take, what Spanish clubs get fined for throwing things on the pitch. At least Ligue 1 makes clubs suffer a little for fan behavior.)

•Derek Asamoah, who has been with the reserves since the start of the season, has had his contract terminated by mutual agreement. It actually happened last week, but (from what I’ve seen, anyway), the news just came out this week.

•Meanwhile, Apam’s agent is telling the press that his client’s contract has been extended for one more year, tying Apam to the club until 2013. Nice, however, have not confirmed this yet, so I have no idea if this is Apam’s agent just stirring, or what’s going on.

•And, finally, Raymond Domenech assistant Alain Boghossian will be at the Ray tomorrow, eying up players for the NT (Like, perhaps, The Next Zizou — For Real This Time!). No pressure, Rémy. Just breathe.