Auxerre 0-1 Nice

By: Martha | August 26th, 2008

Auxerre 0-1 Nice
But: Yahia (29è) pour Nice

Auxerre: Riou - Hengbart, Coulibaly, Grichting, Mignot - Pedretti (c), Dudka (Niculae, 46è), Chafni, Lejeune - Quercia (Oliech, 23è), Jelen

Nice: Letizi - Diakité, Yahia, Kanté, Jeunechamp (Gace, 73è) - Echouafni (c), Faé, Hellebuyck - Traoré (Coulibaly, 75è), Rémy, Bamogo (Modeste, 85è)

[Sunday's Jour de foot is here; Nice highlights start at about 11:30]

* * *

God damn — who would have thunk it? A shutout away from home, the lone goal and MOTM performance from a forgotten central defender who spent last season as fourth choice at best, and had scored just once in the last five years. Wow.

Obviously, the moment we dare to engage in any optimism it’ll all come crashing down around our heads, but the result is nevertheless exciting, particularly in light of how unexpected it is. Granted, Auxerre are not exactly powers, but Nice never win away, particularly without two starting defenders, and with a keeper who’s been erratic at best during the last month or so. But the defense hung in there, despite being under a lot of pressure in the first half, and Letizi survived as well, making at least one good save and dodging the penalty bullet when Lejeune put his spot-kick wide.

Yahia, by all accounts, was absolutely immense, and not just on the goal (in the grades I’ve seen for the match, he got several eights) — if nothing else, his performance will have assured Antonetti that there’s no reason to rush the surely exhausted Apam back for next week. Also strong, for the third week in a row, was Bamogo, who hit the bar with a very intelligent chip, is playing with immense confidence, and is getting closer and closer to scoring. It sounds as if Rémy was less consistently a factor than he has been thus for this season, but his ability to create with the ball at his feet means he’s always got potential to change the game.

Antonetti, while not blown away by the intelligence of his team’s play, was legitimately pleased with their collective attitude — it’s easy not to expect much from yourself when excuses aplenty are handed to you before the game even kicks off, and it’s fantastic to see that his motley crew are committed to fighting (even if it means fouling the shit out of the opposition, which seems to have been a key tactic the last two matchdays).

Sixth place, just a point off of first — mark down the date, kids, we’re unlikely to see this sort of table again any time soon.

Also: The video version of a new, weekly, All Nice, All The Time radio show is up on the official website. The guest for week one, as one might expect, was Mr. Maurice Cohen, and there’s also a post-mortem on the match.