CdL Stuff + Schedule News

By: Martha | January 15th, 2009

Old man’s still got it.

I won’t bore you with a long report on the Le Havre match, but I watched it this morning and, in general, was pretty impressed. Nice dominated the first half, thanks in part to a massive performance by Faé, and Modeste played the best 45 minutes I’ve ever seen out of him — he was trying all sorts of things he usually won’t even consider, and most of them were coming off, including a Zlatan-esque backheeled pass for Faé that he took out of the air and played perfectly into space. I’ve said it before and it doesn’t take a genius to recognize it, but confidence is everything to Modeste, and if he can just keep his head right, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. (Hopefully the fact that Antonetti has decided not to send him out on loan will help with that, rather than seem him doomed to a second half spent sitting at the end of the bench, watching Adeilson play.)

Faé faded a lot in the second half, and it’s no coincidence that Nice’s hold on the match did, too — in the 4-3-3, it seems like they really need him to dominate the midfield (which is asking a lot), because if he doesn’t, those middle three end up doing nothing but chasing the ball. Luckily, Hellebuyck is a machine, and Le Havre’s passing in the final third was dreadful, as was most of their shooting, so the ease with which they broke through the midfield on the counter came to nothing.

In addition to Modeste and Faé (for a half), Diakité also had a strong match — it’s rare for him to stand out as much as he did on Tuesday, and it was really nice to see. He got forward well, and made a crucial, sliding intervention in the second half, when a Le Havre player (can’t remember who, sorry) was in alone on goal. In goal, Letizi didn’t have much to do, apart from catch the periodic hopeful cross and watch balls fly over his head, but he earn his pay in the 89th minute with a flying save off a free kick. The old man has still got skills to go with his class — Nice really are lucky to have him.

Also, Kanté is a beast, but we knew that already. It would be awful to lose him, particularly with more teams circling Apam every day.

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In scheduling news:

•The draw for the semis was held today, and Nice get to play at home again. Woo hoo! Vannes will come calling February 3rd or 4th.

•The Nancy match has been rescheduled for February 17th, after the trip to Le Mans.