Goals in a Friendly — And Against a Professional Team, Too!

By: Martha | July 19th, 2008

4-0 against Nimes, buckets of great performances — forget the pessimism, Nice are going to win everything! Ahem. Sorry, just wanted to get that uncharacteristic burst of optimism out of my system. On to the details.

First half:

Letizi
Jeunechamp-Hognon-Cid-Diakité
Echouafni-Fae-Hellebuyck
Rémy (Traoré, 35è)-Modeste-Ben Saada

Second half:

Ospina
Faviana-Yahia-Apam-Gace
Coulibaly-Pastor-Traoré-Quansah
Ozokwo-Asamoah

Goals: Remy (3rd), Traore (60th, 80è pen) and Ozokwo (73rd)

Preseason debuts for most of the late-arrivals to camp, and also Antonetti’s first look at his team in a 4-4-2, a system in which that second group reportedly looked awfully good. No Cyril #1, Kanté or Bamogo because of minor knocks, but other than those short-term concerns, most everyone is healthy. Or, rather, was healthy, until Remy landed on his shoulder in the first half. His withdrawal, though, was apparently mostly precautionary, so hopefully he won’t be missing much.

In terms of positives, the individuals most frequently mentioned after the match have been three new arrivals: Ospina, who continues to be strong, Coulibaly (”an animal” who “is everywhere”) and 18-year-old Ghanian trialist Abeiku Quansah, who assisted on both the second-half goals from open play, was taken down for the PK, and is suddenly turning a lot of heads. It’s hard to find much information on him, but Quansah was in the Ghanian team at the U-17 World Cup in Korea last year, and was the driving force in their near-comeback against Germany in the group stages (he’s #7, beating the entire German team about halfway through this video). If he’s beating full-grown men — even half-fit ones on a team that was just promoted to L2 — like he beats the other teenagers in that video, someone needs to get this kid a contract, ASAP.*

Yeah, the same things that applied to the friendly loss and draw apply here: It’s just an early friendly, people are still working on fitness, coaches are working on systems and players, etc, etc, etc. But, even keeping those things in mind, there were a lot of good things going on yesterday. Not to mention, you know, some goals.

The team now head to Albertville for a week, where they’ll play friendlies against Grenoble and ASSE; pray the improvement continues.

*I saw a story from last December about Quansah and Kofi arriving at Nice on trial then, and also references to them being part of Nice’s U-17s last spring, but the official website still describes them as trialists. Anyone who can clarify, please do — was it a youth trial and loan last winter, and a trial with the senior team now?

[Pictures from the match after the jump.]

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