Nice 2-1 Nantes

By: Martha | November 19th, 2008

“With my head, bi- boss! I scored with my head!”

Buts: Bamogo (20è), Mouloungui (80è) pour Nice ; N’Daw (8è) pour Nantes

Nice: Letizi – Diakité (Jeunechamp 83è), Apam, Kanté, Rool – Echouafni (c), Faé, Hellebuyck – Bamogo (Coulibaly, 86è), Modeste (Ben Saada, 73è), Mouloungui

Nantes: Alonzo – Pierre, Moullec, Mareval, Gravgaard – N’Daw, Capoue (Keseru, 83è), Da Rocha (c ; Djordjevic, 88è), Faty – Bagayoko, Bekamenga (Dossevi, 78è)

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First and most importantly: This win means seven L1 matches in a row without a loss, four wins in a row in all competitions, and not a single dropped point since Rémy got hurt. Hell, yes.

Though Nice are still struggling to put games away when they have the chance, that was still ten times better than than the Lorient match. The speed of play was quicker, the attack was much more fluid and, for about 15 minutes after Bamogo’s goal, Nice played some really, really good football. And during those 15 minutes, it was obvious why Quansah has been so blown away by the supporters because they were magnificent, and the team were undeniably lifted by them.

Unlike against Lorient, where the defense were the standouts, on Sunday the attackers and the midfielders were the ones who really shone. While the midfield didn’t necessarily stand out as individuals, as a group they made it hard for Nantes to possess the ball in the middle of the park, and also did a nice job of exploiting the space behind their defense by playing long, diagonal balls out to Mouloungui and Bamogo.

I think Bamogo reads this blog and heard me bitching, because he was totally transformed — playing off Modeste, he was dropping deep to pick the ball up and either playing one-touch or, even better, keeping it with his back to goal, and then laying it off before getting forward himself. No more of this “receive the ball and attack the defender, no matter what” stuff. (The vast improvement didn’t stop Antonetti from yelling his name every 30 seconds, of course. That, alone, is making me want to learn French, just so I’ll know what the hell he’s got to tell Habib that’s so important. And it’s always different! The instructions must be very detailed.) Additionally, his goal, though I’m not sure why it stood — Chouf looked to be miles offside when the ball was played, and he was very much involved with the pay — was well-taken. And with his head, no less!

Also impressive up front was Mouloungui who, at times, was very good. He was much freer than he was against Créteil, exchanging with Bamogo and getting into the middle sometimes, rather than just driving over and over again toward the touchline on the left. As for his goal, well, we’ve been over that. There were a lot of questions about Mouloungui’s attitude and toughness before he arrived, but in the past few weeks with Rémy down, I think he’s proved himself beyond a doubt to Nice supporters. Good on ya, Eric.

While his fellow attackers were impressing everyone, meanwhile, poor Anthony Modeste was mostly awful. Apart from a few good moments of digging, when he dropped in to do some dirty work in the midfield, he mostly spent his day demolishing his own confidence by a)squandering chances, b)making awful decisions, and c)giving the ball away. And, sometimes, all three at once. You have to feel bad for the kid — he’s still only 20 years old, and does nothing but work, work, work. He’s just thinking too much right now, so nothing is working, and he’s getting whistled off by his own supporters. (How, Nice fans, does that help things? For god’s sake, he feels shitty enough as it is.) There’s no reason to give up on him yet but, with Rémy apparently coming back this weekend, Mouloungui and Bamogo playing well, and Ben Saada chomping at the bit for space in the team, I don’t know how much of Modeste we’re going to be seeing in the near the future.

At the back, Apam and Kanté both made alarming, careless mistakes, and oldboy Mamadou Bagayoko (who was gracious and hilarious and looking amazing in his postgame interview) was giving them both a surprising amount of trouble. To me it actually looked like a lack of concentration more than anything else — it was as if they got so caught up the team-wide confidence that they drifted mentally and almost paid for it. Luckily, Letizi was sharp, and their teammates were around to clean up the minor messes, but that really needs to stop happening if this whole top-four thing is going to continue.

Additionally, I feel the need to mention that Cyril #1 is playing so well right now that it’s completely ridiculous — I don’t think he’s put a foot wrong in about a month. Also, he and Hellebuyck are playing off one another like they can each others’ minds. Long may it continue. Like, for three or four more years. Please.