Nice 3-3 Lille

By: Martha | August 3rd, 2008

WOE.

Team (system taken from the ogcnissa.com forums):

Letizi
Diakité-Hognon-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni-Faé
Traoré
Hellebuyck-Bamogo
Remy

Main subs, before mass changes in the 75th: Rool for Jeunechamp at half, Ben Saada for Traoré after an hour.

Goals: Traore (7th), Hellebuyck (22nd), Kanté (72nd) for Nice; Balmont (39th), Cabaye (45th), Bastos (62nd) for Lille.

The good news: For the second match in a row, three goals scored! The bad news: For the second match in a row, three goals conceded. This game was the opposite of the one against ASSE in that, yesterday, Nice were team on the attack from the start and were two goals ahead before the 30 minute mark. In the next 40 minutes, though, they gave up three unanswered goals (one, inevitably, by Balmont, who’s already coming back to haunt us), and had to claw back through Kanté to finish on even terms.

As usual, having not seen the game or even read many details about it, it’s impossible to know who’s to blame for the goals, but one thing is certain: The defense that started against LOSC is the defense that will strart next weekend against Le Havre. Cyril #1, because he is Cyril #1, is suspended for accumulated cards at the close of last season, and Letizi is first choice until Antonetti decides otherwise. It’ll be nice to finally get to see a match and see how all these goals are being concede, but the defense, after having such a good 2007-2008 season has really struggled in the preseason. Obviously losing Lloris was a massive blow, but the team have to recover from it, and soon. Starting the season without Apam is brutal as well; the first few weeks are going to be a stern test for the back four, and the two midfielders sitting in front of them.

It’s hugely encouraging, though, to see the goals flying in lately — Traoré, despite his youth, has had a tremendous preseason, and his contributions have really lifted an attack that couldn’t get off the mark when the preseason started. And Rémy’s been everything that was expected and more — fingers crossed that continues into the matches that matter.

Since all I’ve seen of the preseason were the goals against Grenoble, based on recent results, I’m imagining a first month full of matches worthy of Keegan’s Newcastle (the first one): Leaking goals like there’s no tomorrow, and then marauding forward to get them back, ending on the wrong end of 5-4 scorelines on a regular basis. It’s going to be so disappointing to see something more pedestrian when faced with reality, but if the team can manage to give up fewer than three goals/match, I suppose I’ll take pedestrian.