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.

First half:

Letizi
Diakité-Yahia-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni-Fae-Traoré
Remy-Modeste-Bamogo

Second half:

Ospina
Diakité-Hognon-Cid-Rool
Echouafni (Adu, 82rd)-Fae-Traoré
Bamogo (Quansah, 76th)-Remy-Ben Saada

Goals: Remy (45th pen, 62nd), Bamogo (71st pen) for Nice; Ilan (9th), Gigliotti (19th, 56th pen) for ASSE

(No Hellebuyck because of a slight leg problem; nothing serious but Antonetti didn’t want to risk him.)

It’s too bad there’s so little to be found about this match, because it sounds completely insane. Three penalties, a wet pitch, a horrible error by Letizi — who wouldn’t want to have seen that?

The match reports, such as there are, confirm that ASSE were by far the better team in the first half, helped considerably by a lot of individual errors by Nice, particularly in the defense, and an apparent lack of confidence from the entire team. Fantastic. That said, Nice improved in the second half and, while it’s frustrating to have been outplayed two matches in a row, the fact that they battled back (from 0-2 and 1-3) to tie it is definitely a good sign, and something to which desperate, striker-craving supporters can cling.

Also encouraging were two more goals from Remy, one from the penalty spot and the other from 35 yards when he caught the ASSE keeper off his line and lobbed him spectacularly. If this kid can be half as productive once the season starts as he is right now, he’ll go a long way toward justifying the price the club paid for him. Speaking of promising new arrivals, it’s interesting to see Ben Saada playing up top again — he was used only in the midfield against Grenoble, but seems to have really shone as part of an attacking trident yesterday.

Additionally, Ospina continues to impress: The only goal he gave up was on a PK, and Letizi’s recent struggles are only increasing calls for the Colombian to start the season as first choice. That seems unlikely, but it’s still awfully reassuring to have a young, skilled keeper ready to step in when called upon.

Finally, it’s nice to see Quansah making another appearance after not figuring against Grenoble. He and the other Ghanian trialist (Adu) just got a few minutes each, but at least they’re still around — the three youth players who were with the team at the start of camp have vanished from the friendly lineups.

Other news: Carlos Tenorio is right out, but Eric Mouloungui is reportedly set to arrive from Strasbourg within the next few days. More on him when it’s official, but assuming it is: One striker down, one to go. Also, in their down time at Albertville, the team took in a women’s handball match. Very nice.

First Half:

Letizi
Diakité-Hognon-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni-Fae-Helebuyck
Rémy-Modeste-Bamogo

Second half:

Ospina
Jeunechamp-Yahia-Cid-Rool
Fae-Hellebuyck-Traoré-Ben Saada
Modeste-Rémy

Goals: Modeste (22nd), Rémy (44nd) Nice; Flachez (45è) for Grenoble; video of the goals (in the old kits, still) here.

As usual, it’s hard to find out much about the match — it sounds like Grenoble had arguably the better of play after the first 10 minutes or so, but despite their possession, they failed to trouble the Nice goal at all. [Hilariously, the solution to their goal-scoring problem seems to be taking Matt Moussilou on loan. It would be sad to see him go because it's nice to have such an easy punchline sitting around, but I understand that his wanderlust and need to be unproductive in as many places as possible is calling him. Godspeed, Matt.] Things were a bit more ragged in the second half after all the substitutions, but Rémy apparently forced a couple saves out of the keeper — he went the full 90 minutes and reportedly looked great, which is both encouraging on the goal-scoring front, and also a reassuring indication that the shoulder knock he picked up against Nimes is no longer a concern.

And, if you watch the goals, there’s bits of good stuff there — Rémy and Modeste, in the glimpses we see, really do seem to be playing well together, and is that Bamogo over on the right, cutting inside before the second goal? That’s a nice bit of skill! And maybe there’s more of that sort of things in the 88 minutes we didn’t get to see! (Hey, I’m trying to be optimistic based on like two minutes of footage — cut me some slack, huh?) Nice still need a striker, but seeing the current crop working together productively is definitely reassuring. Also, there’s a great, exasperated arm-flap from Rool after the Grenoble goal goes in off of him, but I realize that’s not necessarily a reason to be optimistic about the season. Presumably Cyril #1 was with the second group because he missed some training this week — his grandfather died, and he left the team to spend time with his family.

After all the excitement over Quansah in that Nimes match, it’s weird that he didn’t even make an appearance. Of course, I don’t know if he even traveled with the team to Albertville, those sort of details are so hard to get out of Nice. Anyone who knows anything, please share.

In other news, Apam and Coulibaly are both officially gone now, not to return until after Nigeria and Ivory Coast are knocked out of the Olympics. Defensively, this is very scary, because even though Cid has shaved off his absurd facial hair, he and Cyril #2 don’t inspire that much confidence. That said, there’s no point in complaining about it — the team got through the African Cup of Nations without Apam, they’ll make it through the first few weeks of this season without him, too. Probably.

And, finally, in a pleasingly Big Club move, Nice have officially denied any interest in Rennes’ Mickaël Pagis, which is a pity because he’s ancient — just the right age for Nice — and has the added bonus of a proven goal-scoring record. Instead, the club are still in the mass of teams chasing Tenorio and Piquionne.

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.]

According to the Nice website, Antonetti played two totally different teams, starting with a lineup that could conceivably be close to what he’s left with during the Olympics, then putting out an entirely second-string side in the second half.

1st half:
Letizi
Jeunechamp-Hognon-Cid-Rool
Echouafni-Fae-Hellebuyck
Rémy-Modeste-Bamogo

2nd half:
Moreau
Faviana-Yahia-Gace-Berthommier
Coulibaly-Pastor-Asamoah
Ozokwo-Moussilou-Job

Fae’s only been at training for four days; interesting that he was thrown in with the first group. None of the trialists played (even though I’ve read a few good things about how Rodrigo Galante, the 19-year-old Argentine mid, is training), but all the non-keeper youth players — Favina, Berthommier and Pastor — played the whole second half.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no point in lamenting or trying to analyze the result since we’ll never find out anything about what went on — obviously, the scoreline is sort of pathetic and sad, but what’re you gonna do? It’s preseason, so there’s a lot more going on — trying to get fit and fighting exhaustion, among other things — than trying to win matches. (She said hopefully.)

The team fly home tonight; all the missing players — including Baky, who confirmed today that he’ll show up — will join them on Monday morning.

For the purposes of good cheer, I’ll put a few pictures from this week in Vichy after the jump.

Antonetti wearing shorts is among the most awesome things ever.

Newbie v Newbie

Skillz.

(Galante, the Argie trialist.)

(Berthommier, who’s got a bunch of youth caps for France — what is he now, 18? 19?)

[The whole gallery is here.]