Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Cid, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Apam, Moreau, Traoré (blessés), Jeunechamp (suspendu), Asamoah, Barul, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

Read ‘em and weep, kids: No Apam. Yikes. I realize the team were without him for the first three matches this season and coped fairly well, but this is Lyon, Yahia is gone, and last time we saw Hognon on the pitch he was clearly not healthy. I repeat: YIKES.

Traoré, too, is out, but at least he and Ben Saada time their injuries considerately, and so far have managed not to be broken at the same time. Dare we be optimistic and see tomorrow as Ben Saada’s big breakout game for Nice? No, you’re right — optimism is never a good idea.

Anyway, best guess at as starting XI:

Letizi
Diakité-Hognon-Kanté-Rool
Echouafni
Fae-Hellebuyck
Bamogo-Ben Saada
Remy

I suppose we could see Coulibaly for Ben Saada, but I hope not. Ben Saada’s been cursed so far and hasn’t managed to make it through a full match without breaking, but his vision is fantastic, and he’s never going to turn into Nice’s mythical new #10 without being given the chance to work his magic in big matches.

Lyon have been flat for the past couple rounds, and are without Grosso and Clerc. Hey, every little bit helps, right? On the other hand, of course, one Hugo Lloris hasn’t give up a goal yet this season, which is an astonishing statistic no matter who they’re playing. (Check over at the Lyon blog for a detailed preview later today, I’m sure Inara and John will hook us up with all the scary info we need.)

Nice got two points from Lyon last season in two scoreless draws, playing without Ederson in the home leg because he Belonged to Them already and wasn’t allowed to kick their asses one last time. That fact, combined with Lyon’s recent form, the importance of this match for Nice — facing their friends and former teammates for the first time, and the mind-boggling possibility of moving into first with a win — and Rémy’s desperate desire to show Lyon what he’s worth makes it hard to be entirely pessimistic going into the match.

Emerse Fae thinks it’ll be 2-1 to Nice. Me? I’ll pray for a miracle win but will weep with joy at a draw.

Apologies for the lack of posts, but there’s nothing freaking going on, apart from the official site failing to keep up with the schedule they made for ogcnice.tv. The one change there is that we can now pay €50 for access to the site for the whole season or, alternately, not pay anything and still have complete access! (One assumes something will change eventually, but they appear to be a little confused about the order in which these things should be done.)

In news that’s not me bitching and moaning (and I’m warning you, there’s not much):

•Nice will face L2 side Boulogne (away) in the Coupe de la Ligue in two weeks.

•Majority shareholder Gilbert Stellardo was on 100% Aiglons this week (you can see it at ogcnice.tv) and addressed a bunch of topics, from Matt Moussilou (going to UAE, they swear), the club’s financial position (they need €5 million/season to compete with the top six), and the goals of the shareholders (they want to make the club better, but aren’t stupid enough not to sell immediately if someone drops out of the sky with a pile of money to invest).

•Apam picked up a leg knock yesterday and has been shut down until tomorrow; he’s questionable for Saturday. Fantastic. (That Yahia loan’s looking particularly bad right now, huh?)

•There’s a very brief, very flattering profile of Antonetti at football.fr, which ends by describing him as “the kind of coach who makes us think about all that is not just money” in football. Damn right.

•Cyril #1 talked to the official site yesterday about the Lyon match, both professing his love for Lloris and Ederson (”we will kiss before and after the match”), and also hoping Nice are the first team to score against Hugo this season. And, if they’re not, he expects a 0-0 draw. Here’s hoping he’s on the pitch Saturday, helping to decide the result.

It’s a been a nice, quiet weekend so far — apart from the rumors that Baky pulled out of training yesterday, there’s been no news.* So, in lieu of transfer drama, here are a few Nice links I’ve come across this week. And, also a completely ridiculous picture of picture Cyril Rool (from this point to be known as Cyril #1), just because I can.

•Football365.fr did an interview with Nicolas Dyon, Nice’s athletic trainer, about how he approaches pre-season training, and what the team will go through over the next several weeks. It’s actually pretty interesting for the anoraks among us, and there’s more on Dyon’s approach (as well as fairly hilarious pictures of him in Working!poses) on his website.

•Olivier Echouafni, the man Google translate calls “the oldest eaglet,” has such a great attitude about the upcoming season that it’s hard not to catch his optimism. (Reason #231 he wears the armband.)

•And, finally, because letting go is hard, here’s a recent interview with our dear, departed Ederson about his role at Lyon, how happy is it to still be playing with a certain keeper (Aw!), and his hopes for getting into the Brazilian nation team. Sigh.

*If it really happened, whether you think it was to show how much he really wants to join Marsellie or because of a niggling ankle injury that’s been bothering him for a while obviously depends on your perspective on Baky and his Situation. Me, I’m going to be naive and hope it was the latter.