For the first time since Frédéric Antonetti was a svelt 20-year-old, he’s got a full squad to choose from: No suspension, no injuries, no personal crises, no nothing. Everyone is fit and ready to go — what luxury!

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

Absents: Adu, Barul, Gace, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo, Quansah (choix de l’entraîneur)

One assumes we’ll see Rémy from the start in place of Modeste, but apart from that change, the rest of the team could well be as it was against Nantes. Unless, that is, Antonetti wants to go crazy and play Ben Saada in behind a front two of Mouloungui and Rémy. (Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m not in charge.) It’s also possible that Apam could be rested — he played all 90 minutes against Colombia at midweek, and just arrived back in Nice yesterday.

For their part, ASSE are having huge injury problems in their defense, so much so that they’ve got only three first-team players fit, and could well start someone from the youth squad in the back. And, injury problems notwithstanding, Saint-Etienne are seriously struggling — they’ve lost six in a row, and have given up 16 goals against only two scored during those matches. It’s been a truly horrific run, but they’re at home, playing under a new coach there for the first time, and will doubtless be desperate to turn things around in front of their supporters.

In other words, it’s just the sort of match that can spell doom for high-flying opponents who come in feeling a little too good about themselves. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m nervous as hell.

Apam played right back and got forward well a couple of times, creating a few of Nigeria’s handful of chances. Because of way the match went in the second half, Ospina had very little to do, but he did tip a shot over the bar well (in the highlights here), and also pulled off an insane diving header with a striker’s boot bearing down on him. I have no idea why he thought his head was a better tool for the moment than his right boot, but it was crazy brave — in the real sense of the word, not the way Ray Hudson (to whom “brave” seems to mean “breathing”) uses it. And, to make the whole thing even more bizarre, the attacker was flagged for offside, though there was no way for Ospina to know that when he unveiled his header skills.

Elsewhere:

•Faé played all 90 minutes for Ivory Coast in their 2-2 draw with Israel. According to the official Nice site, it was his shot that was deflected in by the Israeli keeper for Ivory Coast’s second goal.

•Gabon seem to have drawn 3-3 with Guinea, but I have no idea whether Mouloungui scored, assisted on anything, or even played. If anyone has a good source for African results, please drop it in the comments, I’m totally at a loss.

•Tunisia drew 0-0 away to Ghana; it doesn’t look like Ben Saada got on the pitch, if he even made the bench.

Back in France, meanwhile, David Hellebuyck is officially tied for the league lead with five assists (more than his total for the entire 2007-2008 season), a fact that apparently made him very flustered when the Nice Media Minions asked him about it today. Aw. When he wasn’t being embarrassed, Hellebuyck preached caution about facing a desperate ASSE side this weekend, and gave welcome assurances about his health — he’s not had any problems with his knee for all of two weeks, which is apparently cause for great celebration.

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)

* * *

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.

I managed to find the Créteil match and, while I’ll spare you a full report (I can hear the sighs of relief from here), I’ve still got some reactions to offer on a handful of newbies/youngsters/Habibs.

•Ospina reads the game really well — he’s almost never surprised by what the attacker does with the ball and, in what is probably a chicken-egg situation, is almost preternaturally calm in goal, which can’t help but make it easier to adjust to him as a keeper. He’s also good in the air, and gets off his line very well. The accuracy of his punts could use some work, but the only real mistake I remember him making (and he was admittedly not real busy against Créteil) was spilling a shot for a corner.

•Ben Saada is a pleasure to watch. He’s inconsistent still and can get knocked off the ball, but he’s much stronger and tougher than his size would suggest, and he’s always got his head up, trying to create something. The best thing about him, though, is that he knows when to play simple — you can periodically see him noticing a hint of space for a through ball, but then reining himself in because the odds aren’t quite good enough to try it. His brain is just constantly going; when things slow down around him, he’s like a little kid which too much energy, almost twitching with the desperation to get moving again. Ahem. Yeah, I like him. He needs to play more and improve his constancy, but I like him. A lot.

•Bamogo must be infuriating to play with (and also, if the number of times/match that Antonetti screams his name is anything to go by, coach) sometimes. To be fair, his finish against Créteil was lovely — a little chip over the on-rushing keeper, cool as you like. But his decision making with the ball at his feet is either achingly slow, or too-frequently limited to a choice between “take on the defender” or “take on the defender.” (I’m guessing it’s a bit of both.) Given his success rate in beating defenders (even Championnat defenders) with the ball at his feet, passing really should be a more prominent option, particularly when he’s playing with guys like Ben Saada and Mouloungui, with whom playing a one-two is the most obvious thing on earth.

•Based (foolishly, I realize) on his six-plus minutes against Créteil, Quansah’s brain works like Bamogo’s should. He’s bubbling with pace and ability, but what was most impressive in those few minutes was his intelligence — he took people on when he was in a position to beat them, but otherwise played simple, and tried to create for other people. That kid has potential to be really, really good.

•The ferocity with which Mouloungui fights to get the ball back when he loses it is amazing — if Bamogo did that, he’d instantly be twice as useful. It would be awesome, though, if Mouloungui would do something other than just drive to the endline when he gets the ball out wide on the left. I get that he’s really, really left-footed, and that he can often either get a cross in or win a corner, but cutting inside every once in a while would make things a lot harder on defenders, and even if he can’t get a shot off, a few times a game he’ll have a chance to thread the ball through to Modeste, or Rémy or Bamogo.

* * *

Looking ahead to Nantes, despite his assurances earlier this week that he’d be ready to go on Sunday, Rémy is actually only 50-50 to play right now, pending further tests today. Traore is out for sure, but Cyril #2 should back, and Coulibaly is training again, so he could make the squad, as well. In other good news for Nice, Ivan Klasnic will miss Sunday’s match through suspension — it’s always nice not to have to face him.

And, even further ahead, Ospina’s been recalled to the Colombian national team — he’s one of only two keepers (the other is the current first-choice) in a very, very young team that’s been called up for Wednesday’s friendly against Nigeria. As usual, I’m having a terrible time finding information about their call-ups, but there’s a good chance he could be facing Apam, should they both make appearances.

Also, in matches not going to be played in Colombia, Ben Saada’s in the Tunisia side for their upcoming friendly against Ghana.

Report the First

Alright, so, the Lorient game. Ugh. Fantastic to play like that and get three points, but still — ugh. The goal was a stroke of luck, a failed clearance that ended up at Chouf’s feet with the keeper down, and which he rolled in to the near corner of the net as he was falling down. In reality, Nice rarely looked threatening (and seemed to be in more of a 4-5-1 than the 4-4-2 it looked on paper, so deep was Bamogo playing), and the few chances they created were squandered badly by Mouloungui. If this is life without Rémy, I don’t want to think about what will happen if he ever picks up a long-term injury. (Happily, he said on 100% Aiglons this week that he’ll be back for Sunday, so hopefully we can stick our heads in the sand about the possible striking problems a bit longer.)

In addition to the lack of threats going forward, I lost count of the giveaways even before half time — the match was just sloppy, and was played with a strange lack of urgency. Probably because of the slow pace things seemed to perk up a bit when Modeste went on late in the match — he may be artless, but he’s fast and wants to prove himself, so he doesn’t give up on anything and was involved with Nice’s most threatening moves of the second half.

In good news, though, the defense as a group were awfully good. Apam, in particular, was head and shoulders above everyone around him — every time there was a sloppy giveaway and Lorient were putting together an attack, he was there to clean up the mess, be it with a perfectly timed tackle or a smart interception. He really looked like a man among boys at times, it was a truly impressive performance. Cyril #1, also, was impressive, apart from the few times he caught the sloppy disease. He won everything that came his way in the air, and his distribution, for the most part, was quite good. (And that’s not just my biased heart talking — he made L’Equipe’s team of the week and everything.)

Additionally, Letizi was solid. He didn’t have much to do, but made a massive save early with his leg when he’d already committed in the other direction — it was the sort of save that looks lucky but, when you see the replay, is absolutely intentional, and just good goal keeping. Yeah, the old man’s still got.

* * *

Report the Second (such as it is)

I’ve not seen yesterday’s match and probably won’t be able to find it, so I can only rely on cheerful forum posts that indicate the 3-0 victory was deserved and well-played. So woo hoo! And well done to the team for not taking Créteil lightly.

Ben Saada scored his first goal for Nice (from the penalty spot) and reportedly had a really good match, Bamogo was threatening, Ospina made a couple big saves, Modeste scored, and Quansah played in his first professional match. Were it not for the injury suffered by Cyril #2 (coming right after he played a solid game against Lorient), there’d be nothing but smiles at Nice HQ this morning.

So Nice move on to the last eight, and will face Le Havre in the new year; the draw to determine the host will be held next week.

First, the team for tomorrow:

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Quansah
Absents: Coulibaly, Traoré, Rémy (blessés), Adu, Barul, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

Regarding the bad guys, they’re low in the table but have been getting good results lately, and are hard to beat at home. The good news for Nice, though, is that Lorient are in such injury hell that they’re down to their third-choice keeper for the match: Alban Joinel looks set to make his first Ligue 1 and Lorient appearance in the match. (What do you want to bet he plays a blinder?)

Away from the match, there has been a little news and a bunch of interviews in the last couple days:

•Lilian Laslandes has apparently turned his back on football and Qatar, and instead will join Bordeaux … and play for their handball team. Wow. Didn’t see that one coming.

•Mercato365 are reporting that everyone and his brother want Rémy. And by “everyone,” I mean Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal (because he’s French, and therefore Arsenal has to come up in every rumor), Juve and Sevillia, not to mention the French clubs who are inevitably sniffing around. Whew. Assuming he can keep banging in goals now and then, at least when he goes there’ll be come competition, and therefore maybe a reasonable price.

•Mercato365 also talked to Apam, who’s got a lot of level-headed things about say about his future: He sees Nice as a place to develop further, but knows big French clubs (OM and Lyon, allegedly) are tracking him, and admits he wants to play in England some day. With all the bullshit badge kissing that goes on these days, there’s something refreshing about a kid who admits his future is up in the air, no matter how long his contract runs. That said, I hope to god Nice can keep him next summer.

•Cyril #1 talked to the official site about being awesome, as well as the team’s effective (for now) mix of very old and very young players. Refreshingly, he downplayed the significance of the olds folks as mentors, insisting the youngsters know what to do, at least on the pitch, without having extra dads around to explain things to them.

•The official site also talked to Eric Mouloungui about his recent success in front of goal, as well as his reputation for being “nonchalant,” a line of questioning he handled remarkable well — no defensiveness at all, at least through Google translate. He freely admits that he needs to work on his focus, and reports that Antonetti isn’t shy about giving him verbal shoves. Somehow, that’s not surprising.

I’ll post a stream if I can find one tomorrow, but don’t get your hopes up.

After the first 30 minutes or so of Saturday’s match, you’d never, ever have been able to convince me that Nice would get a point. Not a million years. As everyone who gave voice to the obvious after the match (Antonetti and Cyril #1 among them) said, they gave Bordeaux waaaaay too much respect, and almost paid for it with a home loss. Happily, though, Nice managed to realize they weren’t playing Barca and gradually woke up — I was watching on a dreadful stream, but even I could tell they put together some nice passing moves in the first half, and were nowhere near as inferior as they’d appeared early-on in the match.

The best part of the whole match for me was injury time. It wasn’t even a little bit pretty, and was highlighted (lowlighted?) by a profound lack of organization, a couple bad decisions, and a near-disaster from Ospina when he took a bad touch and gave the ball away to Gourcuff, but Nice were fighting like crazy, and you could see that, to a man, they believed they could get that second goal back. I don’t know if it was the fantastic support, or the massive stroke of luck in Mouloungui’s offside goal being allowed to stand, or what, but the belief was really, really great to see.

And, while the PK was wrongly given (ala that Lyon PK you may recall), Mouloungui was clever in looking for it when he played the ball into the defender’s body — I’m a huge Ben Saada supporter, but Mouloungui changed the game when he came on, just by being in the right place(s) at the right time(s).*

As Rool (who was old-man awesome) said after the match, it’s hard not to think of this result as balancing out what happened against Lyon. More importantly, though, it shown the team that they really can come back against almost anything. Getting a point after being down 0-2 with five minutes left probably won’t happen again for a long time, but the self-believe from Saturday will hopefully be around for a long while.

Now if they could just STOP GIVING UP PKs, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, we might be in pretty good shape.

Also, regarding the baby keeper: He looked bad on the first goal (I still can’t figure out why it took him so long to get across, he had to have been unsighted) and with that hairy touch in extra time, but other than that he was impressive. Made a crazy, reaction save with his legs shortly after the first goal, and got off his line really well when he needed to, in order to close down a couple breaks. Ospina’s pair of encouraging performances aside, though, Football365 reported Saturday that Letizi will be back in goal on Wednesday, where he’ll stay until the winter break. We’ll see if that actually holds true or not.

And, finally, Apam’s extension has been confirmed by people who aren’t his agent. At best, it means he’s getting paid better and will be around forever. More realistically, it means he’s getting paid better, and has graciously put Nice in a position to get more for him when the inevitable sale comes.

*It’s worth pointing out the class with which Blanc has taken those two poor refereeing decisions at the end of the match. As Antonetti could tell him, that’s not easy to do when you’re in the right — full credit to Blanc.

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

Absents: Cid (17 stitches in his head), Adu, Asamoah, Barul, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

* * *

So, word on the street — by which I mean the big French football papers — is that, after spending the week thinking hard and carefully examining all his keepers, Antonetti’s decided to go with Ospina tomorrow against Bordeaux. Awesome.

The kid performed impressively under immense pressure last weekend, and gave the eagerly optimistic among us no reason to throw out our hopes that the club my just have found a worthy successor to Lloris. Plus, ability aside, Opsina has a great attitude, his French is improving, and he’s reportedly hugely popular with his teammates (something which, amazingly, started before he spoke any French at all); he’s got all the easy stuff covered and, if Antonetti is ready to go with him again, it’s safe to assume the footballing part is there, too. (Even if Ospina does play, though, the gaffer wants us to know that it doesn’t mean he’s first choice for good quite yet. So, you know, no counting chickens yet and all that.)

* * *

Other news from this week:

•Needless to say, since there’s a match going on, the strike isn’t happening. That’s nice.

•Diakité and (of course) Cyril #1 are both at their card limits and will miss the midweek match at Caen. Additionally, the club have been fined €1000 for scofflaw supporters who used fireworks at Monaco. (That amount, by the way, is 100 times, give or take, what Spanish clubs get fined for throwing things on the pitch. At least Ligue 1 makes clubs suffer a little for fan behavior.)

•Derek Asamoah, who has been with the reserves since the start of the season, has had his contract terminated by mutual agreement. It actually happened last week, but (from what I’ve seen, anyway), the news just came out this week.

•Meanwhile, Apam’s agent is telling the press that his client’s contract has been extended for one more year, tying Apam to the club until 2013. Nice, however, have not confirmed this yet, so I have no idea if this is Apam’s agent just stirring, or what’s going on.

•And, finally, Raymond Domenech assistant Alain Boghossian will be at the Ray tomorrow, eying up players for the NT (Like, perhaps, The Next Zizou — For Real This Time!). No pressure, Rémy. Just breathe.

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.