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3rd XI v CS MANZAT 10th APRIL 2010
Before I begin, I should mention that Manzat are top of the league and going well. And they have scored in double figures against a couple of the basement clubs as well as putting 8 past Pionsat in the encounter at Manzat. So no-one here is under any illusions. What we are talking about in this match is "goal difference". And half the regular team is missing too. I notice that there is no Xavier, no Max, no Eric and one or two others are missing as well including the guy who has done some useful work in the centre of defence and whose name I have forgotten and which I will remember as soon as I press "upload".
But in the early minutes of the game it's clear that someone has obviously been reading my notes of previous matches. I've made mention of the lack of command in defence but already in the first five minutes Damien is hurling out commands and instructions to his players. That's a positive sign and I wish that someone had done that earlier in the season. Damien is certainly making his presence felt.
And Manzat take the lead following a typical Pionsat tactic of watching the ball being passed around the edge of the penalty are with no-one taking control of it. Manzat win possession of the ball and pass it out wide, dragging Damien out from between his posts to the right. Once he's out there they switch direction to the left and pull him across.
Once he is well out of position the ball is played back into the centre to an unmarked forward who has the simplest of tasks to slot home. Stay between your posts, Damien, and don't get dragged out wide.
And how many times is it that I've said that at this level the defenders need to be whacking the ball upfield or out of play at every available moment? Pionsat's defence lacks the skill of many other teams and they can't afford to take chances or dally on the ball.
We have to wait for some time for a second goal and once again it comes from Pionsat messing around with the ball on the edge of the penalty area and not clearing it upfield or out of play.
This time Damien wanders forward off his goal-line and the Manzat player who wins the ball looks up, sees Damien 8 yards off his line, and lifts it over the top and into the net. Stay on your line, Damien, and don't wander forward.
But never mind the keeper - look at the defence. There are two Manzat players who have got in front of their markers and no-one coming across to cover them. Just about everything that could go wrong for Pionsat went wrong there.
Manzat's third goal was a break down the inside-right position that pulled the entire defence across to their left hand side. The forward then passed the ball inside to two of his colleagues standing unmarked in the inside-left position against Damien who is all on his own He didn't have any chance at all to keep this out.
This is a shame because after conceding the early goal Pionsat have been playing well for the last 30 minutes or so and have kept up with this big physical Manzat team.
We almost have a fourth goal too. And again it's Pionsat's defence not clearing the ball and messing around with it on the edge of the penalty area. One of the big Manzat forwards takes charge, brushes off a weak tackle, and unleashes a wicked shot across goal.
But that shot, if that's what it was, is more likely to trouble the corner flag than it is to trouble Damien. It went miles off target.
And so we get to half time and it's a shame that Pionsat had this three minutes of a lapse of concentration just before the whistle. Going into the dressing room 1-0 down would have given them quite a boost and would have been exactly what they deserved, instead of conceding these soft goals.
10 minutes or so into the second half Pionsat concede a fourth goal, and this was something out of nothing.
The ball was in the Pionsat penalty area and looking quite safe but a big Manzat player wins the ball, does a nice neat little sidestep to catch the defender out of position and that half-inch of space is all he needs. He slots it home just inside Damien's near post, even though Damien is at full-length trying his best to keep it out.
And Pionsat pull one back, which was most unexpected, and from the most astonishing ball I have ever seen. Jerome, or was it Stephane, wins the ball from a throw-in and with nothing else better to do as he's all on his own, he puts a high ball, a real Eddie Waring "up and under" or chandelle as they call them round here, into the penalty area.
And with no Pionsat player around and with no pressure from anyone, the keeper advances to take the ball and the centre-half retreats backwards to head it.
The keeper sees that the centre-half is going to make the ball first and so he stops exactly where he is and doesn't retreat to his goal-line. The centre-half leaps up to head it but catches it on the back of his head and loops it up over the keeper. The keeper, hopelessly out of position, gets a hand to it but can only palm it into his own net.
And for a few minutes after this Pionsat are revitalised and take the game to Manzat, and it's all very exciting. Had they not conceded those two soft goals near the end of the first half we would have had quite a game on here.
There's a new player on the field for Pionsat who I don't recall seeing before. He's not as young as he might be and he's clearly not match-fit so he's only playing in bursts of about 5 minutes or so. But when he has his breath he's causing this Manzat defence quite a lot of problems when he's having a good run at them.
Now the Manzat no10 who is captaining the side is clearly upset about something. He's been whinging away all throughout the match and has had a series of confrontations with Matthieu who is refereeing tonight.
This time it's occurred just after Matthieu has awarded a throw-in to Pionsat although I can't believe, in view of the persistence of the no10, that it was the throw-in that caused this particular episode. More Manzat players join in and so the Pionsat team goes to Matthieu's support.
Matthieu, by a series of gestures, tells the no10 that if he doesn't like Matthieu's decisions then he can always go and sit in the dressing room for the remainder of the match.
Pionsat are still hanging on and there's some good defending from them just now. The ball is played into the penalty area down the inside-left position and the forward playing there puts it in over to the right-hand post.
The player there gets in a shot and Damien gets down well to block it. He can't hang on to the ball though and one of his team mates slides in behind him and hooks it out for a corner. Oohhh for some tenacity and persistence like this in that three minutes just before half-time!
Because of the dsrk conditions you can't see this image very clearly (and oohhh for some floodlights at 500 lux as well) but the figure third from the left, over on the far side of the field near the halfway line is in fact the Manzat goalkeeper who has dribbled his way out there with the ball.
He shows some quite good ball skills for a keeper and as he realises that he has the mesure of this Pionsat team he's been taking the mickey out of them a little as they have come forward in search of the ball when it has been in his possession. I must admit that I spent the entire second half praying for a Quiroga - Roger Milla moment from Italia 90. But nohap.
And there's yet another desperate moment in the Pionsat defence. Manzat go off on a quick break down the field and it's about three on one. A goal looks inevitable and a Manzat player blasts it in.
But there is a Pionsat defender on the goal line who kicks the ball off the line but only as far as another Manzat player. He goes for glory and this time it's Damien's turn to scramble it away.
Again the ball goes only as far as the third Manzat player whose turn it is then to have a go, but the Pionsat defender is still on the line and he hacks the shot off the line and away upfield.
It makes you wonder how well Pionsat could be doing if they could only show this much tenacity throughout an entire season.
Right near the end Manzat score a fifth goal. It's driven in from the edge of the penalty area and catches Damien flat-footed, so he can only stand and watch it go into the far corner of the net.
But have a close look at the centre of this image. There's a Manzat attacker all on his own right in front of goal with not a defender in sight. And over to the right there's another Manzat forward who has crept in front of his marker.
Yet there's still time for Manzat to score a sixth. The Pionsat central defence has now blown up completely and is thoroughly exhausted. Two Manzat players break free down the right wing and pull the remaining two defenders to them. The Manzat winger then passes the ball into the empty space and another Manzat forward running in slots it past a despairing Damien.
Poor Fabrice who is playing at centre-half is halfway up the field totally out of breath. He's not as young as he used to be, and the same can be said of several of the other Pionsat players.
So, the positives of this game are
i.... Damien taking control of the defence at last and yelling at them for much of the match
ii... A more-committed approach from some of the defenders
iii.. A full team out on the field and even a substitute on the bench
And the negatives?
i.... Damien needs to stay between his posts and close to his goal-line and not go wandering away, and to work on his fitness if he's going to stay as the team's goalkeeper next season.
ii... the lack of concentration in the defence
iii.. the lack of fitness of the team in general
But this match was always going to be a problem. Manzat are a big, heavy, intimidating side with some good footballing players all of whom seem to be called "Mohammed" or "Farid" or something. What this team is doing in the fourth division is something I dont understand and they are much too good for this level of opposition.
But had it not been for these two little spells of lack of concentration and lack of fitness at the end of each half the result would have been much closer. Max wasn't here and neither was his regular partner in central defence. Just imagine if they had had been here on the bench and the central defence had been rotated during each half. There wouldn't have been a fitness issue then. You can see that it's all boiling down again to a lack of effective numbers, which has been Pionsat's problem throughout the season.
It's strange to say that the 3rd XI can take some confort from this result and this performance but Manzat beat Marcillat 14-1 earlier in the season and in this match we were a long way from that result. And with a bit of luck, plenty of preparation, a good deal of work on the fitness levels and a bit of co-operation from the 1st and 2nd XIs they can give teams like this a good game.
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