Well Deserved First Win

By: set | August 11th, 2008

Best way to start a season? Win in front of your supporters. I was at the stadium last Saturday to watch the game in a sold-out crowd. I’ve been there a few times these last few years and you could really feel the excitement people are having for the team. It seems that last season’s finish and the Trophée des Champions has really (re-?)awakened the love Bordeaux has for its players. Of course, it’s August, people are in vacations and can go to the stadium with more ease, but all the crowd was really cheering for the team, even in the difficult moments. And difficult moments in this game there has been ([/yoda]).

Starting line-ups :

Bordeaux: Ramé – Jurietti Diawara Planus Chalmé – Diarra – Wendel Gourcuff Fernando – Chamakh Gouffran
Caen: Planté – Lemaitre Sorbon Boucansaud Seube – Eluchans Deroin Proment Nivet Adnane – Savidan

Henrique suffers from a knee injury and had to give his place to Planus, who seemed to be the shadow of himself during the friendlies.
The rest of the squad isn’t very surprising. You could argue Cavenaghi should have started, but he may not be completely fit just yet since he had a extended summer break.

1st half

Bordeaux starts strong with a lot of offense right from the start. They showed a clear technical and physical advantage, with Gourcuff, Fernando and Chamakh winning their duels with ease. But despite 3 shots from Bordeaux in 13 minutes, and no real opposition, Caen scores on a well-managed counter-attack by Savidan, who escaped from Bordeaux’s defense before keeping his cool and serving Nivet with a calm pass. Very poor defense from us on this goal: Diawara makes a slide tackle in the wind, which lets Savidan run alone for a while, and poor marking in front of the goal.
The crowd was disgusted and the team seemed stunned. But they didn’t give up and showed some beautiful football for the rest of the first half, with numerous occasions, only the ball didn’t seem to want to pass the goal line that night. As if getting beaten this way wasn’t frustrating enough, Chamakh got injured on a tackle in Caen’s penalty area. The referee found the tackle fair, but gave a yellow card to Chamakh for protesting. Too bad for Chamakh to leave the pitch so early in the game (39′), because he was playing very well, with a lot of effective dribbling and passing, aside from his usual aerial superiority.
Cavenaghi replaced Chamakh, but didn’t really get to shine in the first half. Bordeaux looked very good during this half despite the score, but I was fearing all these efforts to come back would burn out our players.

2nd half

Despite my fears, the players still had some spirit and seemed eager to make a come back. Again, they got a hold of the ball, and Caen’s midfield was pretty much invisible. Our left side was the most threatening, with Wendel combining with Cavenaghi and Gouffran. Caen was still dangerous on their counter-attacks, but Bordeaux managed to _FINALLY_ score the equalizer (53′), with a nice shot by Gourcuff deflected by Sorbon. Luck was all we needed, and at last we got it. Nice to see how Gourcuff was happy when he scored, so much that he preferred removing his shirt than avoiding a yellow card.

The one-way game continued, with multiple scoring opportunities for our team. Bellion entered to replace Gouffran, Blanc trying to inject some freshness in front. Then Obertan replaced Jurietti at 79′. I like how the President is never shy to put all his offensive assets on the pitch when he needs too. Take a note Domenech.

One minute later, Gourcuff makes a beautiful curved shot on a free kick and Cavenaghi deflects it just enough for the keeper to hesitate. 2-1 for Bordeaux and Wendel, Gourcuff and Cavenaghi seemed relieved.

Conclusion
Beautiful game, excellent midfield. Gourcuff and Gouffran are really part of the team and the players seem to find each other with a lot of ease. These past 3 or 4 years, I was used to many more mistakes, in passes, controls.. but for most of this game, everything was close to perfection. We were only lacking effectiveness in front of the goal, which wasn’t really a problem last season, so I’m pretty sure it will get better as the season advances. The defense could have done better too, especially Planus, who really seemed to be out of it. He was outpaced all the time and seemed lost. I hope Henrique’s injury isn’t too serious.
Overall, the team looks even better than last year and could scare Lyon once again.

Here are the highlights :

Bordeaux – Caen 2-1 [DAY 1]
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