CdF SEMIFINAL: Lyon vs. Sedan

By: Inara | May 6th, 2008

Guess the last time that Lyon played in the Coupe de France semifinal?

If you guessed 1998 - exactly ten years ago - you’re absolutely correct. The last time Lyon actually won this cup was 35 years ago. That was back in 1973, an event that dwarfed Watergate, the first season of The Price is Right, the last epidemic of smallpox, and Roe vs. Wade.

Here’s hoping that 2008 will bring that cup back home to Lyon.

May 7th, 2008
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3 PM Eastern Time (21:00 CET, 20:000 GMT)

Match background:

All you hear out of the Gerland these days is that the “title is the priority,” “Nancy is a more important game than Sedan,” and “the Coupe de France would just be a nice bonus.” Yeah right. If Alain Perrin doesn’t win the double this year, his ass is fired. Actually, he’ll probably be fired regardless of results, but at least winning that cup double would make him a victim of Aulas’s tyranny, and people might feel sorry for him. But if he loses both, that makes Lyon the victims.

Sedan were one of last season’s promoted teams but ended up going right back to Ligue 2, where they are solidly midtable. But don’t let this fool you. They’re in the semifinals at the expense of Caen, Nantes, and most recently, Bordeaux.

They have a fairly decent offense, with 43 goals scored, only conceding 39. Their top scorer is Marcus Mokake with 7 league goals and another two in the CdF. Unfortunately, I don’t get to watch much Ligue 2 (it’s simply impossible to watch it in the US), so I can’t comment on Sedan’s players this season. But what I can tell you is that they are a favorite destination for a lot of loanees. This season, Sedan has seven loaned players from other teams.

Last year, Lyon fell in love with Nadir Belhadj’s performances for this team and signed him in the winter (though that didn’t work out too well). They also lost the services of Joseph-Désiré Job (who came up through OL’s youth academy), as well as a whole host of other players following their relegation last year.

It’s still unclear exactly how Lyon will be treating this match. Due to the fact that the Nancy game is three days after this one (Lyon’s latest appeal to change the date was rejected), Aulas has been crying in the media about French football’s nonexistent conspiracy theory against his club. You know, I love Jean-mimi to death, but sometimes, his over-the-topness gets embarrassing. If Lyon were 17 points ahead and playing a relegation team three days after the Sedan game, you know Aulas wouldn’t care. But I guess he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t dramatize everything.

Lyon are in the middle of a scoring crisis (well, by their standards), as they haven’t been scoring as easily or frequently as they did in the first part of the season. Part of the reason is that Karim Benzema is dead tired while Hatem Ben Arfa doesn’t get to play (our two biggest offensive weapons right there). And also, the rest of France have suddenly improved their defenses 200%.

Lyon info:

No new injuries to report, and only Cleber Anderson is still recuperating. Patrick Muller should be playing for the reserves this weekend (his first game in practically a year). Kim Kallstrom, who had to leave the pitch last weekend against Nice after hurting his ankle, has been declared fit to play tomorrow.

Le groupe lyonnais: Coupet, Vercoutre, Grosso, Réveillère, Clerc, Cris, Squillaci, Boumsong, Toulalan, Crosas, Källström, Bodmer, Juninho, Govou, Ben Arfa, Delgado, Keita, Fred, Benzema

Both Anthony Reveillere and Fabio Grosso are back from suspension, which means that Lyon have a left back again. Note that despite this being a cup match, only senior players are in the squad,

Expected lineup:

Perrin said that he plans to mix his best players with his most fresh players (but Perrin has mislead us on this before, so don’t get your hopes too high up) and that certain bench players would get some playing time. Keep in mind that Lyon play Nancy in three days, so that will affect squad selection to a certain extent.

Coupet
Reveillere - Squillaci - Cris - Grosso
Crosas - Toulalan - Bodmer
Govou - Fred - Ben Arfa

Since both Anthony Reveillere and Fabio Grosso didn’t play last weekend, they should be playing tomorrow. Cris will undoubtedly be playing - it’s a toss up between Sebastien Squillaci and Jean-Alain Boumsong. I went with Squillaci, but Boumsong could be there as well.

In midfield, Juninho should be spared since Nancy is the more important game, though again, Perrin may chose to start Juninho and then take him off early in the second half. Either way, he should be replaced by Marc Crosas. Since Kim Kallstrom is just coming off an injury - albeit a minor one - it makes sense to start Mathieu Bodmer in his place. And as we all know, Perrin prefers Kallstrom in the important games.

Up front, I think Karim Benzema will start off the bench. But it could be like the Juni situation - he might instead be subbed off later on. But he won’t be playing the entire 90 minutes, that’s for sure. Fred on the other hand is ready to go and should start the match. Sidney Govou is my guess on the right, but it just as easily could be Kader Keita (Perrin will probably draw a name out of a hat). Cesar Delgado is also a possibility, but it’s more likely that he’ll come on during the second half.

Viewing options:

I shall be watching this game on Setanta. Finally. Those Chinese streams are making me cross-eyed. However, for those of you who don’t have Setanta, I’ll do my best to post some working links before the game. And as always, check out this site.

Expected result:

I’m going to be conservative and guess 1-0. I can’t imagine Sedan scoring against us (though stranger things have happened), but I can imagine Perrin telling Lyon to conserve their energy and just do the bare minimum (which could see us lose).