Day of Destiny: Auxerre vs. Lyon

By: Inara | May 16th, 2008

You wanted a title race? You got it!

Here’s the situation. Bordeaux trail Lyon by two points. Tomorrow, Lyon take on Auxerre while Bordeaux travel to relegation threatened Lens. Thanks to a superior goal difference, Lyon can win the title with only a draw. But if they slip up, and if Bordeaux beat Lens, then it’s over.

For the first time in seven years, France might have a different champion.

May 17th, 2008
Stade Abbe-Deschamps, Auxerre
2:50 Eastern Time (20:50 CET, 19:50 GMT)

Background info:

Remember when I said that I would love for France to have a title race? Well, I was just kidding. I don’t think my heart can take this suspense anymore. Lyon have never been so close to losing control of Ligue 1 as they have in recent weeks - despite having the best squad in the history of the club. Weird, right? But the time for analysis is later. First, we need to retain our title before we discuss all the things that went wrong this season.

So let’s get down to business. Auxerre is a hard club to figure out. They’re just average. Nothing great about them, nothing terrible either. They just exist to take up space in the L1 table. Sometimes they qualify for Europe and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they win games and sometimes they don’t. Their goal every season is simply to stay in the topflight..

Auxerre are what you would call a real selling club, who develop players simply to sell them. They’ve produced some very good talents in the past, including Eric Cantona, Djibril Cisse, Momo Sissoko, Phillipe Mexes, Laurent Blanc, Bakary Sagna, Basile Boli, and Abou Diaby. Our very own Jean-Alain Boumsong also hails from the youth ranks of Auxerre.

Unfortunately for them, all this selling has left them with a rather average squad this season. Benoit Pedretti, who left Lyon a few years back, is now the captain, while Remy Riou, a Lyon youth product, has taken over for goalkeeper Olivier Sorlin. Other current notable players include Thomas Kahlenberg, Ireneusz Jelen, and Daniel Niculae (who is their top scorer with 11 league goals).

While Auxerre remain the only topflight team never to be relegated, they did come close this season and are currently hugging an unassailable 15th place. So they can’t be relegated this year, though the team right after them, PSG, could be. This season, Auxerre have notched only eight wins at home, with a total of 32 goals scored and 49 conceded. That means that they have the third worst goal differential in the league, only behind Metz and Strasbourg.

Do I really need to talk about Lyon here? While I don’t see them losing to Auxerre, Lyon did draw at the Abbe-Deschamps last season (the game that won them the title actually). It would be criminal if Lyon ended their season with a draw, just criminal.

Lyon info:

I was REALLY hoping that Patrick Muller would have been at least on the list of players traveling to Auxerre, but instead, he’ll be with the reserves this weekend. What a sad note to end his OL career. Far preferable would have been one final game, even if it were only for the last ten minutes. Unless Perrin suddenly grows a heart and brings him along for the French Cup final against PSG…probably not though. Oh, and Cleber Anderson is still out. Duh.

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

Sidney Govou is suspended for accumulating three yellow cards in the space of ten matches. Besides that, everyone is healthy and available. This might be the last time we see Marc Crosas since I also doubt he’ll appear next weekend at the Stade de France. Unless Lyon buy him of course. Could this also be Hatem Ben Arfa’s last match? Fred’s? Kim Kallstrom’s?

I’m gonna stop going down this road to heartbreak right now.

Expected Lineup:

If I see Karim Benzema on the wing, I’ll scream. Really, I will. And then I will burn effigies of Alain Perrin in the fire and send a care package full of love to Ben Arfa. Because maybe if he had some love, he wouldn’t be thinking about leaving us.

Coupet
Clerc - Cris - Boumsong - Grosso
Juninho - Toulalan - Kallstrom
Keita - Benzema - Ben Arfa

Anthony Reveillere played in the last two games, so it’s about time we saw Francois Clerc again. Auxerre is Jean-Alain Boumsong’s old hang out, so he should get the start over Sebastien Squillaci. In midfield, Kim Kallstrom will probably start since this will probably be his last game at Lyon, and he’s been faithful all season. Juninho starting is a given. Up front…I don’t want to see Fred anywhere.

Viewing options:

Honestly, I have no idea. This is a very important match, but there are lots of very important matches this weekend with relegation and European spots all up in the air. And since all matches kick off at the same time, it’s hard to predict whether they’ll be decent streams or not. As always, check myp2p, rojadirecta, and my favorite, soccers.fr. Also, if you find a good link, please post it in the comments so the rest of us can share the fun.

Expected Results:

VICTORY!!! A TITLE!!!! CELEBRATIONS!!!!!! NAKED LYON PLAYERS!!!!!!!!

(That last one is for us girls).