Comments on: Friendly: FK Partizan vs. Lyon Liveblog

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:03:39 +0000

INARA you wont remember me i use to comment here.. i heard we are negociating for Samuel eto’o but they are asking a trade etoo benzema i woulndt like that deal AT ALL.. now if they add abidal i might think about it you guys have heard about this??

By: alex

alex — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:17:35 +0000

I can’t believe that photo with the Karadžić flag and the fascist salutes. I hope the EU starts putting some more pressure on Serbia now to get all of their criminals into the Hague and that their supporters can stop mixing football and politics.

On another note, vive la rentrée! Lyon’s midfield is getting me very excited for august. I think those odds on the next post might have to be revised if PSG get a striker.

By: Inara

Inara — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:26:56 +0000

Thanks, Nicolas! I really appreciated the first hand account.

1. That’s awesome how Benzema’s reputation is growing. I didn’t expect he’d get much recognition at Belgrade, but he did. Very cool.

2. So you think the kits look better in person? I’ve heard that from a few other people as well. I guess the camera makes them seem worse than they are.

3. It’s a shame about the political supporters because they can sour an otherwise fun affair that you’d bring your family too. But France and Italy have those same problems, perhaps not necessarily political, but some fanatic ultra groups can make things very unpleasant by violence. I really appreciate that you took the trouble to clear it up for us – reports were sketchy, so all manner of speculation has been going around.

I’m glad you had a good time! I have yet to see Lyon play live, so I am very envious.

By: Nicolas

Nicolas — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:26:13 +0000

Well, it looks like I have a lot of explaining to do. Here we go…

First of all, the game was played in almost unbeleivable circumstances with heavy rain and extremely cold weather pretty much untypical for summer nights here – all the supporters were frozen at the end of the game, and I have a feeling that it also affected the game a lot. Not that the players aren’t used to the rain, but the terrain was extremely slippery and play was pretty much dameged because of it – even Lloris had much troubles with the ball. It’s a pitty, really, that the damn rain started just at the start of the game.

The game wasn’t very interesting to watch, but there were some very good moves and my joy of watching Lyon couldn’t be tarnished even if they sat down and played poker instead of playing. Anyway, both teams made many mistakes and played rather disorganised, but the quality of Lyon players prevailed in the end. Lloris seemed very good, defense didn’t look very relailable, but physically very dominant, midfield was very solid thanks to Toulalan, perhaps the best Lyon player on the night, and the attacking trio, while they haven’t played as good as they should, managed to score goals. Pjanić was phenomenal for his age, one can only wonder what kind of a player he is going to be and how powerful his parnership with Benzema can become. Delgado also surprised me in a good way, he wasn’t spectacular but played very well, while the youngsters also had their chance to shine. All in all, a good impression by OL, especially when you look at the fact that half of the team hadn’t played since the Euros. The weak spot seems to be the defence (surprised, anyone?), but I guess that with the arrival of Mensah and with some more games to play in the pre-season, the back-line will be pretty damn strong, probably stronger than the one with Squillaci. The white kits are also very very nice, I don’t know why but they look much better now than in the previous seasons (perhaps because now I’ve seen them live?), and yes, I’m definetely satisfied with what I’ve seen last night. And yes, there was also a moment to remember – when Benzema got substituted, he was walking by the stands with his head down, but just as he came to the parts of the stands I was in, he looked at the crowd close to him and shown his thumbs up. All of a sudden, all of us in front of him applauded like crazy, it was rather unexpected after his two goals and the general lack of applause before that, even to the Partizan players! Who would’ve thought that a 20 years old boy would be so respected? It really looked astonishing.

About the fans chanting, well, it’s really complicated to explain, and it’s also very disgraceful. First of all, I assure you it doesen’t have anything to do with Lyon or with Miralem Pjanić, but with some political issues that are pretty ‘hot’ at the moment. Secondly, only the south stand (the stand of fiery Partizan supporters, mostly organized groups) actually participated in this ‘event’. Serbian fans have a long history of bringing politics to the stadiums, and when I say politics, I mean the present political issues that the fans chant about regardless of the opponent. And no, it’s not a choice of the fans themselves. The thing is, organized football fans in Serbia, esspecially those of our two big clubs, Partizan and Red Star, are very connected with political parties and some political interests in the country. Leaders of the supporter groups are almost all given instructions what and when to sing, what and when to do, even outside the football world (attacks on the American embassy in march come to my mind). Ten years ago, they sang about the downfall of Milošević (and even hepled depose him), today they sing it about president Boris Tadić, and because of the arrest of Radovan Karadžić, it could actually be expected they would bring the subject to the stands. But this was really unbeleivable, 95% of chanting by the south stand (the only stand that actually did sing anything at all) didn’t have anything to do with their club or the match taking place, it actually looked like a far-right political assembly! They sang about Karadžić, downfall of president Tadić, called for violence and revenge if general Mladić also gets arrested, and even burned the flags of Democratic and Liberal-Democratic parties! The whole event was so disgraceful, that all the people I know that were on the south stand were very ashamed for being part of this whole madness. However, this it totally a local political issue, there were no riots, there were no fights, there were just songs, and not a single word of the supporters was directed at Lyon or at any of it’s players. The same south stand actually applauded Karim Benzema as he was passing by after his substitution! The only player that probably had a very tough time was Miralem Pjanić, who is Bosnian Muslim, and who could feel pretty much affected by the chanting, often directed against his own people. But I assure you once again that that almost none of the supporters acually knew Lyon has a Bosnian in their lines, and everything that has been sang last night is typical for our ‘fans’. So, the whole affair is local, it is our own disgrace that needs to be taken care of if we want to save our football from total dissolution. There are fewer and fewer supporters in football games year after year (some 3000 regularily visit the 55.000 seats Red Star stadium, for example), those idiots in the stands make normal supporters avoid football stadiums at all costs and trust me that there is a general consensus here in Serbia that those so-called fans, a minority by all means, are a disgrace to the whole nation. I’m just sorry you guys had to hear so much about it and read reports on racism and probably many other false information. Like I said, all of this was not Lyon-related, all you have to do is to be satisfied that in your countries you can attend games without being forced to witness such a disgrace and moral downfall of your own people (even if it is a minority of it), and also to live your whole life tagged as a barbarian in the eyes of the whole civilised world because of some idiots that regularily keep making you look as such. Sorry for this long post, I guess I’m really pissed off because of this, and so is everyone sane that was there last night. All in all, it’s nothing you should worry about, I’m just sad for Pjanić, and also very happy he had a good game despite all of this. I’m once again sorry because of the lenght of this post, and if you’ve still read it, thank you for your time!

By: John

John — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:21:22 +0000

I hope Bodmer gets alot of playing time. Really don’t want to see him go. I’d also like to se a 4-1-4-1 with Pjanic and Ederson behind Benzema.

Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Mensah-Grosso
Toulalan
Bodmer-Ederson-Pjanic-Keita
Benzema

By: Megame

Megame — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:58:01 +0000

Inara: thanks for the great liveblog, and for the pictures (but it looks like we need a password to access them?)

One thing that strikes me is how easily Benzema adapts to other players: his association with HBA saved us many times last year in the first half of the season, he was getting along well with Fred on the pitch, he had an instantaneous complicity (on and off the pitch)with Ribery in the French national team, and now he immediately combines with Pjanic.
Talent aside, this is something I really value in a player; so, added to Karim’s amazing skills, it makes a hell of an asset for a team.

By: Inara

Inara — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:20:27 +0000

There might have been, but my grasp of French is very limited, so if there was, I missed it. I did read somewhere that Pjanic had a tough time with some of the chants (I don’t know if it was racial or not). Perhaps Nicolas, who was at the match, could clarify.

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:23:29 +0000

Was there anything on the Lyon commentary about what was going on around the ground? I read that there were riots related to Karadzic’s arrest during the match, and saw some pictures of people with tshirts of him inside …

By: lefutur

lefutur — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:19:50 +0000

don’t ask me why but i get the impression that puel will be better at conveying a sense that a big squad is needed to the players than previous coaches. players in the premiere league are used to competition for playing time but generally in france the good players expect to play and if they dont they get restless. puel needs to drive home “of course you wont play as much, you’re playing for lyon!” kind of attitude that will shut the divas up.

By: Inara

Inara — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:52:49 +0000

And here are some pics. I’ll post video highlights when they are available.