Lyon vs. Le Havre AC

My view is that the introduction of any system has to be gradual in order for it to succeed.

Why not just start with "was it a goal" decisions. If video review avoided one Reading/Watford incident, it would immediately gain credibility.

I also completely agree about post-match review being more than sufficient for disciplinary questions. There is no need to interupt the match in those cases.

Such a joker system would be a transposition of what is going on in tennis, where players have a limit to the Instant Replay Challenges (of the referee's call) they can ask for.
Another possibility to reduce the cases to where they matter most is to leave it up to the referee and in cases of dubious goals only, like in rugby. If the referee is comfortable with his or his assistant's judgement then he doesn't require it. For any other cases (fouls, fights, etc..) unseen by the referees, a commission is currently being set up for the French League 1 who will watch the games in the following days and possibly call for sanctions for the players. So there will be justice without stopping the game for a replay.
To me such the best is probably allowing the referee to call for replay when needed in case of a goal only while reviewing the games during the following week. I am not so much in favour of allowing the teams coaches, captains or whoever else to challenge a referee's decision.

Jo, I think it is definitely worth trying, though if the initial idea is only to use video in cases where the question is whether a goal was scored, then it shouldn't be necessary.

A, I was only quoting your prior post. Why don't you engage with some of the proposals on this thread?

I think my "joker" solution actually is a good idea.
But I guess everybody cannot agree with that.

It's possible to achieve it partially (it's actually much more so than you care to admit). It's happening right now. All games are played with 11 a side plus three human officials.

Don't throw the football baby out with the fifa bathwater. Besides I haven't heard one good idea on how to actually implement videos by its proponents in the first place.

To me the idea is nice but slightly idealistic, and above all not too relevant in this debate. Again, looking at rugby, I fail to see how video refereeing damaged this "universality". In the areas where people play rugby, they still need a ball and four posts, that's it.

How can one adhere to an important principle that is impossible to acheive even partially?

Universality is an important principle to adhere to, even if it isn't possible to achieve it absolutely or even partially.

Certainly more important than the pursuit of 'justice' in a one off competition via the pandora's box of videos.I wouldn't be surprised should people start clamoring for retrospective amendments to titles on video evidence. Replay of 66WC final anyone?

I strongly agree that the "universality" argument is rubbish.

Most of the organised football played in the world is played on pitches without grass, and much of is played with officials that are either supplied by the competing teams or hopelessly under-trained and under-paid. To say that those matches are played under conditions identical to those of the finals of the Champions League or World Cup is to insult the intelligence of the people who play and love this sport.

Arne-

My first European football match was OL-Grenoble this year; I can tell you that you'll pick up the chants really easily as they're very simple... often a player's name or "OL" or "Lyonnais" sung to the tune of a song you'll recognize, or something as simple as "Ben-Ben-Benzema".

The other piece of advice I'd give is to do any eating and/or drinking before you go. Stade Gerland isn't like your typical North American stadium experience with a hundred nacho/popcorn/hot dog/Dippin'Dots/pretzel/beer stands. There's a stand selling some sad-looking sandwiches and cokes, and that's about it. If you want to buy any OL gear, do so at the store across the street before you go into the stadium (or better still, the less-crowded downtown store near Place de la Republique so you can arrive at the match already decked-out).

Be prepared to remain standing and singing the entire time...

Oh, by the way Arne, I'll be in Gerland on Saturday too.
Just ask if you have some questions, need some advices or else.

Excuse me, but that idea of "a football that is simple and universal, that can be played the same way and with little resources by everyone, everywhere in the world" just made me laugh.

When a player can be buy 100 000 000 euros by another club, and be paid so much money at 20yo, have the best training pitch in the world, the best shoes, the best physical trainer, and so on... you can already say that there is two levels of speed in the football !
Some African young player just play without shoes, and without grass (sometimes even without real ball).

SO PLEASE ! Football has already differents levels. So I think that, for the "professional" level, we need "professional" technics of refereeing.
It seems obvious that the video can be one of them.
That would also be a clear fight against the supposed fixed games, SO that would add some justice in the football, as opposed to the argument of a "universal football". Today, some "rich guys" can pay to fix a game up. Where's the universality ?

There are many way to introduce the video. Not on every action (it would be impossible and really annoyed), but we can just use it for questionable goals, like the ball behind the line or not, like offsides not whistled, etc..
We can even imagine a "joker" system. Every team would have 2 video jokers in the game, and can use it when they feel there has been a mistake by the referee. Only 2 jokers cannot slow the rythm of the game...

We just have to think of it and to HELP the referees. They are 3 (4 ?) for a hundred meters long pitch. That's pretty how much they are for hockey, handball or tennis pitches !

^OOOPS^

Of course, I meant the OL v. Nancy match. Sorry!

I know this is not about the Le Havre match, but it's th most current item ...

I'm going to the OL v. Lyon match this weekend (Sept 27). It's my first visit to Lyon, and my first football match at this level ... we had an NASL franchise here in Vancouver back in the day and currently have a USL1 franchise, soon to be MLS.

So ... anything I should look out for? Chants I should know? I'm resonably familiar with the Lyon players (as familiar as I can be through the internet), but want to make the most of my experience.

I'm in Canada by the way. Don't let the flags fool you.

I tend to agree with Platini in that football should be kept a sport of the people...not the elites. Most other sports require a lot of equipment, investment, organisation etc. With football all you need is a ball.

Sam: What I understand is that Platini (and the -conservative- International Football Association Board, football's ruling body)have a philosophy: a football that is simple and universal, that can be played the same way and with little resources by everyone, everywhere in the world. They consider that requesting such an investment (several high speed cameras, a recording system, several screens, etc...) would de facto create several tiers in the world of football: the clubs, leagues, federations, countries who would be able to afford this, and the others. This school of thought wants to keep the human(as opposed to technological)side of things. We should continue accepting the imperfection of football (the glorious uncertainty of sport). On top of this, Platini seems to fear opening the Pandora's box: after a goal seems to have been scored following a free kick, the referee would pause to check if the goal is valid; and then the replay would for instance show that the ball indeed went in, but that it was touch by somebody's hand; but then that player may have been pushed, so that may be a penalty; and the free kick at the origin of all this might appear unjustified, etc... He says matches might last 4 hours with video...
So this is what I gathered from his position. I won't comment on the stupid "It will be my pleasure that Arsene Wenger never sees video refereeing happen".

Megame: I just read on the Wenger/Platini feud, and fail to understand Platini. He seems way out of lines - making childish remarks about Wenger at every opportunity. I think his views on the video replay are out as well. I'd agree with you that video refereeing has been great in both tennis and rugby - so really would love to see it in football. It would make the game fairer and clearer and I don't fully understand the footballing authorities reluctance to introduce it at all

Nikola: I see both.

I agree Jo, Mounier deserves a start, and he is a goal scorer, although he is not prolific enough to be a striker. If only we had not sold Remy...sigh.

Not that I want to spark another heated debate like the OL-Fiore one (that neverending succession of pointless attacks is by far the most boring and regrettable thread I've seen on this blog) but here's an attempt to wake people up : have you guys seen the bad (personal) exchanges between Platini and Wenger? And beyond that, what's your opinion in this debate on using video versus having more referees on the pitch?
As a keen rugby game lover I have to say that to me video has undoubtfully added to the clarity of the game, improved the credibility and performance of refereeing, without slowing down the pace, as it is only used when the action has ended and the game has stopped already (a try seems to have been scored, and the referee can ask the video referee for confirmation).
As a tennis lover as well, I also find that the electronic replay of a questionable call -as to whether the ball is in or out- is a positive way to avoid disputes and give peace of mind for the player...
What do you guys think?

Stop talking of the flags its boring,guys.

The game was at Le Havre, and I watched it in a pub in Lyon.
So I have nothing to add to what has already been said. I think you all said everything we have to keep in mind.

I'm just thinking that Mounier will probably be our starter on the left against Nancy, since Govou get a red card.
Good for him, he really desserve it, and needs to score for his confidence, because HE IS a goal scorer, with the CFA.

I see those new kits with all their bright colors, added to the speed of our players, seem to give us all hallucinations! It is obvious that Inara is from Germany, like Nikola, Sidney Govou, Ronan, Pele, Will and many others, while John is indeed hiding in Costa Rica, Pride of Lyon in Japan, Andy in Norway, Wedge in France!

@John: I'm just curious, do you see just the Costa Rica flag or also the name of the country? I see everyone as American (including myself, altough I'm not in the US) but there's no name of the country - just the flag. I guess it's default for people to see the flags of the country they are in, but that doesn't explain why Inara has a 'habit' of posting from Sweden and Germany. So it definetely doesn't work very well at all.

@Pjanić: I'll sure watch out, who knows where I might end up next? :)

My flags show Pride of Lyon from Japan, Andy in Norway, and everybody else is in Costa Rica were I currently am.

I sure Boumsong will leave. And I'm not sure if Fred leaving on a "free" is such a bad idea: If he keeps playing like he has been and signs a new contract, above what he currently makes, I'm sure Lyon would have to sell for much less than the contract is worth: his current market value. And Toulalan, along with Lloris, are the two players I would love to see do a "Coupet" and play their whole careers at Lyon. Although now-a-days I know that's almost impossible.

Just so you know Nikola, you are in Australia now! Watch out for those kangaroos ;)

I guess the flags tend to be the one of the countries you live in. In my case, almost everyone is supposed to live in Japan. So, there is a kind of favoritism made on the flags according to where you log in.
I am actually waiting for a Jo full report on the game. He is the closest to the real action from us all, and always brings a whole new view on the game (such as when he said that from his seat he saw the hand which led to the winning penalty against Nice).

When I first visited this site, nearly half the flags were from Serbia and I was really astonished to see so many Lyon fans from here. After that, I've never seen any Serbian flags (or to be precise, the flag of the non-existent country of Serbia and Montenegro) and as you can probably see, I never had any flags whatsoever except the US flag without the name. So, to sum it all up, I don't have a clue what's going on with the damn flags. :)

All of my flags are from Norway, Except from John; Who is from Costa Rica...

I wonder who else will want to leave during the winter. Once everyone is healthy, it'll be interesting to see how Puel manages playing time for so many players.

I think Delgado will be gone in the winter transfer window. Boca Juniors were supposedly interested during the last transfer period.

Hey,delgado hasnt been given a chance,I can imagine him being a real terror when hes loved and on form.

When everyone is fully fit this is the team i would like to see out
Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Mensah-Grosso
Keita-Ederson-Toulalan-Pjanic
Delgado-Benzema

would it be too soon for jokes (after the lyon-fiore blogsplosion) to suggest that ederson went down like an italian for that penalty? JUST KIDDING IT WAS TOTALLY LEGITIMATE, I AM NOT SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC CULTURAL IDENTITY, THESE COMMENTS DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE MANAGEMENT.

was a good game, bit of a nail-biter toward the end. lyon strung together a few nice attacking moves even on 10 men. it would be nice to see them finish more chances - this game should have been out of reach well before govou's 2nd ankle-chop.

hey inara apologies if this has been discussed, but what's with the wild "posted from" flags? i've posted from canada, france, USA, all in the space of one week, all with no jet-lag! do i have some kind of crazy travelling IP address? i notice you posted from sweden last night....

Hi ! (first comment on this website)
You can also download resumée, whole game and text-resumee of the game on http://ol-videos.xooit.com/ind... .
Inara, I thought about something, this site is a Lyon-fansite where you can find basically every videos of Lyon (whole match, resumee, interview etc) for free (but not legal...) , it's a french one but many people on it can speak properly english ,what about subscribe to the site (for free of course) and then post link to download resumee on your blog ? If you have trouble on the site, just send me an e-mail ,i'll help you !
Bye.

Is there a video clicp,resumee of the whole game? I can't find nothing on youtube.

So i reckon if we did want remy back nice would slap a big price tag on him and also after his poor treatment at lyon he would be reluctant to return anyway.

Remy was a trade for Lloris. I think Lloris' signing cost 500,000Euro more than Remy's. I wish they would've just loaned him till Benzema leaves.

Do lyon have some dodgy by back clause on remy ? or is it Benarfa ?

Well,we need money for a new stadium.So,probably we'll be a selling club in the next 2 years.

and I too am convinced...sniff..where to you think? And how much money? 100 million?

everyone is convinced Benz will leave this summer...

Gogs: I too love the Ederson-Pjanic-Benz trio. Too bad Benz will probably be gone after this season. Would have loved to see Pjanic develop along side Karim.

Not only does our lack of scorers scare me vis-a-vis these teams, but if our defense continues like it is, Marseilles especially are going to make Swiss cheese out of us.

we need Ole Gunnar Skolksjaer

We have alot of creativity, alot of pace on the wings, and two solid DM's, all of which adds up to an incredible midfield. But without Benzema we are a blunt instrument. And with Cris off-form and Boumsong/Mensah looking shakey still we are not as assured in our play as we should be. Lets hope the center back pairing gels more over the coming weeks, and although it is strange to say, we will have Grosso back (thank god!).

As for Benzema, when he leaves, which will happen, Auluas will buy one, if not two, of the hottest strikers in Ligue 1 to go along with Yannis Tafer and Yann Ekra from the academy. Because I assume Fred will be dumped this year as well.

I am delighted with the trio Ederson-Pjanic-Benzema.They are the future of Lyon.When Benzema came in Pjanic raised his game for 100%.He's just 18 and plays already at the top level.Benzema is already world class,but Ederson and Pjanic are going to be soon.Well done Lyon,keep playing like that...

On that point Inara I would agree 100%...it's on my wish list, as well as a RB, LB and CD. Everywhere else, I think we're fine. Though if you wanted to work a little bit on the AMR position that would be ok too. That said, any striker options out there for maybe the january mercato or probably more the summer transfer season?

A righteous penalty it was though, so it is acceptable. But piquonne is not the kind of depth we need to win the CL, much less a Ligue 1 match!

We have a lot of hot prospects on our side and generally have quite a youthful squad...we need to be patient and realize they're only gonna get better as the season (and years) go by...

We need someone else to start scoring! I called it 1-0 with an Ederson goal, but I was hoping it would come from open play. If it weren't for the penalty, it would have been 0-0.

Also, I was going to say this would have been a good game to play Kolo in, atleast to get him some action, but with the sending off it seems like that would not have been a wise move.

bordeaux wins with 9 men

gotta love the sweet taste of of a Lyon victory in the morning...

I think Mounier has done well so far, I see hime starting more often in the future, he has the trickery to get passed Ligue 1 defenders. We really do lack a proper left winger, because even though Ederson is excellent, he looks a little uneasy so far out wide.

Boumsong is at RB and Reveillere is move upfield.

benzema goes close...

makes sense, bodmer is an excellent all around midfielder, but i still dont trust him at the back. Hoepfully he shows enough to play alongside one of Makou or Toulalan, i think both of them is a little over kill especially against Le Havre.

the rmc commentators are impressed with mounier's play since he came on.

boumsong on for ederson.

Mounier OHHH!!! so close kid keep at it

And Le Havre took out Lesage. That's half of their offense gone.

i don't mind playing our youngsters against Le Havre - if not them then who?

pissed off at kallstrom for playing like a midfielder at LB?

wow. bordeaux just scored with 9 men.

lefutur: that's what I was thinking. Kallstrom is better offensively and defensively.

shouldn't kallstrom be playing though...not mounier, imo.

Revault is keeping them in this game.

too bad they can't shoot for the hell of it

Le Mans vs. Marseille on TV5 next weekend

guys, chill...let's just get out of here with 3 points, that's all that matters today. And you know what I think of Govou already, but cut him some a bit of slack on this one...he'll be suspended for a game or so and he'll get his rest while we play Keita maybe?

I can't wait to see how good Pjanic becomes as he ages. Hatem who?

Joa: It wasn't even a tackle, it was like he was chopping wood.

pjanic was having a good game...why take him off?

Govou should've been the first one off, being exhausted and having a yellow. He takes Piquionne out? He should've gone to a 4-4-2 with Piq if he wanted more offense.

John i agree.Pjanic was one of the best,in my view even the best.Great passes and combinations.He should have played the whole game.

Just a silly attempt at a tackle. He was already on a yellow. He asked for it.

Inara: he nearly hacked off a player's legs from behing, after already having picked-up a yellow. Stupid!

Now, Mounier in for Pjanic with 20mns to go and one man down. I don't understand that move.

Govou..........

puel's substitution is suspect for sure.

I don't know why Puel didn't sub Benzema for Govou, as Sidney already had a yellow, and he's been absent in this match.

this is where the term "grind it out" comes from

govou just looked tired today, as do a lot of the players...understandable, really...

it's a pleasure to watch Pjanic and Benzema playing together.What a combination! Again great pass from Pjanic and a shot from Benzema.

Govou, what an idiot!!!! Red card.

Puel wants to turn-up the heat late in the game and put the game away. Benzema is the only player on the bench who can do that. Since Juninho won't play today.

Inara: I agree. Toulalan can't take much more of that.

Benzema in?

rusty? he's played every single game for lyon and france. he needs a rest.

Pjanic and Benzema is a beautiful thing!!!!

how is cris playing today?

Benzema in for Piquionne 55'.

2 red cards for bordeaux...lol

Why is Benzema warming-up?

Great pass from Pjanic to Piquonne!

If you think that Mensah throw was good, check this out :
http://goal2net.blogspot.com/s...
the Stoke city - Everton highlights, starting 1:01, Stoke city scored 2 goals from insane throw in's

Okay, this is completely irrelevant, but I'm watching the news on TV5Monde, and I'm finding it very funny that they pronounce the name of Russian leader Putin as "pyoo-TEEN." As opposed to, say, the French way. Which might possibly sound like "putain."

The penalty was a good call. There wasn't even much complaining from the Le Havre players nor the crowd.