Lyon vs. Lorient Preview

By: John | August 16th, 2008

$\"Benzema scores Lyon\'s only goal in last year\'s 2-1 loss to Lorient.\"$
Benzema celebrates after scoring Lyon’s only goal in last year’s 2-1 loss to Lorient.

This week, Lyon travel to Brittany to face FC Lorient at Le Stade du Moustoir. Lorient is currently tied for 2nd place with seven other teams in L1, having defeated Le Mans 1-0 in the first week. Although Lorient dealt Lyon a defeat last season, history is not on their side when these two teams have met. Here is a complete history of the meetings between the two teams:

- 2007/2008 – 18/08/2007 : FC Lorient 2 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lorient: Vahirua 14′, 66′. Lyon: Benzema 32′.

- 2006/2007 – 16/09/2006 : FC Lorient 1 – 3 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lorient: Ciani 69′. Lyon: Tiago 6′, Fred 62′ and Malouda 65′.

- 2001/2002 – 17/11/2001 : FC Lorient 0 – 3 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lyon: Carrière 9′, Anderson 30′, and Govou 31′.

- 1998/1999 – 22/08/1998 : FC Lorient 0 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lyon: Grassi 58′.

Lorient is lead by coach Christopher Gourcuff, father of Bourdeaux’s Yoann Gourcuff. Gourcuff is a club man having played for Lorient and has had two stints as coach for the club, with his latest tenure going-on 5 years now. Gourcuff has kept this mid-level team in L1 for the last three seasons with a mix of solid defense and low player turn-over. Lorient’s defense was ranked 5th in L1 last year. They have a solid goalkeeper Fabien Audard, who’s looked solid everytime I’ve seen him play. This year’s squad, aside from the string of injuries plaguing the club, is pretty much the same as last year.

Here is what Claude Puel had to say about Lorient’s squad:
“It’s a difficult team to play. They posses a collective mastery; they recover collectively. They take-on the opposing team. They’re very solid in their 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. They are very disciplined with or without the ball. They always make the game interesting, and they start the season off well. Last season at Lille, we had problems with them on the first day, (0-0). We know what to expect.”

If Lorient’s defense if solid, it’s offense is abysmal. Last season, their offense ranked next-to-last. And this is where Lyon wins the game, because added to the fact that Lorient’s offensive output is downright amenic, their two best scorers are out due to injury. Both Marana Vahirua, and Rafik Saifi are out for this game. Vahirua and Saifi accounted for 66% of Lorient’s offensive output last year. And Vahirua was the author of the two goals- he scored (3) in five appearences last season- that sunk Lyon in last year’s 2-1 loss. The only bright spot for Lorient’s offense is that Sunday will mark the debut of the Ghanaian international striker Andre Ayew, on loan from Marseilles. Though Ayew is a technically gifted player, he’s yet to score in nine club and ten international appearences, so hopefully he won’t have a break-out game till week three. Lorient’s defense is very solid, but due to their lack of offensive weapons, barring a complete collapse of the Cris-Bodmer backline, and unless Lyon’s offense stalls, I see a 1-0 victory for Lyon.

Injuries: Looks like Cris is finally feeling confident about his knee, having sat-out last week’s game while continuing to strengthen it. John Mensah is out. He has been practicing, having gotten over his calf injury, but now he supposedly has an abdominal problem. The “rock” is starting to chip! Both Keita and Fred will be out, though they should both be cleared to practice next week. And of course both Francois Clerc and Fabio Santos are out with long-term injuries.

Le Groupe Lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Gassama, Réveillère, Cris, Boumsong, Bodmer, Grosso, Faure – Källström, Juninho, Makoun, Toulalan – Govou, Delgado, Mounier, Pjanic, Ederson, Piquionne, Benzema.

Le Groupe Lorientais: Audard, Cappone – Ciani, Genton, Jallet, Marchal, Morel, Soro – Abriel, Amalfitano, B. Robert, Ewolo, Jouffre, Le Pen, Mansouri – Ayew, Gameiro, F. Robert.

Injured/Out: Buron, Le Lan, Marin, Namouchi, Pinard, Saïfi, Vahirua.

Expected Lineup:

———————Lloris————————–
———Reveillere-Cris-Bodmer-Grosso————–
—————Toulalan-Makoun———————
——————–Juninho————————-
————-Govou-Benzema-Pjanic/Delgado———

I will probably be away from a computer on Sunday and Inara is traveling, so if anyone finds any good streams, please post them here.