Milan Baros is obnoxious, Lyon plays like crap

By: Inara | April 19th, 2007

So not only didn’t Lyon formally win the title yesterday (thanks to a 0-0 home draw with Rennes), Lyon’s Milan Baros has also been accused of racism.

What a way to celebrate title number six.

Ged’s party face.

First, the game, which was really boring. Even as a diehard OL supporter, I kept on changing the channel. Nothing happened in it. There were no real shots on either goal, no saves to make, not even any cool fouls. Rennes had an excuse - they were missing some of their defenders. But Lyon’s lineup featured Juninho, Tiago, Govou, Baros, Toulalan, Coupet, Abidal, Cris, etc. Basically, everyone who played yesterday was a starter except Hatem Ben Arfa.

I didn’t even realize that Juni and Tiago were on the pitch, their contributions were that nonexistent. And Govou who? At least Cris and Squillaci did their jobs, while Lyon’s best player was Jeremy Toulalan. Juninho, by the way, threw a small fit when he was subbed out.

The sad part was that Lyon wasn’t even trying to win. They had a great opportunity to clinch the title and celebrate it on their home ground, but they just played a couple of backpasses to each other, and the only time any shots that could potentially threaten Rennes’s goal was when Juni lined up to take a free kick - and those were unspectacular. End result: a drab tie that Rennes didn’t even have to work hard for, and only one point, which means that Lyon still needs one more point to officially be champions.

Lyon basically are champions, thanks to the huge goal difference. Even if Lyon lost their next six games, and Toulouse won the next six to be tied on points, Lyon’s GD is +32, Toulouse’s is +5. Houllier says Lyon are the champions, but Aulas is being more circumspect, saying not yet.

Pitch The players were so pissed off (I don’t know why - they’re the ones who decided to play like crap) that they didn’t even stay to applaud the audience, going straight to the locker room instead.

Gerland fans normally never boo their own team, but yesterday’s lackluster performance and the players’ attitudes were so disappointing that even loyal OL fans whistled their team off the pitch. The stadium literally emptied in ten minutes. It was not quite the reaction that Houllier was hoping for.

See, it’s not just me who is unhappy!

About the Baros situation: Bob has already covered this, but I thought I’d mention it here too. Lyon and Rennes players were getting into mini scuffles throughout the match, Baros especially being fouled quite a bit, a few times by M’Bia. At one point during the match, Baros pinched his nose and waved his hand in the air, gesturing towards M’Bia.

Baros: “I didn’t know French, so I expressed myself as best I could.”

Stade Rennes is saying that Baros’s gesture is racist. Baros is saying that he isn’t.

Baros barely knows five words of French, he’s still living in a hotel, so I’m inclined to believe him when he says that he couldn’t say what he wanted to M’Bia. The “you smell” gesture” has nothing to do with skin color, just overreacting, and he probably did it without thinking of black or white. But he was obnoxious, and that gesture would have pissed off anybody (and Lyon really could have come up with a better excuse. I wish Baros had just been honest and said that while he did to it to piss off M’Bia, he wasn’t being racist - so much more believable). And with football taking a stricter stance on racism these days, Baros might not be able to get out of this. It also doesn’t help that the fashionable thing to do in French football is to jump on the anti-Lyon bandwagon.

Lyon is backing up Baros 100%, so it’s now up to the LFP’s Discipline Committee.

Here is the video clip of Baros’s gesture. What do you think?