Comments on: Rangers 0 – 3 Lyon: Ibrox Conquered

By: guignol

guignol — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:15:25 +0000

baros hair was horrible? hey, he’s a professional football player, he’s required by contract to have crappy taste in clothes and haircuts.

juni gave up the captaincy in a hissy fit. now? cris may be bad, but he’s not bad enough to ask juni for that armband back!

post match on C+’s juni was interviewed by… houllier!and when GH made a joke like “well, you said don’t want to be captain, eh … ” they both almost fell down laughing!

By: Inara

Inara — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:42:51 +0000

I was watching this game again on UEFA, and two things struck me. First of all, when the players were in the tunnel waiting to come out, Juninho was rousing the players by shouting “Allez Les Gones, Allez!” He looked like he hadn’t slept in five years, all bearded, ferocious, and badass, and despite it being Rangers’ tunnel, he was acting like he owned the place.

I can’t believe this man stepped down as our captain!

Also, there was a post match interview of Kim Kallstrom in English. I’ve heard him talk in French and Swedish but never in English. It wasn’t like I expected. My crush on him still stands, however.

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:42:08 +0000

I think I am manly man, but I have to admit crying once Benzema scored, it was a beautiful moment.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:31:12 +0000

Another thing worthy of note, and this might just be my opinion, is that Baros’ hair looked absolutely horrible! In all seriousness though, the substitution may have just been a distraction to the Rangers defense. If Remy was substituted, the same goal may have happened. They just didn’t look ready for the restart of play. After the second goal, Rangers already gave up. Milan is a great passer, not sure if he’s a great striker anymore, but he is a compliment to Benz…not a necessary player imo.

By: Inara

Inara — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:53:22 +0000

Also, I forgot to mention two important things in my match review. First, of the 16 clubs in the knockout rounds, Lyon have the WORST defense, with 10 goals conceded. Compare that to last year, when we had the best defense with only 3 goals conceded.

Additionally, Juninho, Reveillere, and Govou are one yellow card away missing a match through a suspension. Last year we lost Toulalan during that crucial second leg Roma game, and the year before, we lost Juninho for the first Milan leg and Tiago for the second. We all know how those games turned out.

By: Inara

Inara — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:42:08 +0000

Evilo: Lyon did say they would be looking into recruiting players during the winter. The name most commonly linked with Lyon in terms of strikers is Cesar Delgado of the Mexican club Cruz Azul. I don’t know much about him though I don’t know about bringing in a 26 year old South American striker. Also, I can’t wait to see Keita return to his form of last year. Then Lyon will be unstoppable!

Ray: I agree that Kallstrom seems to have a lot of influence among the players and enjoys being a part of the team, but I do wonder how loyal he is. Abidal was also a key player but jumped shipped as soon as Barca started sniffing around. Or maybe I’m just being cynical.

Ratoune: I don’t know, time and again I was struck by Lyon’s defensive fragility. There always seemed to be a lot of confusion back there, as if the defenders weren’t sure whose job was what. Still, I hope you’re right. For all of Houllier’s wrong tactics, his insistence on defensive stability was what I really liked.

Ush: Lyon have said they will be looking at the defensive situation during the mercato and will hold discussions with player who are thinking about leaving (Baros, Belhadj). Cris may not be fit in time for the knockout rounds, and I’m sure Lyon won’t go into that tie relying on Anderson. As it is, Lyon are an injury and a suspension away from lining up two CBs.

Guignol: I personally don’t rate any of those players, but for all of Cousin’s ineptitude and Beasley’s averageness, they did a lot of damage at the Gerland in October. It goes to show that when motivated, even the worst player in the world can seem like one of the best!

Ian: Welcome! I’m glad sopcast is working out for you. I don’t know how I’d manage without it because it’s nearly impossible to watch Lyon in the states any other way.

The sad news is that Cris might not be healthy in time, at least according to Perrin’s latest press conference (I’ll try to get a translation up of it tomorrow). Even if Cris returns to full training by late January/early February, he’s 30, so he has to be careful not to rush his recovery. And it will take time for him to return to form. So Lyon will definitely need to make a new purchse (or Anderson will have to be become world class). But Cris will be back for the CL quarterfinals…because we WILL be there!

Lefutur: I agree with your assessment on the strikers. Even though Baros hasn’t impressed, he’s still a good player and a very good professional. The way he’s handled his current situation is exemplary, and I hope the other players (Nadir, I’m looking at you) take notice. As for Fred…he’s capable of SO MUCH. He just needs to grow up. Maybe he should spend some time with Ben Arfa, who made the jump to adulthood just this past summer.

By: lefutur

lefutur — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:59:35 +0000

i think kallstrom is a great player and an important leader in the team. lyon shouldn’t sell him. as for the striker situation, i’m a little unsure. fred is obviously going through some confidence problems and has a bad attitude but should OL get rid of him? i dont know. same thing for Baros. he hasn’t been scoring but is he a bad player? like Inara said , as soon as he came on the field OL scored 2 goals. I think he might want to leave but he shouldn’t be dismissed as a failure.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:43:29 +0000

hello everyone this is my first post..i became a lyon fan about 2 years ago by playing fifa.have followed them very closely for about 2 years now and this team is very exciting. just started getting the sopcasts to work a few months ago because of your links inara i love reading you posts on everything i think you do a really great job.
my question is will cris be healthy for the first knockout stage? i know coupet played in a match about a week ago so i expect him to play but i know very little about the progress of cris because i do not speak french and the english portion of the lyon website is sub par.
if you have any information that would be great

By: guignol

guignol — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:23:27 +0000

ratoune, if darcheville had been able to score that goal he wouldn’t have even been at ibrox last night he’d still be in bordeaux.

when you have to worry about whether guys like darcheville, beasley or cousin are healthy…

By: Ush

Ush — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:52:36 +0000

Fantastic, I’m so happy here. Lyon have got where they deserve to be. It was bound to be rocky goin at the start with new coach and players but I think now things are gelling and obvious weak links showing themselves.

Perrin and Aulas now need to try and buy a world class centre back and backup goalkeeper for Coupet and Lyon would be not a bad shout for the Champs League. Attacking-wise we are up there with the best of them. I’m gonna put a bet on now!