On Thursday, July 31, at noon, the official team presentation will be held in the gardens of the Palais Masséna, which just a few days earlier hosted the Olympic athletes from the Côte d’Azur. Then it will be time for the training session at the Stade du Ray on Friday at 6 PM, exclusively for subscribers. On Saturday, the team will head to Le Touquet for a friendly match against Lille. It’s a packed schedule for the young eagles, who have only 9 days left to stretch their wings before their first major test in Le Havre for the opening day of the championship, which will be played on Saturday, August 9, before hosting Nancy the following Saturday at the Ray.
Last year, the team from Nice narrowly missed their chance on the first day, losing in Caen, and everyone is hoping for a different outcome from the trip to Normandy to start with 3 points in the bag before hosting Nancy, led by Pablo Correa, who came to lose at the Ray by the smallest margin last January (1-0). The last friendly matches against Nîmes (4-0 victory), Grenoble (2-1 victory), and St Etienne (3-3) have shown a rather pleasing side of the new squad of an insular coach determined to improve on last season’s respectable eighth place.
Regarding the Olympics, two players from Nice will partake in the Olympic adventure as Onyekachi Apam will play with Nigeria against the Netherlands, Japan, and the USA, while Kafoumba Coulibaly will represent Ivory Coast against Argentina, Serbia, and Australia. Both players will be unavailable until at least August 14 unless their teams make it to the quarterfinals (16/08), semifinals (19/08), or even the final set for August 23.
New season, new jerseys, new recruits… OGC Nice is stepping into the new this year, and even though there will be some regret playing another season in their old stadium, they are out to prove that one can bring something new even to something old.
