6 draws in 9 matches. Claude Puel’s OGC Nice is on track to match the record held by the Girondins de Bordeaux (20 draws throughout the 2004-2005 season). Saturday’s away match against the struggling and presumably tired defending champion Montpellier, worn out by their Champions League match, will be an opportunity to show that the red and black are capable not only of playing well but also of earning points.
The match against Saint-Etienne (1-1) mirrored the start of the season. A promising team effort, a controlled game despite a strong start from Saint-Etienne, classy plays, especially the one leading to Bauthéac’s goal, but an equalizer conceded on an ostensibly innocuous play, and an exasperating lack of luck—or realism—in front of the goal.
“Ayyyyyyyyyy dariooooooooooooooo !!”
This tweet from Chechu Bonelli, the lively partner of Dario Cvitanich (474,000 followers, not that it’s a small amount) sums up the anticlimactic end of the match experienced by Ray’s spectators. When Eysseric was awarded a penalty in the 85th minute, no one imagined the Argentine striker would miss the target so miserably. Solid and enterprising until then, and having scored 4 goals in the last 3 matches, “Super Dario” had the chance to confirm the Gym’s good start in the game and further establish himself as one of the good surprises of the 2012-2013 vintage. Instead, he walked off sheepishly 3 minutes later, leaving his team mired in 15th place, two points from the first relegation spot.
However, Cvitanich is not the only one to blame for this new home misstep. He was actually the originator of the blistering counterattack superbly finished by Eric Bauthéac in the 37th minute. With this lead, the Nice team managed the second half calmly against increasingly resigned opponents from Saint-Etienne. Too calmly, in fact. The passivity of the Nice defense on Brandao’s pivot goal, despite him being one of the slowest strikers in football history to turn around, is utterly inconceivable.
It is this lack of attention, particularly in the last quarter of an hour (7 goals conceded out of 13), that Claude Puel must emphasize if he wants to exploit all the potential shown by his team since the start of the season, and in this regard, the trip to Montpellier comes just at the right time.
The Right Time to Go to Montpellier
In a state of grace, if not overdrive, throughout last season, Montpellier is experiencing difficult times, exacerbated by Loulou Nicollin’s foul mood and René Girard’s repeated outbursts. Passionate duo “à l’ancienne,” the two eccentrics have shown they were capable of galvanizing an average group to lead them to an unlikely championship title. But in certain circumstances, they are two potential sociopaths. Circumstances like a rough season start, for example…
The Montpellier team, which ranks just behind Nice in 16th place, has already lost five times in the first nine matches, only one less than in the entire 38 matches of last season. In other words, a crisis is brewing. The Montpellier side suffers from the syndrome of surprise qualifiers for the Champions League, similar to Toulouse and Auxerre in recent years, who fought to avoid relegation after qualifying for the premier competition.
Despite a relatively stable squad, René Girard’s team has lost what made them strong: their defensive aggression and hyper-realism in front of the goal. Like its Nice counterpart, the Montpellier defense is regularly punished without really being in trouble, whereas in attack, Olivier Giroud’s replacement, Colombian Emmanuel Herrera, has been transparent so far.
The Champions League likely drains a lot of physical and mental energy from a small, inexperienced squad. Fortunately, before facing OGC Nice on Saturday, Montpellier tackles Olympiakos, a rough Greek team, in an already decisive match that one hopes will be quite exhausting. A golden opportunity for the Nice team to show they can win against teams other than Brest, who were crushed twice (4-2) in September amid a flurry of draws that earned them more compliments for their team play than points.
by Xavier GARCIA
