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1st XI v US MENAT
11th SEPTEMBER 2010
Having seen Pionsat's 1st XI dispose of Blot l'Eglise in the first match of the season last week, and having seen the 2nd XI lose earlier this evening against hated local rivals St Gervais, our attention turns towards another club new to this division, Menat. I'm not quite sure whether they are a relegated team, a promoted team or a team transferred across from another pool, but we'll soon find out what they are made of.
And still with no dictaphone we soldier on.
And we don't have to wait too long for the first action either. Menat concede a free kick in a dangerous position just outside the penalty area. There are a couple of players in Pionsat's 1st XI who can strike a good free kick too, and this one is a beauty right over the wall.
Although the keeper has a good sight of the ball, it dips suddenly at the last moment, almost catching the keeper unawares. He has to be alert to punch it away from just underneath the crossbar with Cedric putting him under some pressure.
The ball goes out for a corner and this is swung into the area from the right-hand side. There's no-one putting the keeper under any pressure at all but nevertheless he elects to punch the ball clear rather than to catch it cleanly.
It's always a useful sign to see how the keepers react to balls like this. Where the keeper's handling is ever thought to be anything like suspect, this is the cue to pack the goal area with your tall players and go for the aerial route at corners and free kicks.
And the goal that Pionsat have been threatening to score for a while finally arrives. It's a breakaway down the right wing and one of the forwards, Thomas I think it is, runs down to the inside right position, pulling the whole central defence with him, to receive the pass.
The ball is played infield towards Thomas and as it reaches him he cleverly steps over it and it rolls to Cedric, totally unmarked in the centre-forward position, and he has the simplest of tasks to slot the ball home. The defenders, running back to try to intercept, are nowhere.
The second half opens with Pionsat still on the attack. Cedric jinks his way down the wing past a couple of despairing tackles and although he ends up almost on the goal line, he has a shot at goal that catches almost everyone unawares.
It's hacked off the goal line by a desperate clearance from a defender and neither Nico nor Matthieu could catch up with it. If Matthieu had been 5 yards further forward he would have had a simple tap-in
Pionsat extend their lead a few minutes later and once again it comes from a break down Pionsat's right wing, or Menat's left-back position whichever way you might like to see it.
And when the winger has beaten his defender and found that little clear space he puts a beautiful high ball into the penalty area - something Pionsat should have been doing all night. Cedric rises really well to meet it and puts in an excellent header right over the Menat goalkeeper who has advanced rather too far into no-mans land (or no-persons land for the benefit of any Open University students reading these pages) for my liking.
Goal number three would be the candidate for goal of the season in any league or competition you might care to name. It's all Nico, who wins the ball in his own half and then sets off on a run, this time down the left wing by way of a change.
A couple of defenders have a go at trying to stop him but he shrugs off their tackles. He skips round a third one and finds himself right in front of the goal so he shoots back across goal into the bottom corner leaving the keeper and a couple of defenders helpless.
Never mind whether or not Menat have much to offer - Pionsat's attack is electric tonight.
The fourth goal was pretty neat too. Sébastien, who has been playing in central defence for the last 6 months even though it's not his best position, intercepts a ball deep inside his own half of the field.
A quick look up, and he hoists the ball high over the defence. Thomas, who has only been on the field for 30 seconds, runs onto the ball from deep, cleverly beating the offside trap, and curls a beauty right around the keeper into the far corner of the net.
Anyone who has been following these pages from season 2008-09 will remember balls like this. In those days Sébastien and Thomas were playing for the 2nd XI and this was how they won the 3rd Division championship.
So I don't know where Menat came from, but I can guess where they might be going if they can't improve on this performance. It was a pretty one-sided match and I can't honestly remember Matthieu in the Pionsat goal having anything much to do, despite having a makeshift defence in front of him. With Yann out injured, Sébastien (normally an attacking midfielder) was partnered in the centre of the defence by Pierre, who is normally the right-winger. And they weren't put under any real pressure either.
Six points and a goal difference of plus-five after the first two matches of the season looks quite optimistic for Pionsat, but there will be much-tougher matches than this as the season drags on.
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