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FC BRIFFONS PERPEZAT v FC PIONSAT ST HILAIRE
30th September 2012
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People with very long memories will recall that we have been to Briffons before. But that was a long time ago - back in season 2009-10 and again in the Cup.
Back then, there was a low cloud sitting right over the Mont Dore just down the road which spoiled the view of the surroundings. This time, though, although I arrived quite early, there was another kind of view that absorbed my interest.
The Briffons' Ladies Team, in the grey was playing a team from the Cantal in the Auvergne Regional Feminine League, Chapelle St Laurent or something like that in the white strip, and so I stayed to watch that instead of going for a wander. They won, quite comfortably, 3-0 in the end which was no surprise as, apparently, they are second in the Regional League, or so I was told by one of the Briffons players whom I interrogated during the half-time interval.
I was quite impressed by the standard of the match that was being played, and any one of the two goalkeepers would have been welcomed to have turned out for Pionsat when they have been struggling for a keeper.
Talking of "struggling for a keeper", look who's in goal for Pionsat today. When I saw them warming up, I thought I didn't recognise the keeper but it is in fact Michaël Bucaud, who normally plays in attack. I talked to Vincent who told me that his big brother Matthieu has been called into work. François is still out injured, Phillipe seems to have finally retired, and I've no idea what has happened to the other Michaël - I've not seen him for 12 months.
As for the rest of the team, the defence is Sébastien, Gaëtan, Michaël Frau and Frédéric. Midfield is Pierre, Vianney, Emeric and Nico. The attack is Jonathan and Christophe. On the bench are Vincent, Fabien and Julien.
Lots of important players missing, not the least of course being Matthieu in goal and Cedric leading the attack, so let's hope that this team can give a good account of itself. The defence is a little makeshift, and they'll have to be very alert as Michaël will need all the help he can get.
Almost straight away from the kick-off Pionsat go on the attack. Emeric, who hasn't played for absolutely ages, puts a good ball right through the middle and he finds Nico.
Nico manages to work half a yard of empty space and lets loose a thunderbolt from about 15 yards out but one of the defenders sticks his body in the way somewhere on the edge of the goal area and the ball cannons away off him to safety. I bet he knew all about that.
Nevertheless, it's Briffons who open the scoring and it stems from a free kick just outside the area. The ball is curled in around the wall and blocked by one of the Pionsat defenders. One of the Briffons attackers on the corner of the goal area is the first to react to the loose ball and his shot goes into the far corner of the net.
There's not very much that Michaël could have done about that, and I don't think that a regular goalkeeper would have had much more luck than that. And even if Michaël had have put his hand to the ball, I don't like the idea of the Briffons n°6 lurking there unmarked a yard or two in front of the defenders.
Going forward, Pionsat don't look too bad and they win a free kick just outside the Briffons penalty area. It's taken by Pierre who curls it around the wall and the keeper moves across to take the ball.
However we all know how hard Pierre can hit them and this hits one of the Briffons and the wicked deflection is heading for the far corner of the net but the keeper does really well to change direction and stick out a hand to put the shot over the bar.
You can see Nico there in the photo, half a yard in front of the defender and looking for the loose ball - exactly what Pionsat should be doing at situations like these. Keepers don't often hang on to shots from Pierre and the dropped balls can go anywhere.
The referee plays a good advantage for Pionsat, allowing Christophe to break away down the right wing. Down near the corner flag he puts in a beautiful cross right into the penalty area and Emeric launches himself at that with another good attempt at a diving header like Vianney's last week .
He has about the same luck as Vianney did too, but Emeric's header goes off the top of his head and clean over the bar.
Talking about headers, I did another one of my famous "headers from the terraces". A wild clearance out of the Briffons defence into touch - right to me and I simply nodded it back into play, to a round of applause from the assembled multitudes.
Not only that, a few minutes earlier, another wild clearance out of the Briffons defence into touch, and I caught the ball with my left hand whilst hanging grimly onto the camera and the dictaphone with my right.
Talk about "audience participation". I ought to start charging appearance money, I reckon.
But enough about me and my shameless self-promotion, let's return to the match.
Unfortunately, this return to the match coincides with Briffons scoring their second goal. It's a break down the right wing and a good cross into the centre. A real goalkeeper might have done a little better there as Michaël had rather a tendency to lead with his feet instead of his hands, but nevertheless Briffons had three attempts to force the ball home - Michaël blocked one, another was kicked off the line and the third one hit the bar.
No criticism of Michaël though - you can't stick an outfield player into goal and expect him to have a goalkeeper's reflexes. He deserves a medal for volunteering, and his defence should really have done a little better with that.
The excitement isn't all about the players either. For the last 15 minutes, every time Pionsat have been on the attack, the Briffons linesman has raised his flag for offside, or or a foul or for something. I'm in no position to judge the offsides, but I've not seen any play that has looked any more foul than anything else.
Anyway, each time he raises his flag, we have the little muttered oath from the Pionsat players - Pierre had a
"ce n'est pas vrai" - "it's not true" and it was all that kind of comment - nothing offensive from what I heard (although I don't pretend to have heard everything), and certainly nothing persistent.
The upshot of this is that each time one of the Pionsat players says something, the linesman calls over the referee to complain to him. On the first two occasions the referee listens to what the linesman has to say, and tells him to ignore it.
On the third occasion, in the company of the Briffons captain who came over to calm down the situation, the referee clearly, by his gesture, tells the linesman that if he doesn't like it, he can go and sit on the terraces and someone else can run the line.
It seems to do the trick, for although the linesman carries on yapping and yapping for a good minute or so after the referee moves away, he calms down after that.
I had a little chat with Michaël during the interval. He reminded me that both goals came from the defence messing around in places where they shouldn't be messing around, and not clearing the ball upfield or out of play at the first opportunity.
The free kick was because of Pionsat panicking after losing possession during one of these exercises, when rightly the ball should have been miles away. The second goal came from down the left-back position, and again with the defence failing to clear the ball at the first opportunity.
It looks like Michaël has been reading my notes from previous matches. I've said for a couple of seasons that the left-back position has always been a problem position for the team whenever Gregory Richen doesn't play, and also that the team spends far too much time trying to be clever in defence when at this level the long ball out of defence and upfield, with the quick forwards that the team always seems to manage to find, is the most effective way of relieving the pressure on the defence.
Those of you with long memories will remember that Pionsat's 2nd XI won promotion, despite their shaky defence, with Michaël Hervé's enormous kicks out of goal and a couple of forwards whose pace left the opposition's defence trailing in their wake. What wouldn't they give for all of that now?
Half-time changes are that Sébastien is withdrawn in favour of Fabien, and Jonathan is replaced by Julien.
Jonathan can feel particularly aggrieved about being pulled off. The first few games that he's played for the club, he's put in some respectable performances to be sure, but in this match he's had an excellent game - easily the best that I've seen him play so far.
So we start the second half with Pionsat breaking down the left wing with Nico and Emeric combining well, and the ball is crossed right over the penalty area to the far post to Christophe, totally unmarked, who has a free header on goal.
Unfotunately he puts his shot wide of the post, but this is an auspicious start for Pionsat. A few more moments like this won't go amiss.
We have to stop however, for a brief moment of First Aid. Pierre has been hit right in the stomach by a full-blooded drive from a Briffons player, from a range of all of about three feet.
He went down like a sack of potatoes but the Briffons n°9, who clearly knows a thing or two about this kind of thing, runs him through a few exercises to help him regain his breath, under the watchful eye of the referee.
It's nice to see this kind of co-operation between the teams out there on the field. Could you imagine Manure Knighted and the Scousers helping each other out like this?
Mind you, they might not have been so keen to help out if they had known what was going to happen a minute or so later.
Pionsat finally make it onto the scoresheet and it all happened so quickly that I missed it - I can't even tell you who scored it. A direct free kick from outside the area right into the far corner of the Briffons net with the keeper and his defenders nowhere at all.
20 minutes later (it's wonderful having a timer on your camera) Pionsat score the equaliser. They win a throw-in and take it really quickly, right over the head of Emeric who is distracting everyone on the right wing, and Nico runs in behind for the loose ball.
He drives it hard and low into the penalty area and Christophe, lurking about 12 yards out, hits it cleanly on the volley right into the back of the net. No keeper would have stopped that one, but you can see Emeric following the ball in just in case the keeper should put a hand on it.
Briffons aren't finished yet though, and we almost have a disaster at the back as Gaëtan misses his header out of the centre of defence and lets an attacker through;
There's a one-on-one with Michaël in the goal and you wouldn't usually lose your money predicting the outcome of this, but Michaël stands up really well and manages to stop the ball, preventing a certain goal. He can be proud of that.
At half-time we were discussing long, high balls out of defence to put the opposition under pressure, and Briffons do just that. Right into the Pionsat penalty area and there's another one-on-one between a Pionsat defender and a Briffons attacker. The attacker breaks free and bears down on Michaël who once more does really well to reach that ball and push it away from danger.
Pionsat are living dangerously here and you can't expect Michaël to keep on doing this. He's a forward, remember, not a goalkeeper. Pionsat really need to concentrate and clear their lines much more effectively.
5 minutes later Pionsat, somewhat surprisingly, take the lead. Michaël Frau wins the ball in defence and goes on a merry, mazy run all the way forward to about 30 yards out from the Briffons goal line and then plays the ball wide to Julien out on the right wing.
Julien's cross goes right across the penalty area to Vincent who has just come on to give Emeric a breather, and he heads the ball back into the goal area where Christophe gratefully sidefoots it into the net with the keeper well-beaten.
We have another moment of crisis in the Pionsat defence with Michaël once again coming to the rescue, but (finally) a long kick out of defence to relieve the pressure on Michaël and the rest of the Pionsat defenders, and to put the pressure on Briffons, as I have been saying for years, finds Vincent down the wing.
Vincent plays the ball on for Julien who simply steps inside his marker and fires inside the keeper's near post for Pionsat's fourth goal. Just like the old days this was, when Pionsat's 2nd XI used to score like this for fun. Ohh happy days!
Julien once more does well down the right wing and puts in a good cross over the defence to the far post where once more Vincent is lurking. Vincent has a good effort but his shot hits the post and then the keeper desperately has to claw the rebound away for a corner before it rolls over the line.
Yes, that was a shame. Vincent deserved a goal to his credit because he's done quite well since he's been on the field.
So having seen a Great Escape last night at St Eloy when the Miners came back from 3-1 down with 10 minutes to play to win 5-3, we have another one here today.
I must admit that my heart was in my mouth when I saw yet another guardien de fortune out there for Pionsat but Michaël played really well and kept his team in the game with some intelligent play at some vital moments when he was on his own with a Briffons player beaming down on him.
The other Michaël played really well at centre-half and Gaëtan, who partnered him in the centre of defence, looked quite at home there for much of the game and I wonder whether it might not be an idea to try him there for the 2nd XI with Fabien playing at full-back, especially since Fabien did okay out there when he came on at half-time.
I haven't seen Emeric play for ... ohhh ... years, I reckon, and he had a really lively performance in the centre of midfield for Pionsat. Julien and Jonathan had their best games for Pionsat today, but they will always have the disadvantage of being measured against Jérôme, who was outstanding at this level of football and how he'll be missed.
Vincent was a little anonymous in his first game for the club the other week, which was hardly surprising but in the 15 minutes or so that he had on the field today, he did really well - making a goal for Christophe and only being denied himself by the woodwork. He's just come up to the club from the juniors so he has plenty of time to learn, and the jump up from there to the senior side is enormous, but he needs to start on the beefsteaks and the weight-training otherwise defenders will just push him off the ball. But like I said, there's plenty of time for that.
All in all, a good performance by Pionsat today and they can be proud of this result.
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