Stade Malherbe Caen: April + May 2010

Hi guys! I left you with the fact that i was 2 points adrift the Ligue 2 leaders Sedan Ardennes. 6 more matches to go, 4 in April and 2 in May. I’ll take you through them all in a rather quick succession. Qualification was in grasp and coming 1st 2nd or 3rd didn’t really matter and 4th placed Havre was already somewhat cut of from the chase.

First up is the away game against Angers.

Angers — SMC   0-1  (Dady)

A rather dominating win and they couldn’t muster any real chances and we did just enough to secure this win midway through when Dady turned and shot a powerful finish in 56th minute — 0-1! Dady really used his newly learned trait — Shooting with power — to his full extent in the last games of the season.

Next up was…

SMC — Havre   2-1 (Tafer, Yatabaré)

This was the important game to win to really be sure of qualifying, even though we had to lose many points in the last 4 games if 4th placed Havre would have any chance of taking 3rd place. Anyhow at the start of the game we certainly looked a bit nervous, giving away the ball easily and letting Havre setup a few nice attacking moves. That paid off in Havres favour because in the 9th minute 0-1came from Youssouf in a nice move being played in from the left winger past the goalkeeper where Youssouf could tap into an empty net. We picked it up right after the goal and decided to give nothing more away setting touchline shouts to «work ball into box» and «pass to feet». In the 22nd minute Tafer was the man to do it. 1-1! A beautiful through ball from Nivet sliced their defence open and Tafer could run from behind one of the defenders and come up one-on-one with their goalie and easily place the ball on the inside of the right post. Havre couldn’t cope with us after this and the second goal for us was just waiting for it’s scorer. 2-1! Sambou Yatabaré got the credit, after pouncing in a mixed up situation he headed a looping ball over the keeper and scored the winner for Les Malherbists.

Qualification was achieved! The last few games would also decide the winner of Ligue 2. At this point it’s tied at the top between Sedan and us. They have a better goal difference by 3 or 4 goals.

Dijon — SMC   1-4 (El Arabi, Dady, Nivet, N’Diaye)

Dijon got a red card in the 6th minute so it was easy sailing after that. El Arabi was a make-shift Striker in Tafers absence. Yatabaré had proved himself good on the Right wing so i tried El Arabi in attack. He slotted home his first goal of the season thanks to me, then Dady, Nivet and substitute Ismaïla N’Diaye put the game beyond doubt.

SMC — Berrichone 2-0 (Dady x 2)

An effortless win against La berrichone. Dady powered one in after 30 minutes and then he finished it off with another strike in the second half. Sedan Ardennes drew their game this evening and we’re in first place!

The last two games are in May and they were against Istres and Metz, none of them really a treath to us.

Metz was a bit of a challenge thanks to their lone striker Razak Omotoyossi, but we managed a draw. Sedan couldn’t pounce on this opportunity and instead they lost their final game leaving me clear in top by 3 points.

SMC wins Ligue 2!

They have a weird system when giving out awards at the end of the season. You get to vote for the best keeper by handing out 5,3 and 1 points to a pick of 6 Goalkeepers. My Gk Thebeaux was in the pick and had the best average rating, unfortunately he came only in second place after Sedans Gk — Benoit Costil. Then there’s the other weird thing that every position has two awards or to be exact the Gk has two, and the outfield players share three. Best of the season and Star of the season (+the players’ player award). The last award could technically go to a Gk aswell, it’s the players pick.

Team of the year is also divided in Team of the season and Stars eleven. I don’t know the real difference, one might be more stats based and one actual performance based.

There they both are with slight differences.

My team stats were following:

At this point I’ve already played a few games into the new season i Ligue 1, Got the transfer budget news and bought a whole batch of new players. But you’ll have to wait until the next post. I can give you this…  I bought 2 Colombian players who will be in the first team for next season. Guess which ones?

Take care!

Majk