Stade Malherbe Caen: December + January 2011/12

Here’s the update for my french ligue story with Caen.

It’s the two cold months of the year with a tight schedule and some minor transfer activity.

Decembers games:

I’m aiming to do a quicker post this time to catch up on my recent playing activity. The matches been played is of minor importance at this point. Though I’m in the race to win the league this year no losses are allowed but I’m through in the group so the final game against Ajax didn’t matter as I lost to Bayern and the chance of winning the group is therefor non-existent.

La Berrichone — SMC  0 — 2 (Deichelbehrer o.g, Milevskyi)

A game we dominated even though Marco Verratti saw Red in the 50th minute. Milevskyi also scored a seldom seen goal.

SMC — Ajax 1 — 1  (Yatabaré)

An even game where Ajax took the lead through Pacheco. Yatabaré equalised in the 85th minute and that was pretty much it.

SMC — FC Metz  3 — 0 (Okaka, Milevskyi x 2)

Another massivly dominated win against the punchingbags of ligue 1 this season. Milevskyi took another two goals to his name after a very good outing from him. I hope he can keep that form up.

Lyon — SMC  0 — 1 (Yatabaré)

Another red card for us but this time it was Eggert Jonson. Lyon couldn’t capitalise being one man more for the last 25 minutes. Yatabaré did won of those late goals again that we’re getting used to and gave us three vital points which keeps St.Etienne at bay for the time being.

On to the transfer window we saw Görlitz, Pape Diakhité and Joan Capdevila leave us for a total of 5,2 M £.

In their place I had to find a better Centre back replacement. Enter Sergey Ignashevich!

Thanks to Kolodzieczack playing so mature I had no need for Görlitz or Capdevila and no replacement either. Boka was doing great on the left wing and Eggert Jonson had total control on the right, while young Kolodz.. had cover of both positions, aswell as help from Kryvtsov or Marcq on the right back. Ignashevich gave us some much needed stability to be able to step in for the Ukrainian boys without making me lose my hair. Pape Diakhité is on my ‘worst players ever’-list from now on.

I also loaned Andy King who didn’t get any playing time for his Porto.

I could always need a versatile and creative midfieldplayer as back-up.

Here’s the massive schedule for January:

7 games in just 1 month is more than I’m used to, but I’d better be cause playing in the Champions League while being competivitive in two cups at the same time will create these hectic months.

First up was the French cup 5th round ( my entry into this cup)

ASF Andrezieux — SMC  0 — 3 (Figueroa x 2, Kryvtsov)

An easy win and we’re through to the 6th round and will face Paris Saint Germain.

Lyon — SMC  0 — 1 (Figueroa)

Another win against Lyon but this time it was in the Coupe de la ligue. Could’ve gone either way but Figueroa egdes this one out through his fantastic ability infront of goal. I wish he could rub off on Milevskyi.

SMC — Grenoble  3 — 1 (Pedro Leon, Yatabaré x 2)

Yatabaré is becoming a really prolific goalscorer for us and I feel myself getting very dependent on his scoring. Even though he only has a finishing skill of ‘9’. But he is very versatile upfront and scores quite a few with his head.

Havre — SMC  1 — 1 (Yatabaré)

A bit unlucky for us…

PSG — SMC  3 — 1 (Pedro Leon)  — French cup

The scoreline didn’t actually portray the game. There was no real chances created for either team as most of their goals where from some way out. Thebeaux isn’t of the same quality as Diego Alves and that’s clear for everyone to see in a game of this quality. I still have the coupe de la ligue to impress in as I’m looking to at least go far in one of the domestic cups this season.

SMC — FC Metz  1 — 0 (Figueroa)  Coupe de la ligue

A solid win this time around. We are usually playing extremly well but have a tendency to relax at the wrong moment but in this game we didn’t give away anything for free, but the winning margin could and should have been greater.

We’ll face Toulouse in the Semi-finals!

SMC — AS Monaco  0 — 0

Another unlucky draw in the ligue and we’re quickly losing that gap we had down to 2nd placed Saint Etienne. But we’re still on top though!

In the Champions League we were through to the knockout stage as you all know. We were paired up against Juventus but there wasn’t really an easy game to get, except for maybe Zenit.

Thanks for reading and I’m sorry for the summed up post this time, have faith I haven’t lost interest in any way, I’m just trying to catch up and get over with these boring in the middle of the season games. When we’re closer to the end or in the CL i’ll get more into detail again.

Cheers,

Majk