Stade Malherbe Caen: February + March 2012

Welcome back to another update of my SMC story. This update features 12 played games during the months of February and March.

Here are the games of this month.

First up was the Coupe de la ligue semi-final against Toulouse. A game I really wanted to win as I’m already out of the French cup and Champions league is too big for me, at least i’m not realisticly hoping for a CL-win already. I would like to win the French Ligue 1 and maybe one of the cups, that would be a pleasant achievement.

SMC — Toulouse  1 — 0 (Milevskyi)

A dominating win as we were pouring forward on their half. We were only failing in the finishing department but in the dying minutes of the game Milevskyi recieved a precise cross from Pedro Leon and he jumped ahead of his defender to head home the advancement to the Final!

In the ligue 1 we were now up against Girondins Bordeaux who are a very tough opponent.

Bordeaux — SMC  2 — 1 (Kryvtsov)

After a great start to the game, after Kryvtsov headed home a corner, the game went Bordeaux way. Even though it was an even game it felt that Bordeaux had the better opportunities and most importantly, they took them. A penalty kick from Chamakh and a placed shot from Sertic saw us lose points at the top and drop behind St.Etienne into 2nd place.

Next up another tough game against Olympique Marseille. 3 points is a must if we are to win the league.

SMC — OM  3 — 0 (Figueroa x 2, Guarin)

Figueroa is a beast. Everytime he gets a start he almost always sees to it that he scores. This time he even found the net twice and killed off the game in the first half. Guarin scored his first of the season with a perfectly placed low freekick.

Sedan Ardennes — SMC  0 — 2 (Ignashevich, Rodriguez)

Ignashevich took Kryvtsovs place and copied his scoring style when he headed home a corner kick in the first half. Before the halftime break we were up 2-0 thanks to a wonderful strike from the tiny midfielder James Rodriguez.

Then came the much anticipated CL game against Juventus.

Here’s the formations for the game:

As you can see there are some weak spots in their line-up. Buffon is injured, Ariaudo is a mediocre centreback and only Amauri is a worldclass striker. I could actually win this.

SMC — Juventus  0 — 1

Amauri scored after just 2 minutes and even though it was a close fought game we never really got the chances to get back in the game. Most of our attemts came from long shots. Rodriguez took 6 of those. Figueroa was completly invisible thanks to Chiellinis great work at the back. Losing at home is always hard to cope with in these double-fixtures and my chances are slim in the next game.

SMC — Nancy  1 — 1 (Figueroa)

Nancy came away with a great result after having equalised in the 4th overtime minute. I’ll have to adopt time-wasting at the end of games from now on. This is just so irritating.

Next up was a must win! We are facing the league leaders St.Etienne and 3 points here propells us up to first place instantly.

Saint Etienne — SMC  1 — 4 (Yatabaré x 2, Milevskyi, Kryvtsov)

We opened up the scoring right after the kick-off through Yatabaré. What a goal it was! He picked it up from the right back Eggert Jonson and then he took off, skipping past two defenders, getting closer to their penalty box, going around on the outside of the last defender and placing the ball just inside the first post. Past 3 players and half a pitch in distance. Yatabaré then added on to his tally by heading in a freekick from the right. Bayal headed home a goal for St.Etienne before halftime. Then Verratti stepped up, assisting Milevskyi for the third goal and then taking the corner that led to Kryvtsovs goal and SMc’s fourth of the day.

SMC — PSG  2 — 0 (Rodriguez, Yatabaré)

Another difficult game that went our way. We didn’t let that defeat in the CL hit us too hard and could focus on our good spot in the league. Rodriguez converted an early spotkick and then Yatabaré continued his good form by first heading away PSG’s corner to Boka, who could set up a counter attack. Yatabaré then ran directly to their goal to head home a Milevskyi cross. All in a matter of seconds.. Yatabaré is Usain Bolt with footballing skills.

The second leg of the CL-game against Juventus was at hand.

Similar Line-ups as the last time, except Juve had Buffon back but opted to start with Iaquinta instead of Amauri. No Diego this time either. I think he was injured.

Juventus — SMC  1 — 1 (Kryvtsov)

We almost had it. We had 1-0 until the 81th minute when Marchisio broke through and finished a nice team move from Juve. They were just to strong for us and even though we had the play for most of the game they were much more determinded at the back and infront of goal. It says that they got 5 clear chances but i could only count to 2. It isnt portraying the gme accuratly at least. We could’ve gone into extra tme and maybe penalties with some luck. But it’s not a shame to at least finish second in a group containg teams like Bayern, Galatasaray and Ajax.

FC Nantes — SMC  2 — 2 (Kryvtsov, Rodriguez)

A minor setback after having went out of the Champions league. Nantes shouldn’t usually be a problem but I can understand that my boys were a bit distracted and upset. Still we came back twice in the game and we are still in first place in the league.

Coupe de la ligue final against Saint Etienne. This could be something special and a big morale booster if we were to win.. and it started out so well.

St.Etienne — SMC  3 — 3 (Guarin, Pedro Leon x 2)

Guarin opened the scoring by placing a freekick in the top left corner from just outside the penaltybox. Then just before halftime Kolodzieczack crossed the ball into their box and Pedro Leon was first to the ball and headed in 0-2. After the break St.Etienne came out guns blazin’ as they had nothing to lose, and they got their reward. Brede Hangeland headed home a corner kick adn then an injured Gonzalo Bergessio skipped past Kryvstov and struck the palms of Thebeauxbut a lucky rebound fell right infront of Bergessios feet once again and this time he fired it past our reserve keeper. 2-2! This was going to be an emotional game.

We would manage to get back into it when Rodriguez threaded it in for Figuroa who one-touched it on for Pedro Leon who placed a low shot to the left of Penneteau. 2-3! Our joy wasn’t lasting as Saint Etienne replied quickly. In a break away move Bergessio broke lose and ran down the right side then playing it in for a free Mirallas who made no mistakes, placing the ball in the net with no chance for Thebaux to save it. Guarin saw red shortly after this and we had an uphill battle to fight from now on. No goals were going to be scored for the remainder of the game but there were 7 more yellow cards handed out. Extra time could’nt hand out a winner and we were up for penalties!

St.E: Bergessio  —  Scored!        SMC: Figueroa  —  Scored!

St.E: Monsoreau — Scored!      SMC: Rodrgiuez  — Saved!!!

St.E: Roman   —   Scored!          SMC: Pedro Leon — Scored!

St.E: Mirallas  — Saved!!              SMC: Heeren  —  Scored!     

St.E: Audel   —  Saved!!                SMC: Ignashevich   — Saved!! Dammit! 

extra penalties:

St.E: Guilavogui   —  Shoots it to the left and Thebeaux is there in full stretch and saves it!!!

SMC: Russotto  — Chooses the left corner and places it and Penneteau is no where near it! We won it!!!  

SMC — Sochaux  3 — 0 (Okaka x 2, Pedro Leon)

Okaka was back from injury and had an amazing game scoring two goals. Pedro Leon scored once again and is certainly proving his worth to the team with sublime passing and goalscoring. Rodriguez missed his second penalty in 2 games. ouch!

That was all of the games for these two months, but you’ll get the league table and some players stats.

Then we got some amazing news from the board just look at this!

I thought that I was seeing things wrong.. I mean maybe 500k..but this was 500 Million pounds!

Thing was almost too good to be true…

Cheers,

Majk