Stade Malherbe Caen: May 2013

Alright then. I’d like to start by thanking for all the support you’ve given me. Lyon is proving to much of a match this season as I’ve slipped up a few times against weaker teams unfortunately. We only have a few matchwinners to depend on and when they are injured we have to depend solely on our fast-paced style of play. Sambou Yatabaré is my most important player as you’ve certainly noticed already. His pace, strength and aerial ability separates him from other wingers as he can go for goal all the time, either breaking through on his own or putting his head to floating crosses.

Alright! after pointing that out we’ll go onto the matches being played this month.

I’ve painted over the results for the French cup and the CL final. Why Black? Well, maybe I chose black for a reason…

The ligue had all stable results and a draw against Lyon. Still did nothing to challenge Lyon down the last stretch and i finished in second place, still some way above third placed Marseille. 8 points up to Lyon and 9 points down to OM.

But we still had to trophies to challenge for. I hadn’t won the french cup yet, only the coupe de la ligue so this was going to be a game we’d like to win very much. We had a pretty much intact starting eleven except for James rodriguez still being out with his long term injury and Gignac was a bit winded. Albin Ekdal took Roddy’s place and Yaya Sanogo the on-loan striker got a rare start.

Albin Ekdal drew first blood in the game when he and Hazard tried out a corner trés speziale! Ekdal lingered some way outside the box and Hazard picked that up and pin-pointed a quick longball from the corner flag to his feet. The swede then just pushed the ball infront of him with his first touch and then lunged a powerful strike that rocketed in between both my players and their defenders and ended up in the roof of the net. A beauty! and it was 1-0 SMC.

Hazard was a continuing threat on the left wing and produced good scoring opportunities every time he got forward. Yaya Sanogo got a good chance but their keeper saved. The defender then couldn’t clear the ball as it ended up with Yatabaré on the other wing. Yatabaré played it in for Ekdal who continued with the ball unchallenged, cut in front of the defenders and then with a quick turn he played the ball in for Sanogo, behind the defenders, and the young striker just broke the offside trap and put the ball in the back of the net. 2-0 SMC!

Second half had just begun and Ekdal took control of the game right away. He was brilliant in midfield and displayed great vision when he handled and passed the ball. Naughton got fed by Ekdal on the right hand side and he ran with ball ball on the wing taking on the Nantes defender and got through and instantly played the ball forward for Yatabaré. Sambou quickly cut inside with the ball, broke through two defenders and thumped the ball on goal which found it’s way underneat the keeper and 3-0 was a fact.

Ekdal would help to finalise the scoreline. Pedro León had come on for Hazard and just before the final whistle things picked up. Verratti controlled the ball and then passed to Pedro León. León couldn’t break through, so he backtracked and passed for Ekdal. Albin Ekdal then, without taking a breath, threaded the ball behind Pedro Leóns defender and as if they shared the same mind Pedro León had started his run and was now free on goal and could simply place the ball in the far corner for 4-0.

Trophy #1 is secured and we are on route for the second and much more desired Champions League trophy.

Looking at the team just before the Final it’s easy to see that we’re in some kind of minor trouble. Roddy, Verratti and Ekdal are all injured. So what’s our options? Well we have Camacho, The youngster Siam Heeren and Damien Marcq. Out of those three I’ll opt for the first two. Seeing as Heeren is a bit more creative I’ll put him in the midfield position and Camacho in the DMC position. The playmaker role has to be someone with quick feet and mind. Eden Hazard will drop down and Pedro León will take his place and join up with Gignac and Yatabaré in attack.

Looking at the setup you’ll notice that Kryvtsov is also missing. Well.. this is just my mistake as I intended to rest him in the last game and forgot to switch Ignashevich for him before starting the game.

The game started…

Porto is starting out as the better team but we are defending well, only allowing them to get, at best, a few corners. After about 20 mins we are starting to pick things up and take control of the game. But it would be from one of Portos many corners first blood would come. Surprisingly it was for us, as we took control of the ball after a rather missguided corner and we started a great break-away move. Gignac dropped down, turned on the ball and fed it forward for Yatabaré who was taking on his defender. He got past his man but ended up a bit far out on the right hand side and so he had to run around and look for options. He found Hazard and the tiny belgian passed it on to M’Bengué on the left. Our left-back produced a nice cross back for Yatabaré who headed down for Hazard. Eden then in ,first touch motion, fed it a bit deeper for Yatabaré to run onto, and he did. He actually did so well that he broke through two defenders and placed the ball in the near corner without Helton even reacting. Well, he looked like he was reacting a few seconds later.. but rather aggressivly and against his own defenders. 1-0 SMC!

Porto would however get one back. It was from another corner, and this time they got it all right. Fernando broke lose and met the ball with his head and Diego Alves could do nothing about it. 1 — 1 Porto!

It was a tight game but maybe we should have killed it off in the end. We had some of the best chances and Porto could only challenge from dead ball situations. But it was level as we went into extra time. I had put Kryvtsov and Marcq on the pitch for Ignashevich and Heeren and just before extra time I also subbed Gignac for Figueroa as I wanted a better penalty kick taker.

Extra time didn’t produce a winner so we had to settle for Penalty kicks. This is always a nightmare when you have been the better team.

My spotkick takers(penalty ratings): Figueroa(15), Pedro Leon(16), Diego Alves!(15), Eden Hazard(13), Yatabaré(12)

Alright, here goes…

P — Hulk steps up…   He scores!

S — Luciano Figueroa now..  He misses!

P — Bruno Alves..      He Scores!

S — Pedro León..       He scores!

P — Fernando..      He misses!!

S — Diego Alves..    Scores! We are level!

P — C.Rodriguez..    He Scores!

S — E.Hazard..   Scores!

P — Ricardo Madeira…   He misses!!!

S — Sambou Yatabaré..     He puts in the back of the net!!! Glory Stade Malherbe Caen!! We’ve won!

Champions League glory has been achieved..  and in just 4 years at the club. What should we win now? The Ligue 1? — done it! Coupe de la ligue? — Done it!, The French cup? — Done it!  well then there is the club world cup against some south american or asian side.. oh ..can’t contain myself..

Well it’s dominating the world that’s our next goal from now on and make this club a real powerhouse, both successfully and economicly.

Summing up: We had a magnificent CL campaign and the team was proof to that when they were picked for best eleven and top 3 players of the tournament.

Once again the top 3 of our own team this season is Yatabaré, Roddy and Kryvtsov.

Lastly the board thought that we should build a new Staduim. The Stade Malherbe Caen Stadium with undersoil heating and a capacity of about 32000. This will certainly take a big chunk out of my future transfer budget but it will also generate more money for the future.