Le Mans UC72 – AJ Auxerre (12-04-2008)

What’s wrong with those websites on French football? Months ahead I had planned to see Laval play on Saturday 12 April, as I was in Rennes for work, and then a couple days before the game I find out it is played the day before. Fortunately, I found an alternative, ‘just’ one hour further by train. So, instead of another game in the French Third Division, I found myself watching a game in the top flight of French football, the Ligue 1, though of a lesser-know team, Le Mans UC 72. Strangely enough, it was (re)founded in 1985, after its predecessor Le Mans Union Club 1972, founded in 1902, got into financial troubles. So, where the “72” stands for is beyond me!

It had taken me 1.5 hours by train to get to Le Mans, a fairly uneventful town under Paris world-famous for its 24 hour car races. From the railway station it was another 30 minutes by foot to get to the Stade Léon Bollée, a modest stadium with an official capacity of 16.500. As the weather had been bad – wet, grey, cold (just like home!) – I coughed up 25 euro to sit on the covered stand.

To kill over an hour before kick-off, I circled the ground various times, ate some truly bad stadium food, and checked the (temporary) fan shop; which was remarkably well stocked. Still, the price for nicest fan shop went to the bus of the supporters club, which sold a range of their own stuff.

Le Mans has been a regular in the French Ligue 1, but has seldom impressed. This season it is one of the main surprises of the league, fighting for one of the spots for European football. This might explain the fairly decent turnout of some 7.000 (I guess), given the weather and opponent

The Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise is a completely opposite story, having played in the top of French football under legendary coach Guy Roux, it has fallen to the bottom part of the league in last years. Still, it is the only French team that never relegated. Coming from a small town of 40.000, some 325 km away from Le Mans, the roughly 100 away fans provided for a decent turnout.

As my cell phone was empty, I was unable to make any notes during the game. What I do remember, almost one week and many other things later, is a rather poor atmosphere, despite the decent crowd and colorful fans.

I also remember how poor Auxerre has become. Having seen them on tv and in away games a couple of time over the past ten years, I remember technical and attractive football. Now there is no player that catches the eye and the team as a whole do not bring much either. Their current place, just above the relegation zone, seems optimal.

Le Mans is a team without any truly remarkable players, but a strong collective, which plays attractive football. Though I doubt Le Mans will ever be a real challenge to Olympique Lyon, or will go far in the Uefa Cup, should they qualify, they are a strong sub-topper in the French First Division. Their 3-0 victory, in the end, was more than deserved.

Although I left early, as I had to make my last train to Rennes, I had a nice evening. Le Mans UC72 is a nice reflection of football in small town France: small-scale, but friendly and positive.

Valenciennes FC – Paris Saint Germain (20-10-2007)

Because of the final of the World Cup Rugby, which would be played at 20.00 that evening (and in which the Springboks defeated the English J), all games in the French Ligue 1 (First Division) were played at 16.00 this Saturday. This provided J.B. and me with a golden opportunity to see two games on one day and still make a relatively short groundhop. Thus, around 13.30, we left Leuven to arrive at Valenciennes, just across the Belgian-French border, more than half an hour before kick-off.

As the online billeterie had shown that there were only few tickets left a couple of days before the match, J.B. had bought tickets online (at 30 euro per ticket, not really a steal). We parked the car around the corner of the Stade Nungesser, which wasn’t easy to find, and were pleasantly surprised by the lack of long lines in front of the reserved tickets office. In fact, it took us less than five minutes to get the tickets and enter the stadium (after a quite professional body-search by the security personnel). As J.B. was trying his luck with an attractive pollster, who asked whether we found the official parking lot of the stadium (not whether we liked it; in fact, we hadn’t even seen a sign towards it!), and I bought a small pennant for a mere 3.50 euro, we came to the first shock of the day: there were no, and I mean not a single, hot snacks in the whole stadium! Two thumbs down for Valenciennes!

With a drink and an empty stomach we climbed up the stairs of our (emergency) stand. Even the cool mascot (with whom I would later take a picture J), and the overly enthusiastic female announcer couldn’t compensate for the lack of food. Moreover, it was quite cold this afternoon, and our view was, despite the hefty price, not impressive at all.

VAFC, as Valenciennes FC is officially abbreviated, is building a new stadium, innovatively called Nungesser II, which will be more modern and bigger (23.000). As far as I understand, the new stadium will be in the heart of Valenciennes, rather than at the current spot, in a suburb of the city. I bet everyone is happy with that, as the original Stade Nungesser is one of the most horrible I have visited. It is amazing how far you are away from the pitch; a consequence of both its historical roles (it used to double as a cycling stadium) and the bizarre structure of the stands (at least the one we sat at). The stadium holds 16.500 people, with one small stand with only standing places, but despite the impression created online the days before, and the official figure of 15.037 on the VAFC website, the stadium was at best 75% full. This included a couple thousand away supporters, who had made the relatively short distance of ca. 200 km from the capital.

Despite several negatives – did I already mention that there were no hot snacks? – the atmosphere before the game was very good. For some reason, the locals treated this game as a top game, even if PSG has not won anything significant in years. On the various stands the home fans sang, showed their banners and wave their flags in support of their boys in red. I personally liked the small long stand the most (only standing); it still had an authentic hand-painted “welcome to the supporters” on one side.

Unfortunately, things didn’t improve after kick-off, and that’s an understatement. We didn’t expect much from Valenciennes, who only returned to the top flight of French football two years ago, and finished 17^th last year, but were shocked to see how poor the PSG team is this season. Sure, they have been the French “sleeping giant” for decades, a bit similar to Hertha BSC in Germany or Manchester City in England, but the current team is at best a sleeping midget. It is full of big Africans, who bring little else to the game than an impressive physique. Still, the rest of the team doesn’t even have that.

VAFC had the first shot on goal, in the 2^nd minute, while it took PSG 10 minutes for its first header over the goal. The highlight of the game, fortunately we didn’t know this at that time, was a well executed one-two pass by the home team, which didn’t lead to a goal though. After this ‘excitement’, very little noteworthy happened, except for a good shot by the visitors, in the 42^nd minute, and a ditto safe by the home goalie. For the rest, we had to endure the worst songs ever, from the away fans, who in addition to the highly annoying “ici, c’est Paris”, had also masterminded the following song:

Allez Paris

Allez Paris

Allez Paris

Allez Paris et PSG

Half time was cold and frustrating, because of the (no) snack situation, so oddly enough we were happy when the second half started. The happiness soon disappeared, however, when it turned out to be a copy of the first half. I’m not even going to mention the “chances”, as most were nothing more than free-kicks or shots from afar. VAFC did hit the crossbar from a free-kick in the 80^th minute though.

I guess the most exciting moment was in the 70^th minute, when the coach of VAFC was sent to the stand for objecting too strongly to a dodgy free-kick. In addition, I did enjoy some actions of the skilled VAFC striker Steve Savidan (number 9), including a beautiful lob from some 25 meters in the 87^th minute, but overall there was far too little for a game in the Ligue 1 (and for 30 euro!). Final score 0-0, which unfortunately I couldn’t get on camera because of the strange lightening of the scoreboard.

Cold and starved we ran out to storm the friture opposite to the stadium. Though it took a while for them to prepare the goodies, what else than an americain merguez, the portion was just what we needed, excessive, so we happily ate our fattie food in the car.

RRC Péruwelz-Standaard Wetteren (20-20-2007)

While disappointed by the game, we remained in decent spirits. After all, we still had a game to see. After getting lost in traffic, we finally made our way to Péruwelz, a Belgian town at 20 km from Valenciennes. We arrived early in the town, which turned out bigger than expected. Despite having some 30 minutes to find the Stade Péruwelz, it wasn’t till just before kick-off that we found it… closed!

The official website of the RRC Péruweltz had been down the weeks before, but I had checked the information from the semi-reliable Flemish website Voetbalkrant on the website of the opponent, Standaard Wetteren. Saturday 20 October at 20.00 would be the game in the Derde Divisie A (Third Division A) between these two teams. After having consulted various people, who all turned out French rather than local, we finally found someone pretending to be local, who led us even more astray. He claimed that RRC Péruweltz played its home games in the city of Tournai, 23 km to the east, as their own stadium was too small. Having little other options, we decided to drive there, got lost, and around 20.45 gave up. Later that night, at home, I checked again, still finding the same announcement on the Standaard Wetteren website (thank god they don’t have any traveling fans). The next afternoon RRC Péruwelz would beat Standaard Wetteren 2-0, without us present.

Groundhopweekend February 2005

My, my, what a weekend! I cannot remember the last time I was so cold! And I mean C-O-L-D!!! And on this cold(est) weekend I was groundhopping. Yep, and it again didn’t exactly go as planned.

Hannover Scorpions -- Iserlohn Roosters (25-02-2005)

On Friday afternoon my brother T.M. and a friend of him picked me up at Schiphol airport and we were on our way to Hannover to see a game in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Having driven around the traffic jams we arrived more than an hour in advance to the beautiful, brand-new TUI Arena. The hall can hold 10.600 people for icehockey games, which makes it a large-size ring. For this game some 6.000 people turned up, among whom a remarkable number of girls and women.

We bought tickets for a standing place behind the goal for 14 euro and entered the stadium. The atmosphere was classically good, as with all sport manifestations in Germany. The icehockey was a lot less good, particularly from the hosts. They were 2-0 behind after 6 minutes and never looked like winning. The final score of 2-6 was deserved, even if Iserlohn didn’t play a top match.

After a short night in the usual F1 hotel we decided to be ambitious after all and head out to Luxemburg, in the hope to see the cup game between Progres Nierderkorn and Dudelange in the afternoon, and a game of Raon L’Etap in the Franse Championnat National (Third Division) in the evening. Almost the whole time we drove through a snowed-under Germany and at times it was still snowing. When we finally arrived at the Stade Jos Haupert, some 40 minutes before kick-off, we saw the squad practice at a training pitch. After inspection of the empty stadium and snowed-under pitch, we decided to also skip the French game and look for a safe alternative instead.

Sint-Truiden VV -- AA Gent (26-02-2007)

And so we drove without any rush to Sint-Truiden in Belgian Limburg. After a short stop at Frituur Juliette (hmmmm) we drove to the stadium to make sure that we could also buy a ticket without a Fancard. The security was watertight: Fancard or identity papers.... or just giving your name. J Thus we bought a ticket for just 7.50 euro and spent the next 60 minutes in Cafe Stadion, warming ourselves and watching the game Hertha-HSV on tv.

It was freezing in 'the hell of Staaien', but fortunately the game was less boring than the last time I visited STVV. This was mainly the merit of AA Gent, who scored early in the game. Thereafter the vistors remained the better team, though most remarkable was how poor STVV is. Only Benji de Keulenaar is a good player, but by himself he was obviously unable to defeat AA Gent. In the end “the Buffalos” won 0-2 and we drove with frozen toes to Antwerp.

KV Kortrijk -- Excelsior Virton (27-02-2007)

After a good night rest in my own bed, and a delicious cup of coffee, we set off to Kortrijk (in West Flanders) for a game in the middle bracket of the Tweede Klasse (Second Division). We knew it was going to be freezing col, but when we got caught in a snow storm just outside of Ghent we were starting to worry for another cancellation. Fortunately the snow storm was local; in fact, it hadn’t even snowed in Kortrijk.

At 14.15 we arrived at the ramshackle Guldensporenstadion of KV Kortrijk. We saw almost none, except for a bus with green-white supporters. We turned out to be at the back of the stadium together with the away fans, in this case some 25 jolly Walloons from Virton. We bought a ticket for a steep 12 euro and joined the Virton fans on Tribune (Stand) 4.

All in all I don’t think more than 500 supporters were in the freezing stadium. This was a shame, as the game was not bad at all. After 5 minutes Virton was already 0-1 up and another 5 minutes later KVK had equalized. 1-1 was also the half time score but there had been some good football, particularly from Virton. In the second half both teams played much weaker, most notably the Walloons. Some 15 minutes before the end of the game Virton lost the game, when it got reduced to 10 men and, shortly after, got two goals against because of individual mistakes. Thus, the final score was 3-1 for KVK in this 6-point game.

LOSC -- Stade Rennais (27-02-2007)

Directly after the final whistle we jumped into the car and drove to Lille to catch a game in the French Ligue 1 (First Division) an hour later. The last time I saw LOSC, they played in the center of town. Whether or not as a consequence of renovation, Lille plays this season at the Stade Metropole, a typical athletics stadium. L We bought a ticket for just 11 euro and entered the bare, concrete stadium.

I’m going to keep it short: could, COLD, C-O-L-D!!! Man o man, how cold were we! At one time I tried to text a friend and my fingers froze so quickly that I had to stop texting and put my gloves back on (which helped only partly). And than also a 0-0 game! Still, I do recommend a visit to LOSC. Not only is Lille a pretty city (for North France), LOSC plays good and attractice football, the atmosphere is (usually) good, and the merguez americaine greasy. But do choose a day that the weather is (much) better!