18th round prospects performances… Top 3/ Flop 3… highlights

By: Evilo | December 15th, 2008

Here’s a round up of the U22 performances in this weekend of Ligue 1 action.

(L’Equipe’s mark) after each player’s name.

Rennes 0-0 Nantes
Sow (4) sucked, as usual, and Lemoine (5) was average.

Le Mans 1-3 Bordeaux
Bouhours (3), Maiga and Coutadeur (5) and Gervinho (3) had a tough game, but surprisingly, L’ Equipe rated Dossevi (6) highly even though he made absolutely no good choice the whole game. Big fat no for me.
For Bordeaux, Gourcuff (5) has officially hit the wall and Abdou Traoré (6), who was talked about recently on this blog, managed to have a good game. Lack of precision in the last pass though.

Auxerre 1-2 PSG
Riou (5) couldn’t do much on both goals, though he could have closed the angle better on the second one. Quercia (5) was awful, as he’s been for a while and Narry (6) was arguably Auxerre’s best player again.

Nancy 2-0 Grenoble
Dia (7) actually scored again ! He also had a good game.

Toulouse 3-1 St Etienne
Sissoko (6) had a very good game IMO.
I think it’s time I paid more attention to new comer Machado (6) since I hadn’t realized he was eligible to my list. The little midfielder scored a beautiful free kick and had a good game. Matuidi (5) had another game out of position. Payet (3) was inexistant.

Sochaux 2-2 Caen
Another guy I didn’t pay much attention to was Sloan Privat. Well his two goal including a highlight-reel bicycle kick reminded me I shouldn’t have overlooked him. Erding, Martin and Boudebouz (all 5) had game to forget.

Valenciennes 3-1 Monaco
I did say before the game I liked that Carlos Sanchez (7) more and more but boy, what a goal !!!
For Monaco, Pino’s (6) fine technique was impressive on his goal. Pokrivac (4) was once again awful. Ruffier (5) couldn’t do much on any VA goal and saved his team a few times. He was much better than his mark indicates.

Lyon 0-0 Marseille
Lloris (6) had one big save to make and he did. Ederson (5) was tackled hard all game and is injured for a while. Benzema (5) didn’t have any impact.
For OM, Ben Arfa (4) tried to do too much but was also well defended.

Nice 0-1 Lille
Ospina (8) was exceptionnal again for Nice. This guy has a bright future.
Cabaye (6) was great really, more than his mark indicates.

Le Havre 1-3 Lorient
Nestor came on at the 38th and suffered against Gameiro (7) and Vahirua.
Gameiro was exceptionnal once again and earned yet another goal. Another game winner by the way.

Top 3
1- Ospina : without him, Nice loses 4-0.
2- Gameiro : his speed and cool finish are deadly.
3- Tie between Sanchez and Privat : WHAT A GOAL !

Flop 3
1- Payet : physical games are really not for him.
2- Gervinho : come on, we expect better !
3- Pokrivac : another poor performance when a game is fast paced and physical.

Highlights :

Machado wonderful free kick :