28th round prospects performances… Top 3/ Flop 3

By: Evilo | March 16th, 2009

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

Monaco 3-2 Toulouse
Nkoulou (5) was solid although he’ll take some blame on Toulouse’s first goal. Gakpe (4) was once again useless. Except for a few easy passes, he was invisible. Mollo (7) was once again very good. He seems to follow his usual path : good game, gets some praise, then bad game, plays without his teammates, then good game again, etc… Nimani (6) had an average game but still scored an important goal by placing himself very well and reacting quickly after a set play.
For Toulouse M’Bengue (4) was solid but made a dangerous tackle on Alonso. He should be suspended. Capoue (6) was arguably Toulouse’s best player. Very solid guy they have there.

Le Mans 2-2 Rennes
Corchia (7) was great. He was very active and solid defensively. Goulon (7) started his first game and the guy IMPRESSED. He is a rock defensively and can develop into a nice player. Big guy too. Gervinho (7) FINALLY had a good game and scored a beauty. Lamah (6) was extremely important because of his fine technique. Late in the game, he was Le Mans’ most useful player, taking away passing lanes and keeping the ball as much as possible (though not enough it seems).
For Rennes, Kembo came in late and scored a huge blast. Lemoine was Rennes’ best player really, he was very active on both sides of the ball.

Bordeaux 2-1 Nice
Ospina (5) had a solid game despite his 2 goals against. He saved a couple of nice opportunities. Rémy (3) had some real chances and blew them. He needs a change of attitude. Traoré (3) was worthless, as usual.

Sochaux 2-1 Nancy
Tulasne (5) replaced Carlao at the half and hit the crossbar. Boudebouz (6) is really a guy I like to see play. He scored a nice goal and had a very good first half. Erding (6) managed to miss a VERY important penalty (with the game tied at 1) and I was ready to get flame him, but his superb assist on Sverkos’ winning goal will make me forgive him. He also assisted on Boudebouz’s goal.

Caen 0-1 Lille
No U22 prospect in that game.

Nantes 1-1 Lorient
Vainqueur (6) was back saturday and played a good game. This guy really has an interesting package. He is smooth with the ball, makes intelligent passes and is a tough customer in the middle.
Gameiro (5) was useful to his team as always thanks to his speed, but he never really has a good scoring chance.

Valenciennes 3-2 Le Havre
Sambou (4) had another under-average game. He was beaten in key situations and never seemed at ease with the ball.

Lyon 0-2 Auxerre
Benzema (4) never had a good opportunity. As long as Lyon attacks with a single player, as good as he is, he’ll have trouble.
I was very impressed with the first L1 start of Ndinga (6). Extremely useful, and he also played a key role in the first goal.

PSG 1-3 Marseille
Sakho (4) had a dominant first half coming off his injury, but struggled in the second.

Grenoble 1-0 St Etienne
Paillot (5) was rock solid defensively, as usual. He didn’t score this time though. Grandin (6) created danger a few times but always missed the last play.
For Les Verts, Benalouane (6) was back to his solid self. Mirallas (5) scored a nice JPP style goal but for some obscure reason, it was disallowed (whistled as a foul, but weak weak call). Payet (4) was useless.

Top 3
1/ Ndinga : first start, and awesome game !
2/ Le Mans youngsters : Gervinho, Corchia and Gouron had very good performances
3/ Boudebouz : important goal and a good performance

Flop 3
1/ Rémy : disappointing is the word.
2/ Traoré : why is he even starting? Because of two lucky goals off deflections? Come on !
3/ Gakpe and Payet : talented, but lazy.