Ligue 1 Season 2010/11

July 11th, 2010 | by: Jean-François |

First of all, let me congratulate Spain on their historical win today in the World Cup Final. Congratulations!

Now that the World Cup is over, France can lick their wounds and we can all start looking forward to a new season over in Ligue 1. A fellow Ligue 1 fan on Twitter said “So now real soccer can start. Thank god for ligue1.” The first official game day is on August 7th, just 4 days before Blanc’s first match against Norway.

french_ligue1
Although we are all French fans, most of us are rivals during the domestic season. I myself consider myself a Bordeaux fan….However I think my taste for wine influenced my choice more than anything. This summer has not been short of transfers and rumors, let’s get started with some of the biggest stories.

Wenger steals more Frenchmen.
Lorient Center Back, Laurent Koscielny, signed a 4 year, 12.5 million Euro deal with Arsenal. It’s sad to see such high rated players leave Ligue1, but I am not disappointed as an Arsenal Fan. Koscielny is a Duel Citizen of both France and Poland. He was asked why he has not made a decision on which NT he will represent “if I choose one I cannot go back to play for the other one. So I have to be sure I make the right decision. For the moment I would rather take my time and wait to be sure.”. Sounds like he is waiting for Blanc?

Also, this is old news for some, Bordeaux player Maouane Chamakh has made a move to Arsenal. It was only a matter of time before this player moved on to bigger and “better” clubs.

There have also been many rumors circulating about a possible move for Yoann Gourcuff. I asked many other Bordeaux fans, and they don’t want to see Gourcuff leave unless he moves outside of Ligue1. Wenger has shown interest, but I do not think he is willing to pay 26 Mil or more.

Ayew back with L’OM

After his impressive run at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Marseille fans are not disappointed to see him return. He was on a one year Loan with Arles-Avignon. He helped him ascend to Ligue1 last year. It will be very interesting to see how they fair without him.

Govou leaves Lyon
After 13 seasons with Lyon, Sidney decided to leave the Stade de Gerland. He will join fellow France International, Dijibril Cisse, over in Greece with Panathinaikos. I must be honest, I am not the biggest fan of Govou, and I am not upset to see him move on. It is also a very lucrative deal for him.

In return, Lyon have signed Jeremy Briand as Govou’s replacement.

Click here to see the 2010-11 Calender

These are just a few of the hundreds of preseason stories. Every team will look very different this season. Who is your team? What are your expectations for this season? What has been the biggest story this summer? Please let me know by commenting below.

Be sure to check out the The Offside Ligue 1 Blog for more updates and news on Ligue1.

More to come soon. Not very much to write about at this time. France Hosts the EURO U19 Competition next week. It will be very exciting to watch our young French Espoirs play.

Also, feel free to follow me on twitter. There I will be posting small updates about the Soccer world. You can also contact me on there if you have any questions.

France World Cup Blog RSS Feed

http://france.worldcupblog.org Jeff

I'm a Bordeaux fan, as far as Ligue 1 goes, but to keep my marriage in tact, I limit myself to mostly following just Arsenal. If you'd keep me updated with the Ligue 1 essentials, JF, I'd be appreciative.

Spain were worthy winners.
http://twitter.com/gibfootballshow Andrew Gibney

Hey I'm a Lille fan, been a fan snce 2004, hoping for a good season, de melo needs to stay fit and hopefully he'll get goals, should have quallfied for the Champions League but slipped up, so hoping to get one of those places this time, it will be extremly tough.

Hoping to get to a game aswell, coming from Leeds, England
Boo

I want gourcuff to move to arsenal it will make him grow exponentially
Yeah

Toulalan is probably going to stay in Lyon forever
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gaston-Mulisanga/1102718568 Gaston Mulisanga

what's with arsenal players thinking they can still anyone. has nasri changed from the day he was playing at OM ???
sandra350

Interesting comments from Wenger re the French national team meltdown:

http://www.football365.co.uk/story/0,17033,8652...
sandra350

Interesting comments from Wenger re the French national team meltdown:

http: // http://www.football365.co.uk/story/0,17033,8652_625508...
http://twitter.com/SandraHelena39 Sandra N.

Your comments on Fabregas' contribution to this game are absolutely unbelievable, and really inexcusable. Every single writer on football tactics pinpointed the Navas and Fabregas substititons as the point at which Spain had their breakthru in this game – they were instrumental in winning you the game, esp. Fabregas. And your manager agrees, as quoted in skysports (”bringing Cesc on swung the game Spain's way”):

del Bosque (on Fabregas' introduction): “We began to dominate, we had greater ball possession and depth in our game.”

Just like against Paraguay (where Spain's slow, labored build-up in midfield became utterly predictable), Fabregas' introduction brought directness and drive in midfield, a greater variety and quicker tempo. And just as against Paraguay, Spain scored after he was introduced.

There was a moment in the final that was telling: Fabregas quickly passed the game to your midfield and ran quickly upfield expecting for the pass from your midfield players back to him as he ran forward at defenders. Instead, your midfield just contented themselves with their slow passing to each other sideways back and forth for quite some time as Fabregas waited futilely and as the Dutch had plenty of time to position themselves.

What Fabregas brings to Spain is a dimension your Spain-based players don't have: a directness and aggressive willingness to run at defenders and speed up the game's tempo. It's what he's learned to do in England. Torres brings another dimension also lacking in your Spain-based players: pace and power and physicality. Too bad he wasn't fit.

Navas, a one-dimensional winger with inconsistent delivery, also provided much needed width and a new dimension to the game.

If del Bosque had subbed Fabregas much earlier in the game against all your difficult-to-break-down opponents, you would've scored far earlier, which would've opened up the games, forced your opponents to attack and allowed you to exploit the space they would've left at the back, resulting in more goals scored for your team.

The reason you won the final was because of Navas and Fabregas and Casillas.

Go to zonalmarking.net to read an excellent analysis of the game.