RED STAR 4 ES COLOMBIENNE 3 (1-2) aet, 2-2 after 90 mins
Coupe de Paris Round 4
Stade Bauer, 11/1/2004
Goals : Latt-Agnès (7), Delaneuville (88), N’Simba (93), Latt-Agnes (110) - Makengo (20), Belhadj (35), Manga-MBarga (97)
Referee : M. Philippe - attendance : 200
Booked : N’Simba (89), Paadna (27), Boumdil (53), Belhadj (73), Makengo (77), Sonor (101)
RED STAR : Delmas, Hammami, Yessad, Diomande, Dao, N’Simba, Delaneuville, Hamdane (Budoc 84), Fellahi (Benmesmoudi 117), Desmarets (Marques 55), Latt-Agnes.
Coach. A. Meguellatti.
ES COLOMBIENNE : Lorent, Boumail, Fariad, Ghaib, Tariol, Mansouri, Makengo, Raoul, Belkady (Manga-MBarga 77), Paddna (Sonor 65), Delta (Gervelik 75).
Coach. A. Bonnat
Cup joy for the boys
LAST GASP DRAMA, BUT CUP JOY
Red Star progress through to the next round of the Paris Cup after a rip-roaring good old-fashioned cup tie at a muddy Stade Bauer. This match had the lot - apart from unpleasantness, thankfully - bags full of goals, the score changing from one side to another, goalkeeping cock-ups, dodgy linesman, extra time and a classic Red Star goal to wrap things up.
Against a side from a couple of divisions below, Red Star stormed into the game. With only seven minute gone, following a series of Red Star attacks, a devilish corner served up by Riad Fellahi was thumped home on the second attempt by André LATT-AGNES. (1-0). For the next ten minutes or so, it looked as if Red Star were going to annihilate their opponents. But, in all fairness to Colombienne, whilst Red Star appeared to rest on their laurels for a couple of minutes the visitors fought their way back into the game. The change came due to some slapdash defending by Red Star.. aided by a myopic linemsan, the offside flag stayed down leaving Makengo to round the exposed Delmas (1-1).
The next fifteen minutes were fairly evenly balanced, until Red Stars' defence had another rush of blood to the head. A poorly-taken throw-in roughly on the line of their own penalty-area was adjudged by Monsieur Philippe to be illegal, and from the resulting re-take, the ball was swung across for Belhadj to place a fine header past Delmas (1-2). Stunned silence from the home crowd.
From then on it was virtually one-way traffic, Red Star laying siege to the Colombienne goal. Latt-Agnes should have done better when his thumping drive rattled off the cross bar, Delaneuville blasted a free-kick over the bar and Hamdane, looking a better prospect that he was a couple of matches ago, somehow managed to miss from a couple of yards out.
After the break, more of the same fayre punctuated by the occasional counter-attack, but by and large Delmas was a spectator. As the clock ticked down, Red Star pressed more and more; Philippe Marques was thrown on to replace the tiring Desmarets, but failed to make an impression. Time and time again, Red Star were foiled by some very borderline offside decisions by the linesman on the far side, whereas in the first half this same gentleman had failed to spot the offside which had led to Colombiennes' equaliser.
Finally, with only two minutes remaining, captain Yoann DELANEUVILLE broke Colombiennes' hearts with a well-deserved leveller. As the defence failed to clear, Yoann drove a low hard shot into the net which may or may not have taken a deflection on the way. (2-2). Relief for the faithful, and Colombienne managed to play out the last few minutes without throwing the game away completely.
Only three minutes of extra time had elapsed when the livewire Reevis N'SIMBA looked to have put the game beyond Colombiennes' reach with a low drive which bumped along Bauer's rough pitch and bounced over the despairing dive of goalkeeper Lorent. (3-2). But the game and the visitors weren't finished yet. From the kick off the ball was pumped forwards towards Delmas' goal, Red Star failed to clear and although Colombienne recovered the ball, the weak cross towards the center appeared to be of no danger until Delmas, unchallenged, dropped the ball for substitute Manga-MBarga to gratefully slot the ball into the empty net. (3-3).
So Red Star had to do the hard work all over again. Colombienne tried their hardest to waste as much time as possible, hoping for the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, hoping also that Laurent Delmas' confidence would have been shattered by his glaring mistake. Red Star had other ideas, however, and driven along by the fans, tried to find a winner. With ten minutes remaining, they found what they were looking for, and the goal would have a place in the history of classic goals scored at Stade Bauer. Fred Aston would have appreciated the hard work of Riad Fellahi, making a mockery of nearly two hours of hard work on a heavy pitch, streaming down the right, outstripping his marker to fire over a pin-point cross. André Simonyi would also have appreciated the work of another André, LATT-AGNES as he hauled his aching bruised body into one last effort and rose majestically between two burly uncompromising defenders to plant an unstoppable header past Lorent (4-3). A truly classic goal to end a classic cup encounter.
Full marks to all the actors in this drama; the game was physical without ever being dirty and resorting to violence. The pitch was awful and did little to help the action. However, for three euros the spectators got two hours of football, seven goals and lots of honest hard graft. The win will help Red Stars' confidence, the route to goal has been rediscovered. For once Red Star got their reward for a huge domination of the game. Bravo Red Star.
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