CFA round 20
Saturday 16th February 2008
RED STAR 1 AUXERRE B 2 (0-2)
Attendance : 311 - referee : M. Fatih Kilicoglu assisted by Rudy Hourdouillie & William Eisenauer
Goals : Kitambala (10), Ba (33) - Ouattara (60)
CJ : Lux (70), Lefort (84), Nemir (86) - Petric (90), Traoré (90 + 2)
Substitutions : Berthier by Lefort (58) - Kitambala by Gnakpa (80),
RED STAR FC 93 : DJIDONOU (1), LACOMAT cap. (2), TOKALA (3), NEMIR (4), PINTO (5), FARDIN (6), BERTHIER (7), OUATTARA (8), NEGRECHE (9), ROBERT (10), LUX (11), MBANZA (12), YOSRI (13), KANGULUNGU (14), LEFORT (15), DIAKITE (16). Coach : Bruno NAIDON
AUXERRE B : PETRIC (1), AKAKPO (2), MARTIN (3), DIAKITE (4), LECHACHEUX, cap. (5), NDINGA (6), BA (7), APO (8), KITAMBALA (9), TRAORE (10), MENDES (11). MERECK (12), GNAKPA (13), LANGIL (14), OZIEMCUK (15). Coach : Bernard DAVID
Yannick Berthier
GAMES OF TWO HALVES
Bit of a cliché, it has to be said, but this really was a game of two halves. In the first half Red Star were truly awful, in the second they were just awful. New president Patrice Haddad might want to make changes across all areas, including this website, but maybe he should be concentrating on the poor form of the first XI, which under his reign has slumped to four defeats in five games including three at home.
Fortress Bauer it might have been at one time, but at the moment it's more of a case of help yourself to the points as Auxerre took advatage of some generosity in the Red Star defence to snatch two goals. For the first, after ten minutes, Red Stars' defence watched on in admiration as goalkeeper Yoann Djidonou made two fine saves; instead they should have been wading in their to assist their custodian, smashing the ball into the stands, maybe. Instead Kitambala was allowed to stab the ball home unhindered.
The second goal was a bit better, but Ba was completely unmarked as he stooped to head home a nice cross from the left hand side of Red Stars' defence. In between Red Star huffed and puffed in vain on a better-than-usual Bauer surface. Up front it was dire and the forwards were not helped by some truly woeful passing from defence and midfield. More often than not a smart passing build-up was let down by one terrible piece of distribution. Auxerres' goalie was untroubled for the first forty-five minutes.
After the break it was a different story as Red Star finally got their act together, and Moussaa OUATTARA gave Red Star a liefeline with a finely taken goal. As Red Star dominated Auxerre tried to sit back on their lead and in general most attacks came to nought. In the dying seconds of the game Negreche went agonizingly close to earning his side a draw, but the ball shaved the post and ran to safety.
So, Red Star slip back down the table, the teams at the bottom are starting to make an improvement. Although the gap is still relatively important, who knows and unless Red Star get their act together the club could find itself back in the CFA 2.
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