Division 1 kicks off this weekend, and with yet more overseas internationals joining the league, and QSI also investing in their women’s team, it looks set to be more exciting than ever.
Georges and Delie to PSG
While Lyon remain the team to beat, PSG have continued the investment that we noted last season, when they brought in a swathe of international stars as well as tempting domestic players to the capital. This summer there have been some more significant moves, the Parisian project attracting French international centre-back Laura Georges from Lyon and fellow Bleue Marie-Laure Delie from Montpellier, and from overseas Italian international rightback Sara Gama from Chiasiellis and Polish international goalkeeper Katarzyna Kiedrzynek from Gornik Leczna. The thought of Delie up front with last summer’s attacking signings Lindsey Horan (USA) and Kosovare Asllani (Sweden) will give defences a great deal to worry about, and they have also strengthened at the back, adding to a defence that already included four internationals (Krahn, Boulleau, Delannoy, Houara). Throw in their number 10, German international Linda Bresonik, pulling the strings in midfield, and they look a prospect almost as daunting as OL.
Sara Gama, also, to PSG
At Lyon, things seem a little quiet – American star Megan Rapinoe will be back despite having gone back to the US for the NWSL season with Seattle Reign, and midfielder Melissa Plaza comes in from Montpellier, but talismanic defender Sonia Bompastor has retired, her last match winning her a fifteenth trophy, as OL beat St Etienne 3-1 in the Coupe de France final. With Georges off to PSG, Japanese international centre back Saki Kumagai has come in from Frankfurt.
Juvisy, who got to the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, where they were beaten by OL, have obtained goalkeeper Celine Deville from Lyon and ex-Lioness and French international Sandrine Brétigny from Frankfurt. They have Gaetane Thiney, Camille Catala and Julie Machart making things happen behind her, but one-woman-wall Sandrine Soubeyrand is now 40, and although a favoured player of Bruno Bini at the European Championships, she noticeably couldn’t play a whole match, three times being subbed at half-time. While pushed into third place by PSG, they had their best-ever showing in the Champions League, including an impressive 4-1 aggregate win over Goteborg when they overcame the stern resistance of Swedish international keeper Kristen Hammarstrom.
Oqvist (right) to MHSC
Montpellier have recruited well to deal with the departure of Delie, bringing in Swedish international attacking midfielder Josefine Öqvist from Kristianstads, and Scottish international central defender Jennifer Beattie from Arsenal. They also have a new manager, Jean-Louis Saez replacing Sarah M’Barek after six years at the helm. He’s a former MHSC player with experience at both senior and youth levels in the men’s game, and is being brought in to challenge for something silver for the first time since a Coupe de France win in 2009. It could be a slow start, as Montpellier’s first match, against Saint-Etienne, has been postponed due to the absence of senior squad members on international duty, as les Bleuettes have reached the final of the Women’s U19 Euros, including Solene Durand – given Laetitia Philippe’s suspension, this would have left MHSC without a goalkeeper for the match.
Beattie to MHSC
Elsewhere, the middle group of Yzeure, Saint-Etienne and Guingamp will be looking to breach the gap to the top four; there’s been significant player movement for all these clubs, and Yzeure and Guingamp both have new managers, Xavier Aubert and the aforementioned Sarah M’Barek respectively. For Saint-Etienne, goalkeeper Méline Gérard was on awesome form in the cup final (yes, they conceded three, but seriously, it could have been twelve), and in a potentially key transfer for this section of the table, they also have Laura Bouillot in attack, whose 18 goals for Yzeure last season got her onto the reserve list for the Euros (the squad, as traditional, was made up of players for the top four) and was named ‘revelation of the season’ by Foot d’Elles. Yzeure managed an impressive fifth-place finish above the two professional teams last season, but seem to have lost a lot of players, so that success may not be sustainable. Guingamp, on the other hand, have been recruiting, and spread their goals around anyway, so look well set for the new campaign.
The table from last season demonstrates the difficulty of the task at hand for anyone wanting to challenge Lyon – while the loss in the Champions League final to Wolfsburg showed they are not unbeatable, they are damn close to it, winning all their games and conceding only five goals in the league. Add in the cup and the Champions League and they scored over 200 goals last season. A strikeforce of Schelin, Thomis, Le Sommer, Tonazzi, to say nothing of Louisa Necib behind them, means that their opponents can rarely get to attack, so the OL defence perhaps don’t so much defend as just start attacking from further away; this can be exploited, but they are definitely a cut above. Whether PSG’s recruitment has put them in a place where they can credibly challenge OL will be interesting to see – and as last year’s runners-up, they will have the Champions League to contend with as well (Juvisy definitely struggled to fight on several fronts at the end of last season). The Parisiennes started last season badly, with a 1-1 draw at newly-promoted Guingamp, but pushed on from there, and with the backing they have – which means that their players don’t have to have jobs, like several of the other teams in the division – they will be looking to make it a closer race this season.
The table also shows the gulf between the top four and the rest, both in terms of the points gap and the goal difference column. Crazy scorelines when one of the big hitters takes on a smaller team are the norm, and OL kick off their campaign away at newly-promoted Henin-Beaumont, who they beat 6-0 in the Coupe de France last season (they also beat Soyaux, another of the new arrivals, 11-0). PSG start with Yzeure, and Juvisy with Muret, the final new promotee. Thus, the key games are those between the elite group, and the first grand choc comes in game 2, when Lyon host Juvisy on 7th September. In game 4, PSG play OL, and are then away to Montpellier in game 5, and those two games will be crucial to their title challenge – they need something from the first, and to win the second, to stand any chance of breaking Lyon’s stranglehold on the Division (seven straight titles since 2007). The big four need to keep their concentration, however, as dropping points against one of the lower teams could seriously compromise their standing, and chance of qualifying for Europe next season.
Fixtures Game 1 – Saturday : Soyaux v Rodez; Sunday : Henin Beaumont v Lyon, Yzeure v PSG, Juvisy v Muret, Guingamp v Arras; postponed : Montpellier v Saint Etienne
2012/13 Final Standings
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