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Four-goal romp caps off Etoile home party
Paul Green
info@sleague.com
They promised a Hollywood-style show and sexy football on the pitch, and Etoile FC delivered both in Thursday night’s Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League match at Queenstown Stadium, the first there this season for the new French-flavoured team, now using the venue for their matches.
Visitors Woodlands Wellington, who pushed them all the way four days earlier in the 2010 League Cup Final before going down 1-3, found things a lot tougher the second time around as they fell 0-4.
Even with three players back from suspension the Rams conceded three goals in a thirteen-minute blitz by Etoile that saw the home side ahead 3-0 by the 21-minute mark.
The pace never slackened, until Etoile extended their lead six minutes into the second half, after which Woodlands began to show more bite in the tackle and made every effort to get back in the game and put on a decent show for the 3,206-strong crowd.
Having been provided with a motorcycle display and pre-match fireworks, French fans and their friends were treated to an exhibition of football that proved the new team worthy of the tag of entertainers, both on and off the pitch.
Even when playmaker Flavien Michelini exited the scene early with a thigh strain, the flowing football continued unabated, though the star midfielder had already well and truly left his mark on the game by that stage.
The game was only eight minutes old when a free kick from 30 yards out by defender Julien Deletraz whistled past Rams goalkeeper Hafez Mawasi and into the roof of the net.
A short corner six minutes later saw the ball played back by Karim Boudjema to another exciting midfield performer, Cyril Bagnost, whose stinging drive, from 25 yards this time, beat Hafez just as comfortably.
A 2-0 lead inside a quarter of an hour looked a pretty good platform for the French, whose new-found fans were loving every minute of it.
They had only to wait another six minutes before they were celebrating a third goal.
Michelini on the right was looking so menacing that he drew three defenders as he made his way towards the by-line.
He whipped in a perfect cross, after eluding all of his adversaries, which allowed a by-then-unmarked Frederic Mendy to nod home at the near post.
Five minutes later Michelini had to make way for new arrival Leeroy Anton Matesanz, who was soon to leave his own important impression on the game.
Michelini felt his thigh muscle ‘go’ and wisely pulled out of the contest, but his replacement, who has only been in Singapore a week or so, was to figure in many of the creative moves by the Frenchmen for the remainder of the first half.
They could so easily have scored a few more before the break, with captain Matthias Verschave, Mendy and Boudjema all going close, while the bulk of the crosses were coming from Matesanz and reached their targets nicely.
Woodlands had a good chance at the other end just before the half-hour mark, but Mohd Noor Ali could only prod at a loose ball that had arrived via a deflection off Abdelhadi Laakkad, the Etoile keeper eventually able to collect the effort with ease.
Etoile picked up where they had left off at the end of the first half when they almost scored within a minute of the resumption.
Defender Loic Leclercq rocked the crossbar with a shot from a free kick conceded around the edge of the Woodlands penalty area.
Another free kick sent over by Boudjema, this time from wide on the right on 51 minutes, found the glancing head of Mendy in the goalmouth and Hafez was beaten a fourth time.
It was to be the last time, however, as the Rams began to show a lot more after that, especially in the tackle, and won a few free kicks as Etoile players were finding them far harder to stop than they had before the break.
Noor Ali put a free kick well over the bar on 63 minutes, but Etoile might have scored a fifth soon after when Verschave escaped the attention of Winston Yap as he worked his way into the six-yard box after a run from very deep
But a one-handed save by Hafez denied the captain that time.
Although the game had fallen away a little in the second half, Etoile had already given supporters their money’s worth by then with an eventually convincing 4-0 win.
Etoile coach Patrick Vallee, an animated figure on the sidelines during the game, was tranquil when it was all over. His chairman, Johan Gouttefangeas, had also calmed down by then after expending so much energy on making the first home game such a success.
“I was worried after we had beaten them in the League Cup Final that they would make life very hard for us,” said Gouttefangeas.
“We told the players before the game to think only of putting on a show on the pitch and not to be distracted by the entertainment going on in the stadium ahead of the match.
“They went out there and showed what they can do, that is to play good football, so it’s been a very good game and a winning start for us here tonight.”
Vallee meanwhile commented that he was pleased to be able to show some depth in his squad, after resting goalkeeper Yohann Lacroix, defender Daniel Nna and midfielder Anthony Moulin, who had featured heavily in their League Cup campaign.
“There is nothing wrong with Yohann, Daniel or the others who did not play, but this is going to be a long season,” he said.
“I wanted to use this game as a chance to see Brice (Morandini), so I talked to Yohann. He is okay with it.
“I am happy to know now that I have other players who can come in, because we only have a squad of 21. It was worse in the League Cup, I remember one game when I had only 13 players!”
Woodlands coach A. Shasi Kumar meanwhile admitted his side had been outclassed on the night.
“The game was virtually over once we had conceded those three goals in the first 20 minutes,” he said, looking back at the encounter.
“They are a good side and they can only get better, and they finished off their chances every time, which gave us a bad start. It’s obvious that they are going to be chasing the title, and we’ve played them twice early in the season before they get fully into their stride.
“I was not happy with our defending in the first half, and I feel all of the goals were avoidable. If we had played with the same intensity and focus that we showed in the last half-hour of the game, from the start, I’m sure we could have done much better.
“Now I’ll be more than happy to avoid them for a while, as we need to start winning some matches, starting with Sengkang Punggol next Thursday night.” |
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