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Dunkerque want to get rid of the bitter taste Cesson left

Nimes are a different story, a team with a much better offense than Cesson, so Dunkerque will need a much better performance

Prior to their away game against Toulouse and the home season opening in the Champions League (against Aalborg, September 28th), the French defending champions were supposed to play what were in theory easy warm-up matches against Cesson and Nimes. Both of those were also to be played at home, and nobody expected the kind of trouble Cesson brought right away.

Coach Patrick Cazal entered the season well aware that his back-court lineup is rather thin and lacks real scorers. Dunkerque will have to work really hard for every goal, even harder than last season, as they lost Lie Hansen and Siakam, two players who could score from the perimeter. Against Cesson they held 15-9 in the second half, but then the away team put together an incredible 10-2 series led by their best performing player, goalie Robin, turned the match completely around and took both points (21-22). The outcome was very disappointing for the home team, but when you score only 9 goal in the second half of a home game, you don't really deserve to win anyway.


- Of course, we're very disappointed. We controlled the first half, but we were playing against a team who had a stronger desire to win and were more driven. The players that came back after recovering from injuries (Soudry, Mokrani) were still not fully fit, but we had everything we needed to win- said coach Patrick Cazal.


- Surprises can always happen in the first round, this time one happened to us. We were aware, somehow, that it will be hard to deal with this title.


One need not look hard to find the reasons they lost, it's suffice to look at the fact that pivot Afgour was their best scorer with a 4/4 scoring, followed by winger Butto with 7/13 but 3/4 in penalty shots. The perimeter line was almost non-existent, with their right back Soudry, who missed the Supercup in Tunisia, scoring nothing in three attempts for an abysmal performance which he could not possibly repeat again today. His substitute Paczkowski 1/4, left back Kornel Nagy 1/3, middle back Guillard 0/2, Lamon 2/6... They probably could not even beat a second league team with such a performance.


- We have to quickly get on the right track against Nimes. We want to hang on to the positive part, which was the first half of the Cesson match- said the coach.


They conceded 8 goals in the first half, and there is no doubt that defense is their strength, even when playing without their main defense player Grocaut, as he is once again not expected to play today. They limited Nimes to 17 goals last season on home court, beating them by 10 goals. In the away match they limited them to 23, but this Nimes is something else, offensively even better than Cesson, so Dunkerque will need a much better performance.


Left back Hallgrimsson had his debut for Nimes last week, scoring 6/9 in front of a home crowd and showing what kind of a reinforcement he is. They played a rather strange match against Tremblay, with the score just 11-8 at halftime, but then scoring 18 goals in the second half got them to the final 29-21.


Goalkeeper Idrissi did a great job with 14 saves, and their defense was brilliant too, limiting Tremblay's main scorers Putics (1/7) and Sall (2/6) to a combined 3/13 shooting, while 4/9 for middle back Ternel does not sound great either. Nimes won by 8, scored 29 goals, and the best player on the Tremblay team was goalie Aljoša Rezar (16), which speaks volumes on the way Nimes play, and shows it's no accident that they lost only one match in the preparation period.


Coach Chauver started the match with Haon and Scaccionoce on the wings, Ferreira as the pivot, Sélestat reinforcement Podsiadlo on middle back, and Saurina and Hallgrimsson na bekovima. It's important to note that Podsiadlo was ready to play, after he missed the final part of last season due to a serious injury. Their perimeter line seems to be geared more towards shooting than penetration, which is not exactly a good thing in this match, as they will certainly meet a tough and aggressive Dunkerque defense.


Nimes are starting a series of away matches today, next week will bring them Cesson in an away Cup match and then Chambery in the championship.


- It was very important to take points against Tremblay when you know we've got Dunkerque coming up, followed by Chambery and then a home match against PSG- said coach Chauvet.