Thursday January 23, 2020 6:00 pm – Article written by La Rdaction – Comment on this article
After its epic in the Coupe de France concluded in the 16th finals against Angers last weekend (1-4), FC Rouen is working this Saturday to resume its march forward in its National 2 championship. pool B, the Norman club welcomes Vannes with the objective of consolidating its place. Before the meeting, an overview of the latest news from the Red Devils with their coach David Giguel.
David, the Coupe de France adventure ended this weekend against Angers (1-4). Difficult to turn the page?
Yes, it’s always difficult to leave the Coupe de France. It’s an extraordinary competition that brings different emotions from the championship. All towers are in one shot, so either it passes or it breaks. It brings other things. We had a great experience. We didn’t have an easy route to get there in 16e, we had to eliminate good teams. Each round had its share of complications, and we nevertheless eliminated a National team, one from Ligue 2 and one from Ligue 1. We would have preferred to continue the adventure but it stops there, so we have to quickly refocuses to be efficient on Saturday against us at Vannes. It is important.
What are you going to learn from this epic?
What we will remember is the human adventure, the emotions that we were able to live together, with the staff, with the group, with the leaders. We shared important things. There was a lot of passion, a lot of emotion. We also shared some great moments with our supporters. We were able to offer them quality opponents in Diochon, including a Ligue 2 and two Ligue 1. There was no doubt about it, but they also showed us that we can count on them for the rest of the championship because they really helped us through these Coupe de France rounds. And then at the football level, we also could see that we had a quality group. Because once again, we do not accidentally eliminate hierarchically superior teams. We saw that we could put ourselves at the level of certain teams so that should give us confidence for the rest of the championship.
Is this epic a real plus for your end of season goals?
Yes, we have to rely on it. We know why we were eliminated by Angers, we also know why we managed to eliminate Metz. In football you have to be very focused, be very good in transitions and be effective in both penalty areas. We knew how to do it very well against Metz, against whom we had a very high level match. We were a little worse in the transitions and in the two surfaces against Angers, and we paid for it cash.
In this Coupe de France adventure, there is this episode with Fred Dembi, suspended against Angers for having received yet another yellow card against Metz in the next round (the player had removed his jersey to exhibit that of Guingamp in tribute to Nathaël Julan, his suspension was then confirmed on appeal). Did you understand this decision by the French Football Federation (FFF) not to take the card out of the context?
Everyone would have liked the Federation to show humanity and heart. Football is the most popular sport in which there are important values of humanity. So we would all have liked it, be it the club and the supporters, for the FFF to make a gesture, remove his card or allow him to play that match even if it meant suspending him later. Unfortunately, they applied the rules to the letter so you have to accept because Fred had taken three yellow cards, he was suspended and that’s the rules. It’s like that, we couldn’t go beyond. The club has done everything in any case so that the Fed can change its mind. She didn’t accept, that’s how it is.
How did Fred Dembi experience it internally?
He was frustrated, it makes sense! He had been successful in previous matches, both in the Cup and in the league. That’s what I said to the group: Fred deserved to play that game. There was a lot of frustration at the time but he also expected a little. He knows football well, since he’s been playing for a while. He knows that it is complicated that the committees do not give an opinion different from the previous ones. In general, the appeal commission confirms so as not to overhang the commission before. Now he also knows that the season at FC Rouen will be successful if we continue to perform every weekend, not to mention a climb. He knows very well that we have to be efficient every weekend that has to come in order to continue to take points and to be still well positioned in the final sprint to participate and possibly go to the title. But there will be stages before that will be important, including those of Vannes this weekend.
Precisely, you receive Vannes (6e, 24 pts) Saturday in the league. Is this a turning point in the season of FC Rouen?
No ! Since the start of the season, we have been in the habit of saying to the group that we have to take match after match and that each meeting that arrives is very important because this championship is very difficult, very homogeneous. No team can say they will win the next game in advance because there really are quality teams, with quality players. There are still 14 games left, Vannes can still claim the climb at the end of the season. They’re a little bit behind but it’s largely playable. No matter who wins and no matter what the outcome of this weekend, there is still a long way to go and there will still be many great teams to meet. We are committed to working hard during the week to be successful at the weekend. Every weekend, every game is the most important of the year for us. And that will not change whatever the result against Vannes.
In addition to this nice course in the Coupe de France, you are still the leader of the pool. Do you feel like having a favorite status, being looked at differently by other groups?
No, I do not think so ! We weren’t favorite at the start, it’s only the 7the or 8e chicken budget. There are certain teams that are very well financially equipped, that work well too, that are well structured and that logically have the ambition to finish first. We have been promoted. Admittedly, we had a very good first leg and we tackled the second leg very well. But we are still a young club in National 2 I want to say, since it is our first year at this level for a while. We are a historic club but have not known this level for a long time so we still have a lot to learn. Favorite status, we don’t have it, no. There are teams like Chartres who are much better equipped financially. I also think of Saint-Brieuc, which has many qualities and which finished 2e or 3e last season. Points will be important to take and it will especially be there in early or mid-April to make a final sprint with three or four teams. In this pool there is really quality and seven or eight teams can fight for the first place.
So it will not be considered a failure if next spring there is no rise in National 2?
No, it will not be considered a failure. But what would be disappointing for the staff and the leaders of the club, is that the players do not give the same content of matches or do not have the same values as those that we saw on the first leg . What is important is that we have good content as we had on the first phase, that we continue to progress in what we do, whether in our offensive or defensive animation. But after, a championship is long. If we are up there, so much the better! If we are not up there, we will continue to work and we will study the squad and then we will resume a season in National 2. Because again, we are promoted.
As we said, FC Rouen is a historic club. Do you feel a certain expectation around the club to see it at a higher level?
Yes, and it’s pretty logical. Again, FC Rouen is a big club, which has a great history. We saw it in the Cup. There are a lot of people waiting for the club to return to a very good level. But we also know that football is very random and that there are certain parameters that we cannot control. So we must both be aware of this logical impatience but also do things with patience, conviction and take the right opportunities as we did last year with the rise from National 3 to National 2 which was not planned . It turned out that it went well, we won a season and I hope it will be the same this year. But again, football is too irrational to be able to predict six months in advance who will be up there.
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