TFC: Maxime Dupé, tourist insurance

the essential
Author of a boss performance at Bonal, Maxime Dupé earns valuable points at TFC. And he has not yet shown everything, thinks Patrice Garande. Promising.

We often say that to win a great competition, you need a great goalkeeper. We could debate the status of Ligue 2, less that of Maxime Dupé, at least with regard to his performance on Monday night. Its success in Sochaux (1-0), the fifth this season away, the TFC owes it largely to its goalkeeper: imperial on his line, Dupé released his Violets from the clutches of the Lion Cubs to reinstall them on the second step of the podium, two lengths behind the Trojan leader. “This victory is very important”, summarizes the goalkeeper with his usual calm. Sometimes it’s more important to win in difficulty than to win 3 or 4 to 0. “

Class parades

Difficult, this match was. First for a simple and good reason: the weather. “At the start of the second half, I saw almost nothing,” admits the Toulouse goalkeeper. And if Bafodé Diakité carried the Violets in the lead at the height of the snowfall that fell on Bonal, it was Dupé who had kept them tied for score, especially with a double class parade, just before the half hour of play. Again he who, at the end of the game, while his defense was bracing himself on his cage, had a firm hand to deflect the last Sochaux attempts. Result, at a press conference, the Doubien coach Omar Daf regretted “the lack of efficiency” of his players, but recognized that “what made the difference is the talent.”

Talent, the Morbihanais needed it, to complete without conceding a goal what he hesitates to qualify as “(s) our best match”. “It is in any case the one where I was most requested”, he kicks in touch. “This performance pleases me”, loose anyway the one who saw the Sochaliens try their luck 16 times (6 shots on target), before adding without false modesty: “Let us especially remember the state of mind of the team” .

Still room for improvement

If Maxime Dupé should not be counted on to put himself forward when he is handed a microphone, his trainer Patrice Garande believes that his goalkeeper can still improve in the affirmation of his personality in his 16m50. “We are working on that, on what he needs to clear. Max also has this paradox; he makes these saves which bring us back points, but in this match he also misses some aerial balls, clearances… He still has a Huge room for improvement, even if I consider that he has progressed enormously since the start of the season “, analyzes the Normand.

“Yes, it is also my feeling, confirms Dupé. I am lucky to be able to link the matches, it is the most important for a goalkeeper.” The only Toulousain to have played all of the league matches, the 27-year-old goalkeeper already has 10 clean sheets in 21 days, including four in the last five games …

While the Swedish international Isak Pettersson joined the TFC during the winter transfer window, Dupé in any case took advantage of this trip to the Doubs to mark his territory. He will have a new opportunity to do so this Saturday in his garden at the Stadium, facing Clermont, his former club, which he did not leave as he would have liked due to the abrupt end of the last season. “It will necessarily be special, see the guys again … A real pleasure. But as they say, on the pitch, there are no friends.” Another maxim to verify.