Tours and Poitiers stayed as undisputed rulers of France while Beauvais will play in Ligue B next season. Read more in our comprehensive summary of French PRO A league after regular season.
This season didn’t brought nothing new in France because Tours and Poitiers stayed as undisputed rulers although they lost the best players from last season. N’Gapeth family left Tours and it was question how that is going to affect the club. Earvin went to Italy, his younger brother Swan joined Beauvais while father Eric didn’t renewed contract with Tours. Except N’Gapeth family there were some other departures. Olteanu went in Argentina and Tolar joined Champions League participant Belgian Lennik but club brought quality players like Cuban Yosleider Cala from Verona and Serbian national team outside hitter Miloš Terzić. Although they finished first after regular part of season it was visible they lost power from previous seasons. They failed to win cup after shocking loss against Rennes in semifinal, in Champions league fell against Friedrichshafen so this isn’t their best season. Championship is the last chance for saving season for them, pressure is huge and it would be debacle if they fail to win the title. Poitiers lost their backbone from last season because Rouzier went in ZAKSA Kedzierzyn Kozle while captain Kieffer picked up heavy back injury and didn’t played single match this season. As replacement for Rouzier they signed powerful Montenegrian opposite Ćulafić who become the most important player along experienced outside hitter Marechal and setter Pinheiro. Last days Poitiers was living dangerously because DNACG (commission which controls the finances of clubs) found debt around 250.00 euros and there was a chance to throw them in Ligue B. Although they have won more matches than Tours Poitiers finished regular season as second with five points less than biggest rivals.
Despite Tours and Poitiers are much more vulnerable than last season other teams should put extraordinary performance if they want to win the title.
Review of other teams should start with Arago de Sete. Team from southern France repeated same achievement from previous season. They finished as third after regular season with five points less than Poitiers and ten Tours. Sete kept core of team from last season, only Simovski left team but they covered his departure by signing French national team player Marien Moreau. Moreau proved as quality player and he is the best scorer of championship so far. Along Moreau one of the best player was another national team player setter Benjamin Toniutti. Sete showed that they can cope with best teams in league and with little luck can reach finals.
Another team which took same place as in previous season is Cannes. Club from Cote d’Azur is physically one of the strongest teams in French championship and they took advantage of that. Cannes relied on many killing blocks and very strong attacks but that led to weaker defense. They are extremely strong in front of own fans and good performances in the last part of season launched them on fourth position. Surely they can surprise but they are much weaker in away games as they won only five matches on side.
The most beautiful story the second year in a row is Nantes. Their coach Martin Demar said club didn’t have physiotherapist and gym when he came in Nantes. In their first season in Ligue A Nantes reached playoff and they repeated same thing by taking fifth place. Club is built on healthy basics and Demar did great job this season. Dutch opposite Tony Krolis was key player for Nantes because he was second best scorer of league. Two towers, Spaniard Fernandez and Czech Holubec, are one of the best middle blockers duo in league and great credit for the success of Nantes goes to them. Nantes is classic home team and they could be dark horse in playoffs.
Boris Grebennikov led Rennes to the biggest success in club history by winning French club. They did that in impressive way, beating Tours in semifinal and Beauvais in final, without losing single set although they were without one of the best players Romain Vadeleux. This achievement confirmed Rennes have big potential and club board did everything to keep team together in next season by extending contracts with key players. Unfortunately, son of coach Grebennikov and fantastic libero, Jenia is probably leaving Rennes at the end of season. Club from Brittany shouldn’t be underestimated because they can do some ”damage” to leading clubs.
Tourcoing is surely one of the weirdest teams in Ligue A. For example they beat Tours and Sete and then lose to Ajaccio and Narbonne. They had a lot of oscillations during season but place in playoff never was in danger. Same as Nantes Tourcoing relied a lot on two middle blockers, Lorsheidj and Gendrey, while Simovski and Jablonsky were main weapons in attack. Coach Paulinho have good team but after all ups & downs during season they aren’t trustworthy team.
Paris is the last team which have qualified for playoffs. After Mauricio Paes left to Tours Paris got new coach Dorian Rougeyron. Except new coach many new players came in French capital and that had influence on results. When they found chemistry and rhythm better results came and biggest credits for that goes to Bulgarian outside hitter Škrimov and Austrian opposite Zass. Paris won 6 out of last 8 matches, beat Poitiers in that period and it was enough for 8th place.
Montpellier didn’t reach playoffs but they had huge problems with injuries during season. First they lose very important middle blocker Franck Laffite. Laffite had missed the entire season due to a severe knee injury but it was just a start. During winter break one of the best scorers in France in last few years Czech Filip Rejlek went to Brazilian Vivo Minas. His replacement was ex Polish national team player Marcel Gromadowski. In first days of New Year Montpellier faced big injury crisis because outside hitters Lyneel and Quesque were seriously injured as well as libero Daniel. Also another outside hitter Duhagon and opposite Gromadowski had minor injuries and during that period Montpellier lost 5 matches in row. First part of season Montpellier finished as 3rd but after injury crisis they were 8th. Simply they lost rhythm and didn’t recover from that.
Toulouse entered season with high ambitions. Playoff was their goal and they did everything to ensure it. Coach Cedric Enard got mix of younger, talented players like Rossard, Bauer and Burel along experienced setter Eloi, opposite Damiao and outside hitter Zagonel. Toulouse had a lot of ups&downs during season but entered last part with realistic chances to reach playoff. Then they collapsed under pressure of high ambitions. Playoff stayed just a dream but core of team will play next season in Toulouse so they will get another chance.
Newcomers from Narbonne had just one goal – to stay in league. They gathered really experienced team with Marc Schalk, Renaud Herpe and Julian Garcia Torres. After 6 defeats in row board decided to sack coach Biaso and his place took Tristan Martin, his assistant. Releasing Biaso was good move, Martin ”woke” up players and Narbonne started playing better. Setter Moreno and universal Patuc picked up injuries Narbonne reacted fast and signed experienced Pole Jozefacki and Greek Psarras from bankrupt Greek giant Panathinaikos. After their arrival Narbonne started to play even better, beat Tours in straight sets and was no doubts they will save from relegation.
Ajaccio is another team which entered season with playoff ambitions but they had opposite worries till the end. Even though they hadn’t big budget Ajaccio attracted few good players on Corsica. From Teruel came outside hitter with Champions league experience Victor Batista, from Greek Lamia signed one of the best scorers in Greek league in last season American William Price, Finnish national team setter Eemi Tervaportti and middle blocker from Croatia Šime Vulin. Results in championship were far, far from expectations while in French cup they reached semifinals. Chairman Exiga wasn’t satisfied with results and decided empower team in order to avoid relegation. Firstly came experienced Mexican Gerardo Contreras and his arrival led to the departure of Price. After Kovalenko picked up injury from Champions league participant ACH Ljubljana came Daniel Lewis. Ajaccio started to play better, beat playoff teams like Sete and Tourcoing but they didn’t stay out of danger zone until 25th round. Mighty Tours came on Corsica and Ajaccio took one point which was enough to avoid relegation after Beauvais home defeat against Tourcoing.
Lyon’s first season in Ligue A was a brief and unsuccessful. Led by 40 years old legend Dominique Daquin Lyon didn’t have quality to cope even with mediocre teams and relegation was inevitably. They won only 4 out of 26 matches, all at home while away they took only 4 points in 13 matches and they finished as last team. Obvious lack of quality was key element because their team was more suitable for Ligue B than Ligue A.
I left Beauvais for the end of this review since their relegation from the league was a sensational and deserves wider analysis. No one expected that, not with players like Pavel Bartik, Christophe Songolo, Florian Kilama or Ondrej Hudeček. But the biggest influence on their results had enormous number of injuries key players then poor form. Slovak opposite and Beauvais captain Pavel Bartik said ” he never missed that much matches and practices as this season” and that describes situation in a best way. Beauvais had one of the biggest budgets in league ( around 1,6 million euros) and after bad previous season they wanted to return among best teams in league. Beauvais signed experienced Czech Ondrej Hudeček from Montpellier, Greek national team libero Papadimitriou and setter Quentin Marion who along Bartik, Kilama, Songolo should be a guarantee of entry into the playoffs. In late October and early November Beauvais reached their best form, won 3 matches in row against very strong teams (Sete, Tours and Rennes), then experienced unlucky loss in Poitiers and after that won another two matches. Then injuries simply destroyed all good they have done. First Songolo got injured and miss 2 matches, then Kilama and Lacassie faced injury problems but real problems came in early December. Team lost self-confidence, there were problems between coach and players, Kilama and Laccasie injuries caused huge problems so middle blocker Hotulevs was playing as outside hitter. Beauvais signed Slovenian outide hitter Matija Pleško but he picked up injury in his debut against Paris in French cup and soon joined Ravenna. From the beginning of December till the end of February Beauvais lost 12 matches in row! Durmortier has been sacked and Beauvais got new coach – Cedric Dubois. Dubois also faced with injury problems and decided to sign another player. Canadian Steven Gotch joined Beauvais as medical joker for Songolo who picked up serious Achilles tendon injury and season finished for him. They broke up a series of defeats by beating Toulouse followed the win against Montpellier. 2 victories kept Beauvais just 3 points behind Ajaccio who was holding 12th place, last that guarantees salvation. Key player in these matches was Hudeček by scoring 21 points. French Cup was one of the few bright spots of the season but lost in the finals against Rennes. In the penultimate round Beauvais faced Tourcoing and they needed to win in order to keep chances for salvation before last round. Bartik recovered but Dubois decided to held Hudeček as opposite and Beauvais was dominant team. But they simply couldn’t finish sets, lost concentration in the end and Tourcoing is too good team not to use that. Beauvais lost 1:3 and loss meant relegation.
Just 3 seasons ago Beauvais won French Cup and played in Champions league, now they will play in Ligue B next season. Majority players have contracts for next season but Beauvais surely is going to lose part of budget it’s almost sure there will be wage reductions and departures.
Click Here: cd universidad catolica
Playoffs begin in a few days, draw look like this: Paris – Tours, Nantes Reze – Cannes, Rennes – Sete and Tourcoing – Poitiers. First team who reach 2 win is going to semifinals. So stay tuned for more news from Ligue A.