Le Mans 3 - 2 Saint-Etienne
This afternoon I went to the Stade Léon Bollée for the match between Le Mans (5th) and Saint-Etienne (8th), opening match of the 14è journée de la Ligue 1. MUC72 has the third-lowest average attendance in the Ligue 1, just a little bit over 10000, so I wasn't expecting much atmosphere. But I chose a good day - perhaps the crowd was larger because it was the 15th anniversary of the Worshippers, the club's cheersquad - and found myself one of more than 12000 people. The stadium holds 17000, but about 4000 of those spots must be unseated, because almost all the seats were taken tonight.

The unseated tickets are 6 € each, but I just asked for a ticket and paid 18 € for a seat. I was behind the goal line, a bit to the left of centre. The Worshippers were not too far to my right.

Of course, 12000 is still well below the average for the Queensland Roar, but the atmosphere here was great. (I haven't been to a Roar game. I'll probably have to in the 08/9 season to compare.) The MUC72 supporters were not as singy as I'd hoped, but the loud and enthusiastic St-Etienne contingent opposite compensated for this, with lots of chants and singing. I'm not sure if there were actual lyrics to their songs or not.

I'd like to say that both teams played a 4-4-2, but I honestly wasn't able to tell. I think this was the formation for both teams, but there was far too much movement for me to confidently separate the midfielders from the forwards.

After a couple of early chances, Le Mans were again on the attack in the 16th minute. A cross came in, and one of the Manceaux very obviously had his shirt tugged. He got free and kicked a pretty spectacular scissors kick goal, which was disallowed because apparently the referree had already blown his whistle. He pointed to the penalty spot, and Tulio de Melo duly opened the scoring.

Le Mans's advantage didn't last two minutes, as St-Etienne replied quickly.

Then about ten minutes later was a tackle that left some St-Etienne player on the ground, and a Manceau got shown a red card, to the general disapproval of the crowd. St-Etienne looked like they had the momentum, and now they had a man advantage as well.

They turned their numerical advantage into a lead on the scoreboard not long before half-time, when some pretty light foul in the area gave them a penalty. But Le Mans replied almost immediately! Romaric N'dri Koffi scored with a stunning free kick cleanly round the wall and past the keeper. Two goals each at the break.

Le Mans did well after half-time, and the play seemed pretty even, with both teams making some attacking runs. One of the Manceaux nearly scored from a 38 metre free kick, but the opposition keeper tipped it over the bar.

Then with about twenty minutes to go, one of the Manceaux was running towards goal, the keeper and another defender came running towards him, all three ended up in the same place at the same time, and somehow the ref picked out a penalty. I have to say that this "pointing at the spot" business is done very quickly - I wasn't paying attention to the ref in the split second that he pointed to the spot, so I cheered only because everyone else was. Le Mans 3-2!

St-Etienne didn't give up, and they had many, many attacking raids late in the game, but Le Mans held out, to the ever-increasing cheers of the crowd. There was much extended cheering after the final whistle.

I got involved with two of the cheering thingies. One was the "Allez le Mans" chant, which got more frequent towards the end. The other was this thing where you run on the spot (while staying seated), banging your feet against the metal thing that the grandstand was made of. This made a good deal of noise, but I suspect people do it just to make their legs warm. It was really cold. Normally I find 12 degrees a pleasant temperature, but that's because I'm normally walking. Sitting still for two hours makes 12 degrees much colder. Next time, I'll wear my red and yellow "Allez le Mans" scarf.

The weirdest supporters thing was when the two opposing cheersquads each held out their scarves towards the other. There were some flares lit just before the start of the game, and I mentally winced. But it didn't lead to rioting, and there were no further flares.

You know what was also strange? When the referee blew his whistle to start the game, there wasn't a big roar.