La Fédération Française de Football rolled out a celebrity on Monday in Lille to participate in the draw for the next round of la Coupe de France. Nathalie Dechy (with Andy Ram the 2007 French Open mixed doubles champion and two time US Open women's doubles champion, with Dinara Safina in 2007, and with Vera Zvonareva in 2006) helped out and the draw was again favorable for FC Nantes.Nantes has drawn another away match, this time at ÉDS Montluçon. Montluçon is a town of about 32,000 located in central France. The team plays in the Championnat France Amateur, the 4th level of French football, in Groupe D. This is an interesting bit as Groupe D also includes the FC Nantes reserve side. Montluçon is currently 14th in the 18 team league, the Nantes reserve team is 17th. Les Sables d'Olonne is currently 18th.
Also interesting is that Orleans plays in this group, currently fifth. That means that it is likely that the Nantes reserve side has played previously this year in the stadium in Orleans. The five Nantes reservists who played for the senior side against Saran last Saturday in the Orleans stadium may have had the advantage of already having played a game there.
The draw is spiced by two draws of a Ligue 1 team versus another Ligue 1 team (Auxerre against Saint-Etienne and Lorient against Valenciennes). This means that no more than 18 Ligue 1 teams will survive to the round of 32.
At least 6 teams from below Ligue 2 will survive. There are two CFA v. CFA draws (Ligue 4 v. Ligue 4), one CFA2 v. CFA (5 against 4), one CFA2 v. DH (5 v. 6), one National v. DH (3 v. 6), and one CFA v. National (4 v. 3). At least 4 teams from the fourth league or lower will survive, one of which will be at least league five or lower.
All of this leaves room for 8 from Ligue 2 to advance to the next round, assuming no upsets. FC Nantes will be the favorite to be one of those 8 but, of course, there are always upsets, that's why they actually play the games.
Paris FC received an unfavorable draw, having drawn Ligue 1 Toulouse at Toulouse.
1 comment:
I think my only possible response to this is "Allez Les Sables," even though they are probably already long gone from the Coupe de France. Very nice tie in though. :)
Post a Comment