The season of D1 ended yesterday and if it will be necessary to wait to draw all the lessons, it was the occasion a first assessment. An overview with a single question mark left unfinished for a few more days, for the PSG whose season will probably be played in Cardiff, a duel at the top facing Lyon, on which we will have the opportunity to return in the days to come. While waiting for this last act, here are some of the highlights of this 2016/2017 season.



Marseille, future grand of the D1?


Marseille achieved an exemplary first season in D1 with this fourth place, a final ranking that attests first to a capacity to learn quickly from the best teams in France. This is an observation that we could almost extend to all the promoted despite various fortunes, but each in their own way better finished the championship. Unlike Metz and Bordeaux, Marseille had anticipated the need to recruit experienced players and broken the D1.


With a staff rich in experience, OM is in the end almost in its place with this fourth place even if the success of the Olympians is still a good surprise. A performance to be commended on the sporting and symbolic level because it challenges the city and elsewhere and creates a new interest around this team and the championship. The victory of Marseille against Paris may have been from this point of view the icing on the cake. You can see an encouraging sign and a sparkle on the glass ceiling that seemed to separate the "Big 4" from other teams in the championship.


This first season in D1 will probably enhance the attractiveness of Marseille for players who beyond the sporting challenge may have the desire to join a club that is an institution in French football. This is one of the elements that can allow OM to tackle the gap that separates them from Montpellier, Paris and Lyon. A new cross-country event awaiting Christophe Parra and the Olympian players, after this successful introduction.



Juvisy off the table


It was one of the stakes for Juvisy at the end of the season, to be able to get back to fourth place in the symbolic way, since he had to go back to the end of the 1980s to see Juvisy out of the top 4 of the championship. The last match of the season against OM was symbolic, with a victory of the Juv 'against Olympiennes who pushes for the moment the passage between two eras.

=> D1: "Big Four", the end of an era?


Juvisy had a historic season with disappointing results and showing the smooth slope over which the Juv 'has been sliding for a few years. A diagnosis also made by Marie-Christine Terroni, and she is now trying to remedy this with the launch of the merger project with Paris FC. A choice to save the club from a future that could be at the bottom of the table or even in D2, with the gradual arrival of professional clubs in women's football.


On the sporting side, the season was marked by the difficulty of Juvisy to win by making the game. The Juv 'has achieved some of its best performances against Paris, Lyon or Montpellier, that is to say in matches where the players of the Essonne did not necessarily have possession of the ball. Difficulties to concretize, illustrated by the figures with 42 goals scored this season, a total that has been steadily declining for several seasons (64 goals in 2013-2014). Another enlightening statistic, the number of teams to have taken at least one point this season against Juvisy. they were four last season, they are nine this season.


A situation that probably precipitated the departure of Emmanuel Beauchet, the coach of Juvisy with the feeling that Juvisy lost some of his aura at the end of this season. A reputation to be found for a team with a significant number of international players, a potential that was not enough this season.


Saint-Etienne, the free fall


Juvisy shaken, Saint-Etienne poured him this season. A precipitous fall in the space of a few months, because for those who could observe the beginning of the season of the Vertes, nothing seemed to suggest a descent into D2. With thirteen points in the truce, and a victory against Juvisy in early January, ASSE seemed even to fight to play the places of honor at the top of the table.Saint-Étienne could also be proud to have in its ranks players like Mylène Chavas, best goalkeeper of the last world U20 or Maëlle Garbino also vice-world champion with the Bleuettes. Players with high potential, they are a few in the Forez, and the departures may be many this summer with the risk of dramatically changing the face of a team that will necessarily aim to quickly go back in time. elite.


Sixth at the end of the first leg, Saint-Etienne took two points on the return phase. The Vertes who were one of the best defenses of the championship have literally taken the water with thirty goals conceded over the last eleven games, and only three registered over the same period. A failure all the more spectacular with the victory of the St Etienne against Montpellier (1-0 in Herault) in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France, last March.


A competition that ASSE had won in 2010, already led by Hervé Didier, the coach who decided to throw in the towel after noting the lack of willingness within the club to give good conditions of play and training to the players of his team. An announcement made in April, as the club was dangerously close to the relegation zone. A decision that did not cause a start or a particular awareness and the Vertes now descend in D2, ten years after the rise of Racing Club Saint-Etienne, then passed under the thumb of the ASSE.


The "little ones" make resistance


Among the teams promised to the descent, Albi offered a new reprieve. Beyond the emblematic case of the ASPTT, Soyaux and Rodez have also emerged from this season without incident. If the top of the table remains inaccessible, sections of professional teams do not yet have the monopoly of the D1. The reason is perhaps that the know-how and the experience of these "small clubs" preserve them in front of professional clubs which did not necessarily have the means sufficient to make shine their team in D1.


The most caricatural case may be FC Metz, with many young talented players, an attractive team and a lack of attention at the top of the attack that will be filled only in January with the arrival of Melike Pekel, too late to maintain. In this situation, the weakest means of amateur clubs are not yet an insurmountable handicap. Led by a Laura Bourgouin regularly decisive, Soyaux has shown itself this season, despite injuries that have weighed on the second half of the season.


For Rodez, the record is perhaps more mixed, especially because the team of Sebastien Joseph went to get fifth place last season. A performance that was not possible this season with many points left en route and a team of Rodez who had to wait until the penultimate day to stay.


A complicated season and after which, Sebastien Joseph left the club to join Soyaux. Three clubs that remain but see their coaches leave the end of the season, sign that the results are not necessarily a guarantee of stability in a D1 in motion and where these clubs will have to continue to adapt to stay at the highest level.



Montpellier returns to Europe


It was time. Since 2010, Montpellier saw the years go by without Europe, with Juvisy then Paris Saint-Germain who deprived Montpellier of the emotions of the Champions League. An era that the youngest Hérault girls have known since the edge of the field, and that they will be able to live in their turn. Because being able to play Europe is also an element that can help keep some Montpellier who might have been tempted to join Olympique Lyonnais or Paris Saint-Germain.


An important argument for players like Sandie Toletti or Sakina Karchaoui, essential cogs of the collective Héraultais and for whom the European competitions participate in a progression which is written also in team of France where they make from now on regular appearances. Young Montpellier have also had to take over this season on the offensive plan after the injury of Sofia Jakobsson, like Lindsey Thomas, Valerie Gauvin, Stina Blackstenius, three prolific players in this second half of the season.


Montpellier has been more consistent this season than Paris, which allowed the club to take the best héraultais after several crossovers between the two teams. The arrivals of Blackstenius but also Janice Cayman proved invaluable to maintain continuity in the results, which had been lacking in the last two years. A full season, symbolized by this figure of 18 wins, the highest number of successes achieved by Montpellier in D1 since 2005, the last season when the MHSC won the title of champions of France.