Despite relative anonymity, Rose Lavaud is one of those essential players of the D1 hexagonal. A hard-hitting midfielder, her technical quality had been captured by the FFF cameras during her visit to France A in 2013. More recently, she scored the winning goal in the triumph of Saint-Étienne in Montpellier. French Cup. A success that could revive the Vertes on this end of the season. Dribbling and colors, we talk with Rose Lavaud in this interview large format.

Hearts of Foot - So to start, we will talk about your latest news, with this beautiful victory in the Coupe de France against Montpellier. It surprised you this result, succeed in eliminating Montpellier?
Rose Lavaud - It's sure that when we prepare for the match, we think we're less likely to win. After that, a match is a match. We got conditioned, we got ready for the warm up. After, it's during the match. If we see that they do not succeed and we on the contrary, we manage to create things and even to score a goal, there we take over and we manage to create the feat because we kept to the end, even if it was not easy.

CDF - Plus, it was an away win ...
R.L - Yes it was outside. After, our perfs show that we are better outside than at home (laughs) so good ...

CDF - And you score the winning goal ...
R.L - Yes

"We were hoping to fall on Hénin-Beaumont"
CDF - The rest of the semifinal will be Paris Saint-Germain. How do you apprehend this match?
R.L - We were hoping for a lot to fall on Hénin-Beaumont but hey ... Then, we will prepare as we prepare the other matches of the Coupe de France. After Paris, suddenly it will be even harder than Montpellier, we know. We will have even fewer chances to win, anyway we will go play the game and then we will see. We will put all the possible ingredients to create another feat.

CDF - Saint-Étienne is sometimes called "Cup team". And it is true that in the past, ASSE managed to release the PSG, Montpellier. What makes it so that in the Coupe de France you manage to beat these teams, against whom it is more difficult in the league?
R.L - I think maybe it's the context. The fact that it's a Cup match and that everything is possible if we win, [that] we are much more aggressive and catchy. This is what our coach [Hervé Didier] also blames us, not to be in all league games, not being able to reproduce the same performance. After that, it's true that we may not necessarily have the squad for and then the matches are linked. On a match, when you give it all can pass. It may be prepared differently.

"Points that fall by the wayside"
CDF - To talk about the championship, Saint-Etienne is fighting for the continuation even if you also have two games late to play. When we look at the results, we see recent defeats against Marseille, Albi and at the same time a victory against Juvisy. How do you analyze the situation of your team this season?
R.L - What is unfortunate is that we manage to perform against teams who are better on paper than us and conversely we do poor performance against teams that are within our reach. Do we subconsciously say to ourselves that it will be easier or that we let go of the foot, that we start at their own pace and that we can not impose ours? Perhaps. After that, there are some points that are missed and we miss them at the end of the season.

CDF - For you, the departure of experienced players like Sarah Palacin or Sabrina Viguier who stopped his career, does not explain some of the difficulties of the team this season?
R.L - I'm not saying we're really in trouble because last year it was a bit like that, but it's about having a group that's younger. Those who left, they were in their thirties and it was really the experience so it helped us a lot. Here it is true that we are left with a younger group, which is more spirited and a little less experienced but in the end it is another team that we have. It's true that we lost experience, but we also went crazy so it can make up for things a little bit.

After, it's true that the ranking does not reflect the place we should be because we miss matches.

"Trying to impose our pace"
CDF - Sunday, the next match will be important for the maintenance, facing Bordeaux. As you tried to prepare this meeting with the team?
R.L - We will try to prepare it in the best way and not try to ignite. As we won Montpellier, we can very well say that it's going to be an easy match but we must not start from that perspective. We will play the game as we should play it, taking our opponent seriously and trying to impose our pace.

This is what we are lacking, against the teams at our fingertips. We play at their own pace and we do not manage to impose our game and suddenly it is perhaps that which blocks. While when we play against top teams, we are forced to raise our level and that is what happens sometimes. So, that's what we need to reproduce for matches that are within our reach and not to counter-performance as we have done.

CDF - This season for you has also been cut by several weeks of absence. What look do you have on your own performances this year?
R.L - Yes, I was hurt, I had a hamstring tear. It's true that my season was a little cut in half. The beginning of the season was pretty good for the team and for me too. After it was an injury that was rather long to recover so that we are gradually returning to the group. And then you have to recover the pace, the time of play and redo his place so, that's it, it was a little interspersed. I got well, there was the selection at the Istria Cup that made me feel good too and now I will try to finish my season as best as I can.

"Players ... who can bring other things"
CDF - Exactly, the selection, the France B team. Can you tell us about this Istria Cup tournament that you played in early March?
R.L - It's a friendly tournament. There are two groups of four teams and there are teams like Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary B and Northern Ireland. So it's teams that are within our reach and it's interesting to play them, it brings experience on the international level and then we play with players who come from high level teams, we're pretty good surrounded. It also allows us to get out of our club routine, to try to really do the maximum and to show that we have its place also in the France B team [to] see above after.

That's what it's all about, it's also used already for the coach of the France B team [Jean-François Niemeski], to see us, to see how we progress and then after the goal is to go a little higher still.

CDF - You now have about fifteen selections in the France B team, this is your third Istria Cup. It becomes something regular ...
R.L - Yes, it becomes something regular so it's rather positive. It means that the coach relies on me too and it is always nice to be called in selection. After that it feels good to play with players with whom we are not always used to play, who can bring other things, teach us other things or even teach us other things, how to play differently also . You have to know how to adapt to that too, so it's interesting.

"Tell yourself we are not forgotten"
CDF - Between your selections in youth, the team of France university, in B, finally you are always followed, with regular calls even if it is not the A ...
R.L - Yes, I think it's important too. It allows us to always be confident, to say that we are not forgotten and that we always have a chance to go to the highest level so it's important to stay there.

CDF - And these selections go with titles. U19 European Championship in 2010, the World University Championship in 2015. Are these titles still your best memories in your career?
RL - Yes, it's sure that it's still the best memories because that's why we play football in fact, to win titles and to live moments like that so it's only on the sporting side. is the best.

CDF - And for A? You have seen a selection in 2013 against Bulgaria, what is missing to cross this level and why not settle in the A?
R.L - What is missing? (Smile) Details surely, physically, technically, tactically, power. All that the players have and who are at the top. And then, being in a professional club, it helps a lot because they make football, they progress much faster and they have a better ability to play at high level.

CDF - Today, you work as a physiotherapist next to football. Does not becoming a professional become today almost a must to play in France team A?

R.L - Yes, I think it's complicated to go without being professional and in a pro structure.

CDF - And for you, if the opportunity presents itself, playing pro a few years is something that you keep in mind?
R.L - If the opportunity arises, it will remain a goal for sure.

"An experience to live"
CDF - Still in the selections, but on a side perhaps more anecdotal. I saw that you had played for another selection, that of Occitanie. Can you tell us a little more?
R.L - In fact the Occitanie team [participated in] a tournament, the Europeada. It brings together the teams that represent the languages ​​of each nation that are a little lost. So there, we represented Occitania and the language was Occitan. And as I had played in Toulouse for a year, I had made university tournaments with the coach [Sylvain Blaise] who takes care of it, and it was he who took care of it [also] for Occitania. Suddenly, he proposed me and he asked me, as I had played in Toulouse. And then, [being] a native of Corrèze and that it is part of the old Occitanie, he proposed to me and I said yes.

CDF - And Occitan, is it a language that you can speak?
R.L - No, it's a language we learned a little bit there because we had some Occitan lessons too, so it was an experience to live. And then, a language to discover because it is true that it is a lost language and which is very little spoken and so it was interesting too. But it's not a language we speak daily.

"Create uncertainty"
CDF - This interview was also an opportunity for you to discover. Those who are interested in women's football know your name but not necessarily your game. If I you that you are a player of percussion with a big technical quality, it seems to you well as description?
R.L - Yes, that's fine with me It's a little me (laughs)

CDF - Beyond these qualities, on which aspects of your game are you trying to progress at this time?
RL - I try to progress in all kinds of games, in calls, not making the same calls, trying to create uncertainty, playing a little more in the axis also because it happened to me to play 10. It's also a role that I like and that I will like to find also because now to stay at the edge of the line and wait for the balloons, it is more too the football of today and the you have to adapt and I try to adapt. This is especially what I work

After that, [there is] all the training we are doing, physically, tactically, the game project I have with the Saint-Étienne team. So that's included in it.

CDF - The position you currently hold, of an off-center offensive, has not always been your job?
R.L - Since I was in Sainté, this is the position I play most often, even very often. In Toulouse, I happened to play 10. After I was younger, but I played attacking, but yes especially middle right and 10 is the two positions to remember.