Last weekend, Olympique de Marseille moved to Nîmes as part of their preparation for the coming season. A 2016/2017 exercise that will be that of the discovery of the D1, an elite of French women's football where OM is expected. Marseille, however, will have time to take its first steps before dreaming of summits and play the leading roles. A status to manage for a team that will be willing, despite, one of the attractions of this start of the championship.

In Nîmes, the annexed Costières stadium was not polluted by this pressure which could surround OM in D1. Under a summer heat, the two teams meet again as they have been used to doing in recent years, both in competition and in friendly matches. There are two seasons in D2, Nîmes and the O.M were also competing for first place in Group C, and the rise in D1. Since then, Nîmes has made the elevator, with an accession in the elite and then a descent in the first season.

The same fate for the three promoted then: Nîmes, VGA Saint-Maur and Roche-sur-Yon, and findings made by Gilles Agniel, one of two coaches in Nimes. We can cite the question of recruitment, the evolution of structures (youth teams, training, expansion of staff ...) but also the possibility of having support with male clubs and / or public authorities. These are all elements that played in the course of FF Nîmes-Métropole Gard this year, the club that has recently seen its rapprochement with the Nimes Olympique postponed to 2018.

Christophe Parra followed the course of Nîmes last season and knows that lessons can be learned to avoid the OM to know the same trajectory. If the means at the disposal of the two teams are difficult to compare, the discovery of the D1 goes with a necessary caution, even for the Marseille team that knows that expected.

Witness this 4-1 defeat in a warm-up match against AS Saint-Etienne on August 20th. A match summary afterwards in-house by a "Welcome to D1! As Pauline Cousin will tell us. A meeting that may have shown the Olympians that before worrying about teams in the top 4, they should be wary of these mid-table clubs like Saint-Etienne, Soyaux, Rodez ... who will be the main opponents of OM this season to maintain.

Regain confidence
A week later, against Nîmes, the challenge for the players of Christophe Parra was not only to continue the preparation of the upcoming season. It was also perhaps to regain confidence before entering the field already significant championship against another promoted: Bordeaux. Nîmes, down this year in D2 probably did not have the means to compete with an OM turned to the D1 but also with a strength reinforced by the arrival of ten recruits, more than a third of the group Marseille this season.

Among these new arrivals, many female players in power. They were five to be aligned early in the game (Peyraud-Magnin, Gadea, Soulard, Yuceil, Lozé) against Nimes. At the end of the meeting, the anecdotal score 6 to 0 arrives at the end of a meeting revealing the main lines of the Marseille game.

First, a midfielder who is the heart of this team. Like last season, Captain Caroline Pizzala's influence on the game is permanent. His recoveries as well as his losses of ball often lead to dangerous situations in one way or the other. His complicity and his automatisms with Nora Coton-Pelagie are one of the strengths of the Marseille game and which also facilitated the integration in the midst of Sara Yuceil arrived this summer Standard de Liège. At her post, she will be in balance with Lalia Dali-Storti, arrived this summer from Guingamp

With such a midfielder, composed of experienced players, the Marseille game seems to be based on a paradox: the danger does not come when Marseille has the ball, quite the opposite. Ball possession often seems to be a way to regulate the tempo of the game, slow down, accelerate, attack but also to recover without suffering the rhythm of the opponent. To score, actions Marseille have often triggered a "pass" of the opposing team, and under pressure, allow Marseille to find the way to the goal.

In this game plan, Cindy Caputo, the young OM striker who scored a hat-trick against Nîmes, has been illustrated. It could start against Bordeaux because of the suspension of Sandrine Bretigny for the first game of the season.

Work and impatience
This match in the Gard came to complete the fifth week of OM preparation. Workouts moved in the morning and almost daily punctuated by preparatory matches on weekends. A higher rhythm, more demanding but which corresponds to the path that leads to the high level. A change felt by Pauline Cousin who finds her teammates "more rigorous" with themselves and also notes stronger demands from the management. An observation that also goes with the feeling of progressing more quickly as we told Sara Yuceil.

=> To read - Interview: Meeting with Sara Yuceil

In a way, we feel that the competition is approaching and as noted by Christophe Parra, OM will have to "very quickly learn" in contact with the high level. A deadline that Pauline Cousin addresses with confidence and the feeling that the team is working "better and better" and especially the desire to demonstrate on the ground that the OM players are able to face the challenges that arise. present to them.

These progress, the Marseille coach also note that even if he believes that the OM needs more "safety" in his game, the "risk" to "pay dearly". A difficulty with which he wants to confront his eyes and open mind aware of the likely need to change the organization of his team during the season, depending on what will be proposed by the various opponents.