Football: Côte d’Or hope to end St Michel’s dominance of President’s Cup |21 February 2015

Praslin outfit Côte d’Or hope for better luck when they face St Michel today at Stad Linite in the season-opening President’s Cup match.

Barclays league division one champions St Michel have dominated this cup for the last 18 years with a record 12 wins including five consecutive for the last five years, while Côte d’Or are looking to win this award for the first time since winning promotion to the top flight in 2011.

Last season Côte d’Or were no match for their opponents who thrashed them 3-0 in the season-opening match where Malagasy Jocelyn Fenosoa bagged a hat-trick and St Michel went on to dethrone them as league champions and also beat them in the Intelvision Cup final on penalties to claim a league and cup double.
However, Côte d’Or president Robert Payet told Sports Nation that he is confident his team will give a better account of themselves this season as they are desperate to add this cup to their ever-growing collection of honours.

“My team is really focussing on this match and we are quite confident of victory as our preparation has gone well and we don’t have any major injury worry for this encounter. We also want to add this cup to our collection of honours after winning the league title, Airtel Cup and finishing as runners-up in the Intelvision Cup on two occasions,” the Côte d’Or club president said.

Mr Payet’s optimism is borne out of his team’s good performance in last year’s Intelvision Cup final and also in their two friendlies this year as well as their showing against Dedebit despite losing 2-3 in the home leg match of the Caf Confederations Cup preliminary round.

“Despite defeat to the Ethiopians of Dedebit last week, we put in a good performance in a match we should not have lost and therefore this gives my team real confidence and we think we can match our opponents and even win as the players know the importance of this match at the start of the season which will boost morale in our camp,” noted the Côte d’Or club president.

Côte d’Or are currently benefitting from the expertise of former national team coach, Dutchman Jan Mak and club president Payet told Sports Nation he will be with the squad till the end of March. Coach Mak is working alongside Malagasy coaches Ahmed Abdou and Nicolas Simouri and the coaching staff will have to decide on the three foreign players to field though Jimmy Radafison looks likely to be selected in defence to face his former teammates and fans who have not taken lightly to his move to the Praslin side and he will surely expect some stick from them.

As for the St Michel camp, their manager Andrew Jean-Louis was in buoyant mood after his team’s surprising 1-1 draw against the South African Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the home leg preliminary round Champions League match last Saturday which he said has given the team a big lift and as a result he is very confident for this match.

“Our performance against the South African team showed our character as against all odds we managed to earn a credible result. We are now ready for our next challenge in this cup match which we have won for a record 12 times and we are very confident of winning it again today,” the St Michel manager told Sports Nation.

Manager Jean-Louis though said they will be without their team captain Alex Nibourette who suffered a head injury against Sundowns and is out of this encounter so Allen Larue will slot into his place at left back while Joel Barbé may also come in to replace Malagasy Mohamed Aboudou in a defence which did so well against the South African champions. As for Karl Hall he is not expected to feature as he only resumed training this week after nursing a leg injury.
Hopefully these two teams will serve the fans who expect to come down in numbers a real treat to get the 2015 season underway in style.   

R. J-L

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Published: 21-02-2015