With new leaders, a new coach and new players, the team is able to achieve its goal: immediate recovery. By reclaiming supporters disillusioned by years of hardship.
If globally 2020 does not look much more fun than 2019, she started particularly well for the TFC . Tuesday night winners of Paris FC (1-0) in a Stadium almost as frozen as a super-freezer for anti-Covid vaccines , the Toulousains climb for the first time of the season in second place in Ligue 2 .
“STOP THE COUNT! Will exclaim the most Trumpist of the purple supporters. If the championship ended there, a day before the end of the first leg matches, the Tef would indeed find Ligue 1 a few months after having left her, in the company of the Trojan leader.
⚽️ The 3rd highest total of a team at this stage since the establishment of the single hen in 648 / 1994, behind the @ OM_Officiel in 1994 / 95 (37) and the @ nimesolympique in 2017 / 010 (40) ⚽️! # TFCPFC (1-0) pic.twitter.com/6DSR6YjpuQ
– Ligue 2 BKT (@ Ligue2BKT)
Rise of an entire city – and well beyond – until this fall, over an incredible series of nearly a year of failure, the gang in Garande remains in eight games unbeaten. Including four straight wins, a first since August 1994, according to the essential Twitter account @TFCDatabase , which can finally line up some positive statistics after years of flirting with the blues. Here’s how a drifting club, almost completely rebuilt this summer, managed to become a winning machine.
At other times, an expulsion as early as that of Anthony Rouault on Tuesday evening (from 29 e minute) would have weighed down all Toulouse hopes. Devoid of leaders, washed away by seasons in the abyss of L1, the TFC before the first confinement looked more like a parade of zombies than a football team. But against Paris FC, another L2 cador, the Violets did not stutter. “At half-time, they were only talking about winning the match,” said Patrice Garande.
What his players ended up doing, after the expulsion of the Paris region Bamba just before the hour mark rebalanced the forces, thanks to a nice long shot from the fearless Dutchman Stijn Spierings. “What I liked most is to find after the break a team with a soul, a desire,” resumes the experienced technician of 60 years. I would like to win every time 3 or 4-0 but I am not a dreamer. Winning like that is also unifying for the group. “
The best attack of L2 (32 goals scored, tied with Auxerre) can not always master his subject as in Châteauroux (0-3 ) and Pau (0-3) before the holidays, nor systematically offer shows as against Le Havre (3-4) or during the improbable defeat in front of Valenciennes (4-5) , the last to
A (very) successful recruitment
In the wake of the takeover of the club by the Americans of RedBird Capital Partners and the appointment of Damien Comolli as president, L2’s largest budget (not communicated) has recruited as prolific as it is cosmopolitan, with a lot of data. A Colombian from Belgium (Deiver Machado), an Englishman from League One, the local D3 (Rhys Healey), an Ivorian from Scotland (Vakoun Bayo), a Belgian (Brecht Dejaegere) and the Dutch (Branco van den) Boomen, Stijn Spierings) unknown in our latitudes…
The doubts have given way to suspicion after two initial defeats, at the Stadium against the promoted Dunkirk (0-1) then in Grenoble (5-3). But the new ones were dropped in and the mayonnaise ended up setting. “I’m not surprised, the president has created a team that allows us to play the climb,” says defender Kelvin Amian, captain against Paris FC.
In midfield of the pattern in 3-5-2, the very technical and complementary triplet Spierings (seven goals, including 5/5 from the penalty spot) – van den Boomen – Dejaegere marches on Ligue 2. On the left flank, Machado aligns the kilometers without faltering. And ahead, Healey has already planted eight goals, including seven in 2017.
While the defense remains the Achilles heel of the team, especially on set pieces, the TFC has just recruited Isak Petterson . The Swedish international goalkeeper will compete with Maxime Dupé, also arrived in the offseason, who has already cashed 20 goals in 19 matches. And the Belgian rear Sébastien Dewaest should quickly follow.
Garande is also pleased with the mentality of his foreign recruits, all of whom, with the exception of the Bayo mystery, therefore give satisfaction. “I admire the efforts they make to speak French. Some do not dare, but they understand. It’s part of a team, of solidarity, of a state of mind. »We always come back to it.
A very young promising
“We have a lot of young talented players” , underlined van den Boomen on Monday at a press conference. The Batavian metronome quoted pell-mell Janis Antiste , Amine Adli, Sam Sanna, Anthony Rouault, Manu Koné or Bafodé Diakité. The first two are the main revelations of this first part of the season. Pure child of the club, Antiste (010 years), most often substitute, brings its punch to each of its entries. He is arguably the most promising TFC-trained striker since retirees Anthony Bancarel and Xavier Pentecôte.
Chief locker room ambiancer, Antiste has scored five goals in L2, including perhaps the most beautiful this season: a chisel on a cross by Amine Adli, the 21 August in Grenoble. Adli precisely … The kid from Pézenas (20 years), member of the golden generation finalist of the Gambardella 2011, composes with Healey a formidable attack duo. Lively, inspired by the ball, he scored three times for four assists.
Of course, the quality of the Pitchouns has not gone unnoticed. AC Milan would thus have fallen head over heels for the middle Manu Koné (18 years), as promising as it can be improved, provided you simplify your game. “It’s rather flattering for the club that the players are solicited from the outside, but if we build this group, it is not to destroy it at mid-season “, ton Patrice Garande.
A speech that can only please the supporters, absent from the stands by force of circumstances, but very close to their players. Tuesday night, the Tolosa Indians put on a mini fireworks show just before kickoff, near the Stadium. The ultra group also left a banner in its deserted Brice-Taton bend: “2020: Ligue 1 in sight. Let the fireworks continue! “