Federal 3 – The Colmarians have lost distance on their remaining competitors. The club will defend its long history in the return phase.
In the space of three short weeks, the affairs of the Colmar team (Fédérale 3) have deteriorated. The defeat at Villers-lès-Nancy, against a neighboring competitor, had initially plunged it into the relegation zone. Ten days ago, it was the success of Pontault-Combault in his Seine-et-Marnais derby against Gretz-Tournan-Ozoir, which sounded a second alert. Colmar was dropped by six units by this other remaining competitor. Objectively, for this club which has a very long history with Federale 3, the specter of relegation arose just before Christmas. Wednesday evening, a meeting was organized with the staff and players to consider the future. Forty-five players were present. “No one panics”assures coach Guillaume Kriegel, the former Strasbourg gunner, whose arrival at the club had moved the lines a little last season.
“We will maintain ourselves”
Kriegel had signed for Colmar in 2023 in a country of knowledge. Former manager Guillaume Brecht was his first teammate at Mulhouse when they were 4 years old. President Maurice Gaudin had been meeting him without knowing it for almost fifteen years at the “Molly Malone”, a bar in Strasbourg where they had their Sunday evening habits. And it was Thomas Labbé, his former teammate at Strasbourg, who brought him to Colmar to train with him. At the very top of the organization chart, cohesion was immediate. The demands of the new staff had, however, created fault lines with certain histories, so much so that eight starters from the first team had left. “We are paying a little for this episode but if we analyze our results, we are performing better than last season, believes the manager. In fact, since the start of the season, we have missed the start of matches and then we have won the second halves. We also take two boxes per meeting, which weakens us. But all the players show great things in terms of commitment. There is no more soloist. Physically, we are in good shape. We also have around forty guys in training, which wasn’t the case before. Humanly, we can rely on solid values. I am convinced that we will maintain ourselves.”
