Cabourg, its beach, its “Belle Époque” style Grand Hotel where we would occasionally see the ghost of Marcel Proust, its casino, its racecourse, its romantic film festival, its cheeses – the Pont L'Évêque in particular -, and its shells (chocolates filled with praline) and… its amateur Football club Sport Union Dives-Cabourg.
This is the opponent of Saint-Denis Football Club for this 32nd final of the Coupe de France, Saturday December 21 at 3:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m., Reunion time). This is the first time that the 32nd finals will be played before the holidays: historically, they were played just after.
The match will be played behind closed doors, since the 1,900 seats at the André Heurtematte stadium have already left at the time of writing these lines.
Please note: 150 places have been reserved for Reunion supporters. Clearly, the SU Dives-Cabourg players will have the advantage of playing at home. And to capitalize on this point, the Norman club preferred not to assign a number 12 to a player and to distribute around a hundred jerseys bearing this number 12 to its supporters! If that were not enough, linguists remind us that the name of Cabourg comes from the juxtaposition of the Gallic cato (fight) and the Germanic burg (village): in other words, a “town of fighters”.
– Objective: send one or more SCUD to the SUDC –
The poster looks good on paper. More Reds against the Yellows, like in the 16th final… except that at the Jean Ivoula stadium, on Sunday December 1st, neither USSA Vertou nor Saint-Denis FC wore their historic colors. SU Dives-Cabourg plays in National 3 (ex-CFA 2), a small division more than the Regional championship of our local champions, like their previous opponents.
The Normans are currently 8th in their group (USSA Vertou was 2nd in their group) and remain on 2 consecutive defeats in their championship. In summary: the Reunion Islanders can legitimately hope to win and qualify for the first round of 16 in their history. The two clubs have two things in common. The first ? This will be the second round of 32 in their history. For the Normans, the precedent dates back 25 years. For the Dyonisians, the memories are still fresh (2022).
The second common point is rarer: each club has a “mole” who knows the opponent well. Within Saint-Denis FC, his name is Mamoudou Diallo and he plays as a striker. He grew up in Normandy, near Honfleur. Above all, he played a season and a half at SDUC in 2019-2020. He even played there just before returning to Reunion where he played at Saint Pierroise, then Tamponnaise before joining Saint Denis FC.
This tall 39-year-old kaffir is not afraid to assert: “I am a Norman.” We have no doubt that he gave insights to his trainer, Fred Bachelier. Among the Divais, Willy Suret appears as “the most Réunionnais of the Normans”.
The midfielder lived and worked as a sports teacher for a year in Reunion, between 2021 and 2022. He played at ASC La Possession (in R2) and ensures that Reunion football clubs are not to be taken advantage of. the slight: “I think that the R1 in Reunion is equivalent to the N3 in mainland France” he declared this week to our colleagues at Foot Normand.
The one who is one of the oldest players at SU Dives-Cabourg (Willy Suret has played there since 2018) still believes that “these are 2 completely different styles of play which will clash (Saturday)”. So, why not dream of a small bishop's bridge?
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