ASSE has once again sunk far from its bases. Timothée Maymon and Antoine Chirat returned to the rout of the Greens this Sunday evening in the Sainté Night Club. Anger and frustration. Excerpts.
Antoine Chirat (Onze Mondial): “My feeling? Disappointment, clearly. We were coming off matches where we had seen a certain dose of courage from this team. I think of this snatched victory against Montpellier. And there, we realize that this ASSE team, as soon as a small grain of sand stops the mechanics of Olivier Dall'Oglio and his men, it's a disaster. This team, as soon as something thwarts its plans, cannot raise its head or cope. Since the start of the season, it's always the same story. And it is very worrying for the weeks to come if this problem is not resolved.
You have to know how to react to unforeseen events, to adverse situations like this hand from Cafaro which leads to the penalty. But this team, instead of fighting, seems to lose all its means as soon as everything doesn't go as planned or things don't go their way..”
Anger after Rennes – ASSE
Timothy Maymon: “A lot of anger, for several reasons. The first is personal: yesterday, I spent a good part of the match in the visitors' park. Seeing 600 supporters travel 10 hours by bus to arrive, get gassed, enter the stadium late stadium, and finally witnessing such a debacle, it's unbearable. Some will say that it's the lot of all away matches, and it was surely worse in Nice. Maybe. was more striking for me because I was in the parking lot. And honestly, it makes you angry. You see the faces of the defeated supporters, you realize the sacrifices made to follow this team, and that's hard to take. , I was lucky to return comfortably by train, but for them, it was 10 hours back with 5 goals in their suitcases. It's very hard.
Beyond that, I'm very angry with Cafaro. Some will say that the team failed to react after his red card, but that doesn't matter. He breaks up the match on his own. On his shot, he has time to place, but chooses a strong shot which hits the post. It happens. But then, this headline… You have to realize that at that time, Rennes was not superior. Until the penalty, it was balanced, and we even had the best opportunity with this Cafaro post. His gesture destroys everything: a match, a week of work, an entire preparation. It doesn't matter if the coach is the best or the worst, such a move destroys everything that has been put in place.
We will say that it is a bad reflex. No, this is a culpable error. The gesture is voluntary, the red is deserved, and it ruins the meeting. When we play to maintain, this type of match is perhaps not to be won, but we must at least grab a point.
In short, I'm angry with Cafaro. I hope he has the necessary perspective to be angry with himself, because for me, he ruins the match.”
Cafaro's professional misconduct
Antoine Chirat (Onze Mondial): “His behavior is almost ridiculous: this anger towards the referee when he knows perfectly well that he is at fault. The images speak for themselves: he knows very well that he touched the ball with his hand, and this hand is widely separated from the body. Mathieu Cafaro is 27 years old, almost 28 at the start of the year. He is an experienced player who has already played in Ligue 1 and who helped bring ASSE back into the elite. He has no right to abandon his team in this way, and even less so after a first half hour where Sainté was consistent, solid, and not endangered by Rennes.
It is a professional error and it is very costly at a crucial moment, when ASSE was looking to relaunch itself, to finally start a series. Even more so against a Rennes team already in great difficulty and in full doubt before this match. It was a key moment of the season, an important match to hope for a positive turning point. And he has completely ruined this opportunity.
We can then talk about the reaction of the other players, their character, etc., but it is clear that, at this precise moment, Cafaro is compromising a precious chance for ASSE to truly revive itself.“
