Soccer. Decisive penalty saves for Victor Pelleray, the wall of AS Cherbourg

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Two penalties saved in two matches for Victor Pelleray, guardian from AS Cherbourg (Manche). “You would like to know if it’s luck or work,” he laughs, when asked if he works on penalties in training.

“I’m often given techniques, like looking at the shooters’ support foot, or their gaze, but they do everything to trap us. In addition, we have more and more constraints as a goalkeeper. So, I act according to felt that I have at the moment,” continues the doorman, who admits to enjoying the exercise.

I love it, the pressure that is on us as goalkeepers, that’s what I love.

Binding rules?

Since March 2023, doormen no longer have the right to “unduly distract” shooters, according to IFAB Law 14 (NDLR : International Football Association Board), body which governs the laws of the game.

In practice, this means that the goalkeeper must always have one foot on the lineand is not allowed to touch the posts or speak to the shooter before the penalty. Of the rules for which Victor Pelleray has already paid the price: “I had already stopped one in the Coupe de France, but the referee had it withdrawn because I did not have my foot on the line, according to him,” recalls -he.

At 0-0 against Granville this weekend, the goalkeeper was ready: “He was an attacker, I suspected he would want to destabilize me. So I waited until the very last moment to dive, which confused him. »

“It brings confidence to the team”

In Granville and Saint-Sauveur-RondehayeTHE stops by Victor Pelleray were determinantsvictory not yet being achieved. But he would still have preferred to do them at home.

At home, it would have caused the public to push us even more. But there, it already brings a real plus to the team, especially in terms of confidence.

With only six goals conceded in eight matchesAS Cherbourg can count on a very solid rearguard. A solidity which owes as much to the quality of the players as to their complicity.

With the defenders, we know each other very well outside of football. During the match, everyone makes up for each other’s mistakes, which allows you to be calm.

A strong defense, an impressive attack with 26 goals scored in eight championship matches, and still no defeat in regulation time this season (elimination in the Coupe de France by Serquigny on penalties): Cherbourg is leader of its Regional group 2 and can think big.

“We have not set ourselves the objective of necessarily going up, but now that we are playing the leading roles, we are going to give ourselves the means to do so,” concludes Alexandre Pelleray, great architect of the great start to the Cherbourg season.

Émile SÉNÉCAL

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