It’s been five years since Strasbourg basketball players have won a trophy. They had won the Leaders Cup in 2019. And it was not a foregone conclusion at the start of the season to see the SIG in the final of a national competition, as it had such an up and down season.
His European journey stopped at the gates of the Top 8 of the Champions League. And its chances of qualifying for the play-offs are slim. The Strasbourg side, 11th in Betclic Elite, no longer have their destiny in their hands, three days from the end.
SO, this final of the Coupe de France, won hard (in Trélazé, the SIG eliminated Nancy in the quarter-finals and the Monegasque ogre in the semi-final), can constitute a ray of sunshine, if victory is at the end.
A trophy to light up the season?
“Final, the word is beautiful, the word is great, enthuses the winger Paul Lacombealready winner of the Coupe de France with SIG in 2015 and ASVEL in 2021. That Getting to the final is never easy, never a given. It’s a great reward, if the title is at the end, especially given the rather complicated season. For the club and even personally, it’s a great opportunity to have a title. That would be beautiful and big for everyone.
If Strasbourg continues to underperform against Le Mans at home this Wednesday, they promise, they will increase their level of intensity and concentration for this final. SIG Captain Léo Cavalièrewho will celebrate his 28th birthday this Saturday at Bercy, wants to lift this Coupe de France at all costs: “I haven’t had the opportunity to lift a trophy yet. 10 years since I played my first professional match, I still haven’t had a title. I would like to seize this great opportunity, one point from a personal point of view, but also for the SIG I would like to make some sort of club history, all things considered, having a banner in the Rhénus and being able to come back one day and say it’s partly me, that would be a success. great pride. A title like that could light up our season.”
50 – 50 against the JDA?
The opponent in the final, JDA Dijon experienced a season quite similar to that of the SIG. The Dijonnais who regularly subscribe to the play-offs are only 13th in Betclic Elite, three days from the end. Laurent Legname’s team has beaten Strasbourg twice this season in the league, but the JDA coach expects a balanced duel.
“Honestly it’s 50-50assène Laurent Legname. Both teams are having a similar season in the league, with a lot of irregularity. In a match like that, over 40 minutes, there is no coming back, it’s a life and death match. So it’s really 50 – 50, in a neutral room, a special context.”
Paul Lacombe he also believes that the two matches lost against Dijon this season are of little importance. “It’s like a blank page, it’s another competition, almost a parenthesis in a season, explains the Strasbourg winger. They’re not even the same balloons. We play on neutral ground, everything is different. And then when we lose, we sometimes have the impression that the opposing team is unbeatable. There, even if we lost twice by a wide margin against Dijon, that’s not the feeling we had, so we say to ourselves that there is room to do something.”
A first step in the reconstruction process
The SIG season has been eventful, both on the floor and behind the scenes, with a change in governance. Martial Bellon handed over the presidency of the club in October 2023, after thirteen years at the head of the SIG. The end of his mandate was more complicated, with poorer sporting results, a financial deficit, and the Arena project which did not come to fruition.
His successor Christophe Lasvigne hopes in the years to come to bring the club back up the French hierarchy, and a victory in the Coupe de France (already won by SIG in 2015 and 2018) would be a first step in this direction.
“A victory in the Coupe de France was not in the plans, specifies the new boss of the SIG. But that would be a cherry on the cake. When I became president, I wanted to win titles, and if we win one this year, yay! I was elected with a precise road map from the shareholders. The club had a big deficit last year, and the first thing to do was to balance its accounts and remove control from the DNCCG (Editor’s note: the financial policeman of French basketball). In recent years, the club has been on a downward slope. I hope that from next year, he will have new ambitions, and will be able to look upwards, towards the Top 4. The arrival of Matt Pokora is great news. He works with us every day, we are preparing everything that will happen next year.”
The final of the French basketball cup between SIG and JDA Dijon can be seen in full this Saturday, April 27 on France Bleu Alsace (on air at 4 p.m., kick-off at 4:30 p.m.).
