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No Barachet in the season opening

Nimes is the 2nd league champion, a dangerous team that kicked St. Raphael out of the Cup last season and played a level-pegging match with Montpellier. They kept 12 players and brought in good reinforcements. The host's player Atlason is not certain to appear

With a bunch of injuries and the departure of primary middle back Megannem to Qatar in the middle of the season, St. Raphael managed to end with sixth place. During the summer six players departed, six new excellent players were brought in and so they made the best possible transitional period together with PSG. The coach Gaudin's team became one who we can't wait to see in action.

 - We wanted to be in the top three but for now we are not a candidate for that position. We are a serious outsider. We can handle anybody in a single game, but the championship is long. We saw it last season as well, around 3 or 4 injuries at the same tame or some departures can change the situation greatly - said the coach Christian Gaudin.

- The team reached the level of performance which I would describe as very interesting. I think they advanced beyond the planned level.

What are the reasons for such optimism? The best player of Bundesliga arrived last season, the middle back Morten Olsen from Hannover. From Flensburg came the left back Arnor Atlason and from PSG they loaned a right back Xavier Barachet (in the picture). From Nordsjaelland they brought the pivot Lynngaard. They kept important individuals from last season such as Abily, Stehlik, Garain, Krakowski, Krantz, Di panda and goalkeeper Djukanovic. Gaudin has a large number of players to choose from, he can rotate them a lot and keep a high level of performance and they are not playing European competitions, keeping the focus on the home competitions only.

We have to point out the advantage they have with the right back. Barachet will be the primary player when he recovers. Until then, Stehlik and Di Panda will take that place. Those are all very good right back players. Barachet had a left shoulder surgery five months ago and will not be ready for the beginning of the season.

- In two weeks I will go to the doctor to see if I can play and I expect to return by the end of October. We have a very good team, we can achieve something big, especially because we play only home competitions - said the left-handed player.

In one of the last preparation matches they lost against Montpellier 34-33, before that they won against Istres 37-22, Ivry 32-25 and Cesson 33-24. It can be seen that they score a lot of goals and with Garain and Krantz they can establish a good defense.

 - The beginning of the championship is always difficult, especially in our home field against a team such as Nimes which has nothing to lose. They are rookies in the league but they kept all of the players with which they played two years ago in D1. It will not be easy and we have to win at home if we want to reach the top - said the coach Gaudin.

In addition to Barachet, Atlason and Krakowski are also unsure to appear.

Today's rival is not at all harmless. Nimes won the 2nd league last season with 22 wins and 4 losses and it was the same team that dropped out of the 1st league one season earlier. To present the strength of the team it is enough to say they kicked  St. Raphael out of Cup competition with 33-29 and then lost a tied match against Montpellier 30-28.

This summer they didn't change much eiter. They kept 12 players and there are some who arrived that need to be pointed out, like the goalkeeper Remi Desbonet whom we have seen at the junior world championship in Bosnia. Last season he was on the goal in the 1st league for Montpellier and now he had to leave with the arrival of Omeyer. Right back Damien Waeghe arrived as well and an interesting player is the Spaniard Fernandez Sanchez too, born in 1993. He had an average goal score of 4.1 in 19 games for Cuenca in Asobal.

In the last preparation match they lost by a goal in last second from Toulouse 30-29. That same Toulouse played 29-29 with PSG. Remember that Jerome Fernandez pointed out Nimes especially.

Between the players from past seasons there are some prominent ones like the left back Guillaume Saurina with 8.3 goals average last year and 6.8 in the 1st league one year earlier. He arrived to Nimes from Chambery. The second one is right wing Damien Scaccianoce with 5.5 average last season and 6.1 average one year earlier in the elite. He is in Nimes since 2006. The first goalkeeper is the solid Yassine Idrissi. The X-factor of this team is the right back Waeghe who played past six seasons in Creteil and Tremblay. He scored 44 goals in the last 19 matches.

All in all, a team that definitely won't be a pushover and it will not be a surprise at all if they remain in the league.

 - To start the league with a visiting match will be very difficult but this is the first round and you never know what might happen - said the coach Jerome Chauvet.

We found no information about injuries or absences in the visiting team.

These two teams will be involved in many high-scoring games this season. St. Raphaël has brought in middle back Morten Olsen, who was involved in a lot of games that went over the total of 60 goals while he played for Hannover last season. Similarly, St. Raphaël usually scored 33-35 goals in their preseason games and they lost 34-33 to Montpellier, and that was without Barachet and Atlason. Barachet won't be fit to play for another month, while Atlason is listed as doubtful for today's game. Last season, when Nimes was in the 2. division, they played against each other in a cup match and Nimes won the game 32-29. Later on Nimes lost to Montpellier 30-28. There are still 12 players left from the team that played those matches, so there should be no problem with waiting for the team to gel together and we should be seeing the same style of play this season as well. The 55.5 total goal limit looks appealing, and some betting houses offer a 25.5 goal limit for Nimes, which is a good bet as well.