Guess who’s back?

By: Nick | January 31st, 2009

Hello again to everyone! Every blogger who goes on a hiatus usually begins with an excuse, so I will break that tradition and leave the excuse for the bottom of the page. So, let’s talk about the team first.

If you’re looking for a preview of today’s matchup against Lorient, there isn’t much to be said. Lorient is in the top 10 of the table while AJA is a scant three points away from relegation thanks to going 0-1-4 over their last five games. Jean Fernandez’s men must either be itching for victory or be so demoralized that not even… well, let’s not jynx anything, okay? The facts are fairly plain:

- Jelen, Auxerre’s top scorer with 3 goals, hasn’t played in three months. Superb.
- Berthod fancies the idea of getting paid while not even dressing for the game. He’s out with an injury. Again.
- Mignot’s favorite color has got to be yellow, because he just loves racking up those yellow cards (he leads the league in yellow’s with 8!)
- Tough luck: injuries and underperformance and weather can be unexpected. Auxerre’s two biggest signings, Dariusz Dudka and Mignot haven’t done much for the club while they were expected to bolster the back end of Les Auxerrois’ line. Oh well.

Now for the good news: our pacy striker Jelen is finally returning from injury and is expected to start today after two impressive performances in friendlies. While Julien Quercia had problems with his legs, Jelen had a problem with his shoulder. Thankfully one usually doesn’t need the shoulder to score, so expect the Polish international to bring back some much needed life into the squad. My prediction for today’s game: 2-1 Auxerre. Hey, gotta start with some optimism, right?

Now, onto my excuse. There comes a time in every man’s life when change happens. In fact there are many changes in a man’s life, so this kind of thing happens many times. As for me, I have started to attend college, and dealt with an uxepected increase in workload, I completely forgot about the blog. But alas I’ll try to post with some regularity – the little French team needs our help to stay in Ligue 1!

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