Your Coupe de France Upset Special

I love football upsets.

Who doesn’t love a good upset? Well, fans of the favorite, for one thing. Bookies, for another.

The Coupe Charles Simon (better known as the Coupe de France) is the French version of the FA Cup – a football competition open to all amateur and professional sides.

Much like that English competition, the CdF has typically seen some upsets early, with order restored in the later rounds. Only 12 times has a team outside of Ligue 1 contested the final match, with only 2 of those squads (both Ligue 2) winning it all.

The most recent big upset came in the final just two years ago when En Avant de Guingamp defeated Stade Rennais 2-1 in front of 80,000 people at the Stade de France (and giving Salma Hayek a sad).

This past weekend saw an unusual number of upsets, with plenty of Ligue 1 clubs getting more than they could handle on the pitch from the minnows.

Toulouse FC 1-2 Paris FC 2000
Toulouse put out a half-strength side, and were treated to a replay of their results against Paris FC from two season ago in the same competition. The Ligue 1 side weren’t even able to get an equalizer while playing the final 10 minutes with a man advantage after the dismissal of Afougou.

Chambéry 1-1 (3-2 on PKs) AS Monaco FC
THe club from the principality put out a good approximation of a full-strength side, but went down on PKs thanks to poor efforts from Daniel Niculae and Sebastien Puygrenier. Struggling in the relegation zone of Ligue 1 is one thing, losing in the Coupe de France to a 5th-division is another. Lacombe OUT!

ES Wasquehal 2 – 1 AJ Auxerre
It turns out that Entente Sportive de Wasquehal are base near Lille, in the Pas-de-Calais. Who knew? Certainly not I. Starting Coulibaly, Berthod, Hengbart, Pedretti and one of the Flying Traores, Auxerre were still undone by the 5th-division side (Championnat de France amateur 2, represent!). I blame Anthony Le Tallec. Having already been knocked out of the Champions League, the club can now focus on their Coupe de la Ligue semi-final against Marseille on January 19th.

AC Arles Avignon 1 – 1 (2 – 4 on PKs) CS Sedan
Not a huge upset, since the promoted Arles are clearly going right back down (where they will see more of Ligue 2 side Sedan), and they didn’t even bother to field a full-strength squad. Still, given their craptastic season to this point, you would have thought they would put up more an effort to salvage some pride in at least one domestic competition.

Angers SC 2 – 1 Valenciennes FC
A half-strength Valenciennes side were beaten in extra time by the Ligue 2 squad, but this match was most notable for the increased handbags beginning in the 70th minute. Already down to 10 men after a 2nd YC dismissal for Gaeten Bong (9th minute, 43rd minute), Valenciennes then went down to 9 men in extra time when Vincent Aboubakar received a straight RC. And that was after dueling YCs at the end of full-time for Charles Diers and Benjamin Angoua. Tsk, tsk.

Stade de Reims 1 – 0 Montpellier Hérault SC
Another match that wasn’t as bad as it seems (cheer up, Clem!) since Montpellier fielding a weakened starting XI featuring only Jeunechamp, Marveaux and Ait-Fana for star power. Still Reims are at the bottom of the table in Ligue 2, so it wasn’t exactly a “forgivable” loss. Montpellier currently sit 10th in Ligue 1, but only 4 points out of a Champions League spot, so they are clearly saving their strength.

AS Saint-Etienne 0 – 2 Clermont Foot
Poor Saint-Etienne. Les Verts started a full-strength side only to go down fairly easily to Ligue 2 mid-table squatters Clermont. Having already given up 2 goals (1 of those to Sloan Privat, who had 2 goals last year for Sochaux), ASSE went down to 10 men late with the dismissal of Laurent Batlles.

Evian TG FC 3 – 1 Olympique de Marseille
HEHE! I saved the best result for last – L’OM were downed by Ligue 2 side Evian rather easily, even having to rely on an OG to avoid the shutout. The first 2 goals came very early (12th minute, 15th minute) and the last came late (86th minute), but Les Phoceens were never in this match. Even better? The starting XI for Didier Deschamps’ boys included: Taiwo, Heinze, Cheyrou, Mbia, Gonzalez, Abriel, Remy, Ayew (Andre version) and Brandao. Substitutes Ayew (Jordan variety), Valbuena and Gignac didn’t fare much better. It’s funny because I don’t like Marseille, see?

For purposes of comparison, PSG destroyed fellow Ligue 1 side Lens 5-1. They are also currently in 2nd place in Ligue 1, in the semi-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue, and in the Round of 32 of the Europa League. Because we’re awesome, you see.