the Cécifoot Blues eliminated Colombia and reached the final – Libération

2024-09-05 17:55:03

Not the favorite, the French team won this Thursday, September 5 in the semi-final of the Paralympic Games (1-0). He will face Brazil or Argentina for the gold on Saturday evening.

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It’s funny how the Eiffel Tower and its turquoise blue ad doesn’t look good in the rain. We wanted the sunset of two days ago and then the night facing the great and shiny Grand Dame, when the French blind football team beat Turkey without much fear (2-0). But this Thursday, September 5 in the afternoon when it was time to climb into the stands to see the semi-final of the Blues against Colombia, it was more sweaters, anoraks and umbrellas. The wind didn’t help break the darkness either: we were on something more shy, quieter, than what we had seen. It’s hard to do better with partially empty stands – they’ll fill up as the game progresses. So we bet on the French team to warm everyone up. And we did well: the Blues won (1-0) against Colombia and will work for the gold on Saturday.

For Toussaint Akpweh’s men, however, the menu is salty: Colombia is perhaps the team in the best form of the season after Brazil. Yellow and red, although the 12th country in the world rankings, beat the Blues at the beginning of May (1-0) and won the famous World Grand Prix in Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin). In Paris, they got out of their group unbeaten (two wins, one draw). Frédéric Villeroux, the Blues captain, summed it up for us: “There are two mopeds in front, 10 and 9, 7 that holds the ball well in the middle, distributes it widely, hard on impact too. It will be a mid-range war, and a physical war.”

The young man’s hat

We felt the physical war from the beginning. And the players too. At first we saw endless hits and pile-ups – playing on the cold and therefore a weird ad didn’t help. The mopeds in front, we quickly saw them too. Starting with “10th”, Juan David Perez Quintero, the only player for his team in Paris (two goals in the teams). From the stands, the tail of the yellow swimming cap he wore on his head caught the eye. As for football, he seems to be focused on his feet: all Colombian attacks go through him. Fortunately, the 28-year-old player was innocent this Thursday: his first shot ended in the stands, the second a few centimeters from the photographer’s head (the shock is a correction!).

France still has his number 10, thirteen years older than Perez Quintero, but less than as good: Frédéric Villeroux. As in the first round, the leader is everywhere. He is the one who recovers the balls, the one who puts the buffers when necessary, the one who has the biggest opportunities, like face-to-face with the Colombian goalkeeper at the beginning of the game – the shot ends in sections privacy of the door. In lemons, drawing on all costs: four attacks everywhere, four bones too, and 51% to 49% in terms of possession (for Colombia). Look, the sun is back.

Ping-pong game

The second act is like a game of ping-pong: a big Colombian event, then a French one, then a Colombian one, and so on. As against China in the group stages, Alessandro Bartolomucci multiplied the parades, his teammate imitated him. Then in a corner, after a mix-up, the ball reached Villeroux’s feet (again and again), three meters from the goal. The veteran didn’t ask any questions: he kicked straight, and hard. The Colombian keeper has a hole. 1-0 to the Blues four minutes from time.

Not really in danger, the Blues took on until the end. The crowd, silent to allow the players to hear the ball equipped with bells and instructions, explodes. On the field, the players collapsed while Villeroux slipped the ball into the stands. Far from being favorites, the French team did: they will leave Paris with a medal, gold or silver. Watch it on Saturday at 8 pm, against Argentina or Brazil. With good weather, please, and the Eiffel tower lit up again.