Football: ASB corrected for its last preparation match

Pour ce dernier match de prépa, Hugo Muñoz a effectué une large revue d’effectif. Midi Libre – Rodrigue Delpas

Beaten 4-1 by Clermontaise (R1), the winner of the Occitanie Cup last season, the Béziers footballers ended their preparation with a heavy defeat.

After victories against Colomiers (N3) and then ASM 34 (R2), this is not necessarily what ASB supporters could have expected for their team's last preparation match. However, this Tuesday, August 20, on the synthetic pitch of the President, Hugo Muñoz's players conceded a bitter defeat 4-1, “a slap in the face”.

“I think it's deserved, acknowledged the Béziers coach after the final whistle. We missed our start by putting in too little intensity. Against a team of our level, on equal terms, we lacked that little something. It's a slap in the face, it helps to clarify ideas. Football has one virtue, it is to tell the truth: when you are not there, there are no lies. Next week, the real stuff starts."

The recovery is approaching

The Biterrois will indeed make their entry into the competition in the second round of the Coupe de France against Saint-Jean de Védas (R3) during the last weekend of August. But, with just over a week to go before the return to competition, Hugo Muñoz is not worried.

“Of course, we still have work to do, we have one week left, he explains. I felt they were fresher than us, they put in more intensity. We played every two days, that was intentional, in order to work on fatigue. Now we're going to relax so we can get ready and get that “pep” back. which will be very useful to us at the start of the season."

"Looking for benchmarks"

A first competitive match for which the Béziers coach will have to make choices, after having tried many things during the preparation. "This evening, we played the first half in one system, then the second in another, he explains. We are not locking ourselves into a pattern, we may be led to use both this season. We have a lot of new players, we are looking for benchmarks and connections."

Automatisms that will have to be found quickly because, if the Biterrois want to play at the top of the table, the margin for error will be slim in a very tough Regional 1 group A. They will also meet Clermontaise on the fourth day, a match that is already highly anticipated.