Handball: Usam Nîmes, last Starligue attack… and last hopes in Toulouse ?

Minel and Nîmes, taken by Konan and Montpellier on Sunday at Parnasse: forget the Languedoc derby with the Occitanie derby, Friday March 8 in Toulouse. Midi Free – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Friday March 8 at 8 p.m., Usam Nîmes (7th) plays Toulouse (4th) for the 20th day of Starligue. Five days after the rout in Languedoc (16-27 against Montpellier), the Gardois must raise their heads in another derby, that of Occitanie.

16-27. The score of the derby is still in the minds of the 3,500 spectators present on Sunday at Parnasse. And hurt those of the Usamists. "Losing with such a gap is a big deal. Now, we must leave egos and emotions aside; tell yourself that this derby was more Montpellier which won thanks to its defensive quality than Nîmes which lost it, and put your head back to the right place in Toulouse&quot ;, announces coach Yann Balmossière.

Nineteen years since Usam scored so little in the championship!

The last time Usam scored just 16 goals in the league, “Balmo” was a player, and the Green team lost 26-16 in Paris on March 12, 2005. Nineteen years ago! There is nothing we can do about bad memories, distant or recent. On the other hand, the staff will have to do something to improve the poor Nîmes attack, now last in the Starligue with only 532 goals in 19 days (28 on average).

"We are more solid defensively than last season (it's true: Usam has the 3rd defense, Editor's note) but we find fewer solutions on fast play, and we lack binding and effectiveness on placed attacks", summarizes the coach.

Multiple causes

The causes are multiple: pell-mell, Desbonnet no longer feeds his counter-attackers, who themselves cross the field more slowly; Hesham was not replaced; no center half is indisputable due to injuries or performance; the usual scorer, Sanad, is only 17th in the ranking of scorers with a 62% success rate, and no one behind him is sufficiently feeding the score (Vincent is the second Gardian director while he shares play time with Rebichon).

Still two points from 5th place

"Scoring, we know how to do it, relevant to Balmossière. We put 34 in the & rsquo;go against Toulouse. We are still two points from 5th place. Nothing is lost." But the last attack must wake up in Haute-Garonne, so as not to destroy the last hopes of a 4th place European.

The group: Baznik, Demaille (l.), Rebichon (cap), Vincent, Sanad, Gibernon, Poyet, Gallego, Dupuy, Minel, Acquevillo, Konradsson, Zuzo, Derisbourg, Abdelhak, Tobie.

Absent: Sissoko, Kamtchop-Baril (injured), Antic (choice). 

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