The parquet floor is waiting for them, and the stands of La Cimenterie are ready to vibrate at the slightest Breton basket. The basketball players of the Landerneau club are on track for the French Cup semi-final. Facing them, the current 3rd in the championship and reigning French champion: Basket Landes. An encounter home which intoxicates a whole club.
Erwan Croguennec is the president of the LBB, for him this semi-final is already a victory for the whole club: “It is an event that comes to thank all the work accomplished by the 150 volunteers, by the elected representatives of the territory, by the 180 partners who support us. Today to exist at this level, you have to multiply the energy of an entire territory.”, says the president.
“Landerneau is climbing the ladder little by little and this semi-final is a very nice gift for the whole club, for our subscribers. I think we are going to have a nice time and we know how much the players are going to try to take this step“, adds Erwan Croguennec.
2,300 places to wear the little thumb of the Cup
The match is played without great surprise to sold out. Few 2,300 spaces that account the room of La Cimenterie are reserved.
The LBB is the little thumb of this Coupe de France: it is the second smallest budget of the Women’s League. A configuration known to all, and especially to Wani Muganguzi, the coach: “I think this match for us must be approached in a very simple way. We know what is at stake but we have no pressure. Today the favorite is not us. Except that at the end of the day it rest of the women against women, with two arms and two legs. We must not make any complex”, says the coach.
Last year Landerneau had already reached this stage of the Cup but lost in Charleville. Except this time, the match is at home, and it changes a lot of things “We know that we will have a room in fusion, won over to our cause. In good times it transports us and in the most complicated, the public has this strength to tell us “don’t let go”. It leads us to seek mental resources that we might not have“, details the coach.
The public is the sixth man – Marie Butard, captain of the LBB
The fervor of the public is indeed what motivates Marie Butard, the captain: “La Cimenterie is a room that takes us to every game, it’s really the sixth man. We see it during certain tense matches, with each basket the room explodes. It’s not something that you encounter in all the halls of the championships. The girls are aware of it, they realize how lucky we are to have an audience like that in Landerneau. rejoices the captain.
The brain put in “Coupe de France” mode
Exit then the series of 9 defeats in a row in the leaguethe girls put their brains in Coupe de France mode: “We tell ourselves that it could be a final at the end. It’s not something you encounter every season. I think you shouldn’t put pressure on yourself but you have to prepare well and be mentally ready Over 40 minutes, anything can play out.”explains the captain.
The two Bretons conclude on the watchword of the meeting: pleasure. “The most important thing is to have no regrets. And then to do with the way because we are at home, we have people who follow us, partners, volunteers,…“, says the player.
“They have to take pleasure and give it. Sometimes we forget that we do this job above all to have fun, to share emotions with people. For us, it must be a party this match“, concludes the coach.
In the league this year, Landerneau fights every game to retention in the Women’s League.