More than two months before the start of its championship (October 15 against the Federal Centre), the USO Mondeville resumed training on Tuesday with a stable squad enriched by the return of two players, Nahan Niaré and Ewl Guennoc .
“It’s a stable workforce, very worldlyemphasizes coach Romain Lhermitte, with a lot of players from the Training Center. I think it’s something strong to be able to evolve with players from your training and to develop them in Ligue 2 by trying to do the best possible.”
Romain Lhermitte is entering his tenth year on the Mondeville bench, the fourth in the women’s Ligue 2. The previous season ended with a clean elimination from the start of the play-off against Strasbourg.
“I’m not going to hide from you that I have a feeling of revenge because we got knocked out very early in the play-off despite finishing second in the regular season. “we’re doing better. We started very well last season with eight straight wins (eight wins over the first nine days), we were first at the break. We beat Toulouse in the first leg, we were pretty good. Then the machine seized up, sorry Romain Lhermitte . This season is about trying to find a real identity. It’s true that the years go by but as long as the motivation is there, that’s the most important thing.”
Relegated in 2019 after the Play downs and a final cleaver match in Nantes, USO Mondeville does not want to make the mistake of previous seasons and put too much pressure on the shoulders of its players. Romain Lhermitte wants to be very cautious and realistic in the face of the challenge of the women’s Ligue 2 championship where there is only one accession ticket for twelve teams.
“I’m not sure we’re armed to go up, candidly esteems Romain Lhermitte. I have been at this level for three years. It’s still a championship that is super tight. The only goal we set ourselves today is to have a lot of fun training and progressing together. I remain convinced that if we have this mentality, the victories will come with it. And then if we lose a match, it will not be the end of the match.
In recent years, something that has been very badly managed is the fact of absolutely wanting to go up. As soon as we lost a match, it felt like the world was falling apart and that’s what happened. In the second phase, the closer we got to the deadline, the more we collapsed. I think we have to build a group where we want to work together and progress together. I hope we will be at the top. That’s all I want and then we’ll try to last as long as possible.”