Quentin Paumier was sitting in the Carabins locker room alongside his coach Pat Raimondo as well as his teammates Félix Goulet and Guy-Frank Essome Penda when he began to underline the names of the absent players during this interview.
“When I look at all the names there, they each have their own thing. It is our strength. ”
The Université de Montréal Carabins men’s soccer team won the U Sports Canadian Championship on Sunday against the Carleton Ravens, the host team. And they did it in the most dramatic way possible.
A masterful free kick from captain Paumier equalized the score at 1-1 in the 90e minute. After taking the lead in overtime, the Carabins suffered the return of the pendulum in stoppage time. It was 2-2, direction shots on goal.
And who else but Essome Penda, player par excellence of the Canadian university circuit this year, to take the penalty which gave the victory to Montreal?
This victorious kick was not only the last of the match, but also the last in Essome Penda’s college career.
This is a moment that I will cherish for a very long time, all of my life. At the same time, for me, it’s the end of a chapter where I learned a lot.
Guy-Frank Essome Penda
But this is one of the only times in our interview in the Carabins locker room where a player was going to talk about his individual successes.
“The strength of the team is not only the players who are on the field, but also the players who are outside it,” adds Essome Penda. Despite their personal disappointment, they manage to get through it and put their heads down, working for the good of the team. ”
Goulet, goalkeeper named to the first all-star team of the U Sports network in 2021, cites in particular defender Charles Raymond, who was injured at the start of the season and who ultimately had to undergo an operation.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
From left to right: midfielder Quentin Paumier, striker Guy-Frank Essome Penda, coach Pat Raimondo and goalkeeper Félix Goulet
“Before the Canadian championship, he wrote us a note for the whole team,” says Goulet. He arrived with his cards, a bit like what the Canadiens did in 1993. It inspired him a bit. ”
For the record, Jacques Demers and Patrick Roy had handed out cards on which they had written inspiring messages to the players, which they had to keep in their wallet during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“It would have been easy to be frustrated with that, to move on and do your business,” adds the goalkeeper. But he found a way to make his contribution. It pushed everyone in the same direction. If the guy is injured, he can’t play and he does that, you have no choice but to give everything on the pitch. ”
“Committed” and “humble”
This lesson in “humility” comes from coach Raimondo, according to Goulet.
“Having worked with him for the past five years, that’s what he gives the team: the players come first. He gives everything to ensure that we are in the best conditions. ”
Raimondo won the title of national coach of the year in 2021. He had missed out on this honor in recent seasons, including the year of the first championship in Carabins history, in 2018.
But the fact that he was not named always took a back seat, in favor of the “experiences” that the players had to live, according to Goulet.
By his words, we feel that Raimondo is well characterized by his doorman.
“This group has been great all year,” said the coach in place since the formation of the Carabins men’s soccer team in 2001.
I have so much admiration for them, for the work they do in the field, at school, how they stick together, how they help each other.
Pat Raimondo, Carabins coach
The Canadian champions have had the best record in terms of goals scored and goals conceded this season in the Quebec Student Sport Network (RSEQ). Their 9 wins in 12 games took them to number one in the standings, with the same number of points as the Laval University Rouge et Or.
“The number of goals we count, the quality we have, how we defend, all that does not surprise me, explains the coach in a calm tone. I see the work all week. They are there, they are committed, they are present, they are humble. ”
Passing the torch
Goulet and Essome Penda were in their fifth and final year of eligibility. That it ends in this way could not be better for the striker, present during the title of 2018.
“All I wanted was to win with this team,” Essome Penda emphasizes with passion. I wanted to share the experience I had with others. Me, I come out of a much more fulfilled person than I was when I started with the team. ”
They are now leaving plenty of room for Paumier to carry the leadership of this team over the next few years.
“I am a captain, but in reality, I follow in Guy and Felix’s footsteps,” explains Paumier. […] They are amazing guys that I take inspiration from. ”
“In the last game, I was like, ‘Guys, we have to win for these two guys because everything they’ve done for us is amazing.” We are the ones who have the ball now, they are no longer there, we have to take over. ”
Paumier is originally from Marseille, and played soccer in France. But he had lost the pleasure of playing in his country, citing the lack of “solidarity” in training, in particular. He finally found her in Montreal, he who was playing his second year with the Carabins.
“When I came here, I thought I was going to give it another chance. In the end, I was not wrong because that is exactly what I was looking for. To find real friends, real teammates, real emotions. ”
Emotions that they went to seek thanks to a team which had the assets to go far, according to Raimondo.
“My gut told me that it was a group that could be very special. It has nothing to do with talent, but more with the personalities, the characters, the leadership, the maturity of these guys. ”
And Raimondo to add, at the end of our interview: “It’s a great gang. ”