Aimé-Giral dreamed of a reunion party like any good first game of the season at home. For that, the fans put the necessary ingredients but not the players on the pitch. In a very boring meeting, the USAP completely thwarted Brive who came to develop his (non) game successfully.
This defeat is necessarily very annoying for the Catalans and they did not hide it from the end of the match. In front of the microphones, opener Tristan Tedder struggles to hide his nervousness: “On is disappointed, just can’t say anything more, next question please“. Tristan Tedder withholds his words and is also not keen on explaining what went wrong in his team: “frankly I do not know“.
The USAP, even completely missing out on their match, had the possibilities and the opportunities to win it by being down the whole second half 12 to 6: “Not everything is to be thrown away, explains second row Tristan Labouteley, it is especially at the level of precision on the last gesture or at the level of the conquest that we lacked precision but if we solve that we will have solved a lot of things.”
Perpignan would surely have done the same in the same scenario on our ground
And then there was this rhythm! Deadly boring for the spectators! The Aimé-Giral match ended 10 to 15 minutes later than the other matches which had started at the same time. Constant whistles, breaks for injuries and time wasted on every key. Brive did not shine with his intentions but applied the perfect game to win awayespecially in a match of this importance, the back Thomas Laranjeira assumes it: “the game demanded that, Perpignan would surely have done the same in the same scenario on our field“.
Usapiste manager Patrick Arlettaz knows very well that this trap set by the Brivistes worked wonderfully and cost the Catalans the victory: “The game was played at two an hour, interrupted everywhere, with a lot of Brive injuries. Congratulations to Brive, the shot was well put together, we were unable to have our balls in continuity to be able to set our pace and try to decide the fate of the match. When you don’t have the balls and you don’t influence the game, it’s not you who decides the fate.“
An already disabling start to the season for the future
But if Brive disrupted Catalan intentions, USAP also scuttled itself. The key is today the huge black point of this team. She had shown weaknesses in the friendly match but also in Pau and she showed even more against Brive. USAP did not have the necessary balls in this sector, worse it lost four, on its throws, near the Corrèze line. Fatal !
Last season, USAP won this first game at home against Biarritz, this time it starts the season with a second defeat in two games. Of course, there are still 24 to play and the Catalan team has plenty of capacity to react to fight for maintenance but, between the last ten minutes which cost Pau victory and this non-match against Brive, these are precious points. left on the way and which, like last season, will force the USAP to achieve great performances.