Here we are! After a month and a half of preparation, the Mauves of JS Cherbourg Manche Handball begin this Friday evening their 9th season in a row in the Proligue, the second level of French handball. And they will immediately be in the hard going to Pontault-Combault, at an opponent that the Manchois know well and that they had eliminated in the semi-finals of the playoff last June.
Once again this season, the Proligue looks undecided, because there will again be many contenders for only two places for the rise in Starligue.
The forces present
Last year, it was Ivry who dominated the championship head and shoulders, knocking out the competition and finishing 1st in the regular season with the climb at stake. This season, it is the Tremblay club that seems cut out to play the role of division bosswith a budget of 4.5 million euros, double that of almost all of its competitors.
Behind, we find the 2 formations coming down from Starligue after only 1 season at the highest level: for Nancy and Saran, the step was too high. The two clubs will obviously be contenders for the playoffs and with payrolls around one million euros, they are giving themselves the financial means. Like every season, Pontault Combault will hope that this time it will be the right one for the climb! As for Dijon and Massydeprived of playoff for not much in the spring, they will have the spirit of revenge.
That’s already 6 contenders for 4 places in the last four. This season again, we can expect the opposite, to see Villeurbanne, Sarrebourg, but also the promoted Frontignan, and Valence, the drafted, fight to avoid relegation. In the soft belly, we could find Besançon, Billère, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Caenfight to get away from the red zone and why not, play the surprise guest for the playoff play-offs.
Do the accounts, a club is missing: JS Cherbourg Manche handball, whose leaders have not set a specific objective this season and which has faced so many changes this summer that it is difficult to say in which category to classify it.
A JSC still difficult to define
Apart from the name, many things have changed at JS Cherbourg over the summer. A deeply renewed workforce with the departure of several talented executive players, a new coach, Edouard Fernandez Rura, from Nice, but also a new organization at the club, and finally, a move in a Jaurès room not yet completely finished, forcing the Mauves to prepare for more than a month at the IUT gymnasium: that’s a lot to digest.
Add to this a preparation disrupted by injuries and punctuated by friendly matches against many Starligue teams (Cesson, Dunkerque), a severe defeat against Caen and a heavy elimination in the Coupe de France this week against Ivry, and you are facing a team which it is difficult to know , for the moment, if it can be competitive against the big teams in the championship.
The Cherbourg coach recognizes it, this team is not ready and will need a few games to give its full potential. Especially since tonight she will still be deprived of the new Spanish center half Perez-Arce, who will have missed a good part of the preparation due to a knee injury. The season therefore begins with many questions. We will be reassured by remembering that the beginnings of the JSC last year had been sluggish, before we lived the best sporting season of the club.
Pontault-Combault / JS Cherbourg, this Friday evening, at 8:30 p.m. The ticket office for the first game of the season at home in the new Jean Jaurès hall in Equeurdreville on Friday September 16 is open online.