Saturday, November 21
Le Stade des Alpes, Grenoble
2PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)

Saturday, OL head to the foot of the French Alps and look to kick their season back into gear after the International break, and an exhausting battle vs. Marseille, that just barely kept those marauding bandits from stealing three points at Gerland.

November 8, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3:00 EST (21:00CET, 20:00GMT)

Sunday evening it's back to work. But hopefully, it's not one of those usual Monday morning, sloping, sluggish, I need a liter of coffee to get through the day, back to works, because aside from the heart wrenching matches against Cesspool in the CL, Lyon have been afflicted with a general malaise probably since week eight in the PSG match, and need this victory to put some pep back in their step.

Don't be surprised if you walk into your favorite footie pub tomorrow and see fans of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Everton wearing OL kits. The match-up between Lyon and Liverpool, while important for Lyon in terms of pride and security, is absolutely crucial for Liverpool. Unfortunately for Rafa's Bunch of (un)Merry Men, they are nearly paralyzed with injuries and on the verge of elimination from the Champions League.

Just some random odds and ends for you to read as you bide your time waiting for Lyon's Champions League clash with Liverpool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

< Sid's Serious Captain-y Face.

If you're wondering why the captain's armband showed up on Cris last Saturday, despite Sidney Govou also being on the pitch, it's because our dear (former?

OCTOBER 31, 2009
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, St. Etienne
4PM ET (21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT)

Saturday, OL make their descent into Le Chaudron and you can believe it will be hot- aka Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to kick-off the only derby that really matters.

OCTOBER 24, 2009
Stade Municipal Du Ray, Nice
1 PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)
After Tuesday's unbelievable victory at Anfield, we can only hope that the players have come back down to earth- because I'm still on cloud nine- and are ready to dispatch there next league obstacle and maintain their miniscule +1 goal differential lead over second place Montpellier?

Since so much has been said about yesterday's game, I'm not going to go too much into it. I just wanted to say how proud I am of my team. We've been waiting for this win for a long time. It might just be the group stages, but the biggest criticism of Lyon has been that they've been unable to defeat a big team away from home.

Pardon the super cheesy title, but after reading Miralem Pjanic's super inspiring interview this morning, I felt...well, super. Lyon are in first place in their CL group, Liverpool are in the unwelcome position of being in third, and both teams are coming off of weekend losses in their domestic leagues.

October 17, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
1 PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)

Well, after the short but much needed international break, Lyon head back to office. The break gave us some much needed time for the laundry list of players out due to injury, to continue their convalescences.

There might be room for a third blogger here on Lyon Offside. Emphasis on the might.

Inara and John aren't going anywhere, but they have asked me to find a third writer to help them out, keep the posts coming, and generally be part of a deadly OL blogging trident.

However, Because Inara and John have set such excellent standards here, I'm setting the bar very very high.

With World Cup qualifiers about to take place, there isn't too much happening at club level. But there are a few articles and updates that caught my eye.

The biggest news is the medical update on Bafetimbi Gomis. Two days ago at Guingamp, Gomis collapsed during practice with the France squad.

We're only 24 hours away from a much needed international break. With Lyon's upcoming fixture schedule, the boys will need every opportunity to rest up. Of course, that isn't the case for our international players, but at least the other half of the squad can recuperate from half-healed injuries (I'm looking at you, Lisandro).

Tomorrow, Lyon will be taking on Hungarian side Debreceni VSC in their quest to qualify for the knockout rounds. They are already off to a good start, having taken three points from Fiorentina, but there are still five games to go, and anything can happen. It's important that Lyon get three points tomorrow because they have a double-header with Liverpool (who, incidentally, have suddenly regained an impressive amount of form in the last two weeks), as well as an away game at Fiorentina.

Good morning, my wonderful readers! Sadly, I won't be around for most of today, so until 8 PM tonight, I'll be clueless as to how this game turns out (though naturally I expect - no, demand - that OL crank out a win). Remember, with Bordeaux and Marseille winning their respective games yesterday, anything less than three points will be a tough blow to Lyon's race for the title, even this early in the season.

Wow, writing this match preview feels like déjà vu. Oh wait, it's because I wrote one exactly a year ago, involving the exact same teams and coaches. So here's hoping the outcome (which was a 2-2 last season) is at least more in our favor this time.

September 16, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
2:45 PM ET (20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT)

Match Background:

I was sorely tempted to copy and paste what I wrote about Fiorentina last year, simply because their squad hasn't gone through any drastic changes since then.

I don't know about you guys, but I've used this international break to take a step away from football before things get all crazy again. With our first CL group stage match against Fiorentina around the corner, the next couple of weeks promise to be really busy. But before we can even think about Europe, we have to take care of Lorient tomorrow.

Their Champions League Group is Group E:

Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni VSC

We've never played Liverpool in the Champions League before, but we did have two interesting encounters against Fiorentina last season. As for Debreceni VSC, they are a Hungarian team debuting in the Champions League for the first time ever.

Tomorrow, Lyon will be facing off against Anderlecht again for the second leg of the final round of Champions League qualification. Lyon have pretty much assured themselves of a spot in the group stages, thanks to their demolishing Anderlecht last week in France, but it's a stretch to say that the Belgians have nothing to play for.

I confess, it's a little weird to be writing a preview for a CL qualifier. The last time Lyon had to worry about those was in the 2000-2001 season. That was practically ten years ago. But after last season's inglorious third place finish, I'm just grateful that Lyon still have a chance to participate at all - for a while it was looking like Lyon would miss out on Europe entirely.

Just when you thought the door of the Lyon's transfer season had been locked until December- at least if you believe Puel- with the arrival Bafetimbi Gomis, OL still have some unfinished business to attend to, though it's all "out-bound" traffic, in their minds that is. Really, Puel needs to have his head examined: his minimalist approach to recruiting is really irking the crap-out-of-me.

This morning, Lyon announced on their official website that they had terminated their contract with Noel Soccer and by extension, with Umbro as well (Noel Soccer is the French supplier of Umbro). I guess this news isn't too surprising, given that Umbro was bought by Nike almost two years ago.

Tomorrow marks the start of Lyon's 2009-2010 season. For the first time in a really long time, Lyon will be fighting to earn back the title, as opposed to defending it (maybe this will help the team wake up from their apathy). Tomorrow they'll be facing Le Mans, who are definitely capable of surprises on their good days.

Lyon are continuing their spending spree by shelling out €13m for St. Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis (plus another €2m in incentives). His cool name and awesome hair will be further augmenting Lyon's ever expanding strikeforce. I'll have a post featuring relevant information and stats about him once he has his press conference, but for now, let's talk about how Lyon's mercato is going.

Lyon are continuing their spending spree by shelling out €13m for St. Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis (plus another €2m in incentives). His cool name and awesome hair will be further augmenting Lyon's ever expanding strikeforce. I'll have a post featuring relevant information and stats about him once he has his press conference, but for now, let's talk about how Lyon's mercato is going.

I felt terrible that I wasn't able to put up a real match preview last night, but now that I think about it, it wouldn't be much different from the Lyon vs. BeÅŸiktaÅŸ preview. No significant news coming out of the OL camp except that Lisandro Lopez and Cesar Delgado will remain on the sidelines (Puel doesn't want to risk their healing bodies on a friendly), and Jean-Alain Boumsong will also be getting rest.

I'm going to keep this short because there really isn't much to report. For some odd reason, OL have become shoddier and shoddier in updating their website with relevant information. Geez, they can afford to pay millions over the top for a dental patient, but they can't hire a college intern to update their website?

July 18, 2009
Stade De L'Escale d'Arnas, Arnas
1:00 PM EST(19:00CET, 18:00GMT)

Today, OL are in Rhône-Alpes to take on RC Lens. Lens is gearing-up for a return to first division football after last year's soujourn in L2 purgatory. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since .

Lyon Can Finally Fly Straight Again: OL's New Winger Swoops into Town, Hopefully to Take Us to New Heights.
No, it's not a Ferrari nor Beluga caviar, it's a Brazilian winger. Like and injured bird, OL's left wing- along with a slew of other issues- hindered it's abilitiy to fly as strong as it was capable of, but now it's finally healed, stronger than ever, and ready for lift-off.

Once again, Lyon have an entirely new set of kits this season. While the official presentation of the new kits won't be until the end of July, Umbro has released a really nice teaser that gives us a good idea of what they look like. (scroll down to the bottom for more pictures)

(click to enlarge)

The home jersey, in white, has changed the slightest, with the stripes going horizontal instead of vertical.

It was bound to happy eventually. I don't know about you guys, but after the embarrassment of last season's finish, I was dreading the oncoming ~dramah~, :tearz:, and angsty soap operas from the players and the staff. I was expecting a meltdown of epic proportions. I thought that the sky would fall.

OL Gets Serious About The Attack!

In:

Lisandro Lopez: Lyon finally got their man. JMA's first signing of the summer cost OL 24 mill plus performance bonuses. Lisandro is supposed to be in Lyon Friday for his physical.

Hotting up.

IN:

Lisandro Lopez: JMA himself was supposed to be in Portugal today to personaly finalize the deal for Lisandro, but management dropped a bomb today on Porto! In L'Equipe, Bernard Lacombe announced that management had called-off the trip to Portugal today, as well as divulging that negotiations for Toulouse striker Andre Pierre Gignac were underway(see more below).

>
Don't hold-it against me. After all, it's Real Madrid!

First Juni, then Michael Jackson, now this!!! This is honestly too much too much loss for a human being to be subjected to in the span of a couple of months. In case you've been living on the moon these last few days, Karim Benzema has left Lyon!

The transfer rumors seemed to be slowing down, after a few frantic weeks of wild speculation, most of it, pretty outrageous but in the last two days have come-back fullforce. Next week might see OL land their first Summer acquisition and "bigfish" of the mercato, let's keep our fingers crossed.

Ahhhh...Summer Love, Must it Always be So Fleeting? Karim and HBA holding-up the Peace Cup Trophy

Summer is here and Lyon's preseason is about to get underway very shortly. Aside from a pair of interesting L1 friendles(vs. Lens and Nice), this year's Peace Cup- which Lyon will be defending as champions- will be very interesting, with several of the top clubs in Europe, entering the fray.