Branco van den Boomen, one of TFC's many good picks this season.
-
Frédéric Scheiber / Sipa
Victorious Tuesday night of Paris FC (1-0), its fourth victory in a row, the TFC rose to second place in Ligue 2.
With new leaders, a new coach and new players, the team is able to achieve its goal: immediate recovery.
By making the passage to the reconquest of supporters disillusioned by years of hardship.
If overall 2021 does not look much more fun than 2020, it has started particularly well for the TFC.
Winners of Paris FC on Tuesday evening (1-0) in a Stadium almost as icy as a super-freezer for anti-Covid vaccines, the Toulouse residents climb for the first time this season to second place in Ligue 2.
“STOP THE COUNT!
Will exclaim the most Trumpist of the purple supporters.
If the championship ended there, a day before the end of the first leg, the Tef would indeed find Ligue 1 a few months after having left it, in the company of the Trojan leader.
⚽️ The 3rd highest total of a team at this stage since the introduction of the single pool in 1993/1994, behind @ OM_Officiel in 1994/95 (37) and @nimesolympique in 2017/18 (40) ⚽️ !
#TFCPFC (1-0) pic.twitter.com/6DSR6YjpuQ
- Ligue 2 BKT (@ Ligue2BKT) January 5, 2021
Rise of an entire city - and well beyond - until this fall, over an incredible series of nearly a year of failure, the gang in Garande remains on eight games without defeat.
Including four straight wins, a first since August 2011, according to the essential @TFCDatabase Twitter account, which can finally align positive statistics after years spent flirting with depression.
Here's how a drifting club, almost completely rebuilt this summer, managed to become a winning machine.
This team has a soul
At other times, an expulsion as early as that of Anthony Rouault on Tuesday evening (from the 32nd minute) would have weighed down any Toulouse hopes.
Devoid of leaders, washed away by seasons in the abyss of L1, the TFC before the first confinement looked more like a parade of zombies than a football team.
But against Paris FC, another L2 cador, the Violets did not stutter.
“At halftime, they were only talking about winning the match,” said Patrice Garande.
What his players ended up doing, after the expulsion of Ile-de-France Bamba just before the hour mark rebalanced the forces, thanks to a nice long shot from the fearless Dutchman Stijn Spierings.
"What I liked the most is to find after the break a team with a soul, a desire," continues the experienced technician of 60 years.
I would like to win every time 3 or 4-0 but I am not a dreamer.
Winning like that is also unifying for the group.
"
The best attack in L2 (35 goals scored, tied with Auxerre) can not always master its subject as in Châteauroux (0-3) and Pau (0-3) before the holidays, nor systematically offer a spectacle as against Le Havre (3-4) or during the improbable defeat in front of Valenciennes (4-5), the last to date.
A (very) successful recruitment
In the wake of the takeover of the club by the Americans from RedBird Capital Partners and the appointment of Damien Comolli as president, the largest budget (not communicated) of L2 operated a recruitment as prolific as cosmopolitan, with a lot of data .
A Colombian landed from Belgium (Deiver Machado), an Englishman from League One, the local D3 (Rhys Healey), an Ivorian from Scotland (Vakoun Bayo), a Belgian (Brecht Dejaegere) and the Dutch (Branco van den Boomen, Stijn Spierings) unknown in our latitudes ...
The doubts gave way to suspicion after two initial defeats, at the Stadium against the promoted Dunkirk (0-1) then in Grenoble (5-3).
But the new ones were dropped in and the mayonnaise ended up setting.
"I'm not surprised, the president has created a team that allows us to play the climb," said defender Kelvin Amian, captain against Paris FC.
In the midfield of the pattern in 3-5-2, the very technical and complementary triplet Spierings (seven goals, including 5/5 from penalties) - van den Boomen - Dejaegere marches on Ligue 2. On the left flank, Machado aligns the kilometers without weakening.
And up front, Healey has already planted eight goals, including seven in the last six games of 2020.
While the defense remains the Achilles heel of the team, especially on set pieces, the TFC has just recruited Isak Petterson.
The Swedish international goalkeeper will compete with Maxime Dupé, also arrived in the offseason, who has already conceded 21 goals in 18 games.
And Belgian rear Sébastien Dewaest should quickly follow.
Garande is also pleased with the mentality of his foreign recruits, all of which, with the exception of the Bayo mystery, are therefore satisfactory.
“I admire the efforts they make to speak French.
Some do not dare, but they understand.
It's part of a team, of solidarity, of a state of mind.
We always come back to it.
A very promising youth
"We have a lot of young talented players," said van den Boomen on Monday at a press conference.
The Batavian metronome cited pell-mell Janis Antiste, Amine Adli, Sam Sanna, Anthony Rouault, Manu Koné or Bafodé Diakité.
The first two are the main revelations of this first part of the season.
A pure kid of the club, Antiste (18), most often a substitute, brings his punch to each of his entries.
He is arguably the most promising TFC-trained striker since retirees Anthony Bancarel and Xavier Pentecôte.
Chief ambiancer of the locker room, Antiste scored five goals in L2, of which perhaps the most beautiful this season: a chisel on a center of Amine Adli, on August 29 in Grenoble.
Adli precisely… The kid from Pézenas (20 years old), member of the golden generation finalist of the Gambardella 2019, composes with Healey a formidable attack duo.
Lively, inspired by the ball at the foot, he scored three times for four assists.
Manu Koné, a courted young Toulouse man.
- Frédéric Scheiber / Sipa
Obviously, the quality of the Pitchouns has not gone unnoticed.
AC Milan would thus have fallen head over heels for midfielder Manu Koné (19), as promising as he can be improved, provided that his game is simplified. "It is rather flattering for the club that the players are solicited from outside , but if we build this group, it is not to destroy it in the middle of the season, ”says Patrice Garande.
A speech that can only please the supporters, absent from the stands by force of circumstances, but very close to their players.
Tuesday night, the Tolosa Indians put on a mini fireworks show just before kickoff, near the Stadium.
The ultra group had also left a banner in its deserted Brice-Taton turn: “2021: Ligue 1 in sight.
Let the fireworks continue!
"
Sport
TFC: Toulouse dismisses his hope Adil Taoui
Sport
Olympics 2024: Seven cities selected to host football tournaments, Toulouse failed
Toulouse
League 2
Video
Soccer
Sport
TFC