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Louis
Saha
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Fulham started their preparation for the new
Premiership season yesterday in winning style at Nancy on a mild French
evening.
Potential signing Adbeslam Ouadduo was called called away on international
duty so his hoped for debut has to wait.
Fulham’s surprise package of the evening was Togalese international
striker Cherif Toure Mamam, who started the evening on the bench.
Fulham started the match displaying the club’s new kit, which gave
the handful of travelling fans their first look at the strip.
The Fulham faithful didn’t have long to wait for the scoring to get
under way as last season’s top goal scorer Louis Saha supplied his
own fireworks with an early headed goal. Saha managed to leap at the far
post to get on the end of a Rufus Brevett cross, and steer his header back
across the face of the ‘keeper and in to the net.
With Nancy looking unable to build on their short periods of possession,
Fulham were able to weave intricate passing patterns through the middle
of the pitch.
John Collins, having had time to shake off the niggling injuries, which
plagued him towards the end of last season, was looking back to his best.
He was the driving force behind of many midfield moves spreading the ball
across the front of the Nancy defence.
However, any air of security which Fulham had in those early moments was
soon shattered as Nancy came close to scoring through striker Frédéric
Fouret - but for the feet of Maik Taylor, the French striker could have
easily given his side a route back into the game.
Fulham’s most dangerous pair of the first period were Louis Saha and
Bjarne Goldbaek with the Danish wide man providing ample ammunition to Fulham’s
attacking duo of Saha and Boa Morte. Luis Boa Morte almost managed to create
Fulham’s second goal of the evening, only for Saha’s to put the
ball wide.
The French side were very lucky to have reached the interval only one goal
down.
The second-half started with the introduction of trialist Toure Mamam who
replaced Bjarne Goldbaek on the right-hand side.
Following the halftime break Nancy adjusted their tactics and it was, therefore,
little surprise that the French side’s game took a more dangerous edge.
With their hosts showing more resistance in midfield, Fulham found the match
drifting back to a style more reminiscent of the English domestic game.
Trialist Toure Mamam started to become involved in the action showing a
glimpse of what he is capable of. Receiving the ball 8 yards from the Nancy
penalty area, the former amateur with Bundesliga clubs Eintracht Frankfurt
and Nuremburg, managed to jink his way past a couple of defenders to fire
off a dangerous shot.
Nancy continued to show that they were in no mood to be pre-season fodder
with an incisive attack managing to breach Fulham’s defence, allowing
striker Laurent Dufresne to fire past Maik Taylor on 70 minutes for the
equaliser.
Fulham’s response was to keep control of the ball and thereby increase
their control of the game stifling Nancy's attempts to build on their equaliser.
A tactic which soon paid dividends as Louis Saha, again, put Fulham back
in the lead on 75 minutes.
A late substitution saw Zat Knight directly replace Sean Davis in the holding
midfield role as Nancy felt their best chance was to muscle their way back
into the match. Despite managing to break up Fulham’s style of play
to a certain degree, the French side still found themselves unable to craft
any significant chances.
Nancy looked frustrated at the end of the game with Fulham comfortably in
charge.
Fulham line up:
Maik Taylor, Steve Finnan, Rufus Brevett, Andy Melville (Kit Symons 45),
Alain Goma, Bjarne Goldbaek (Toure Mamam 45), Sean Davis (Zat Knight 80),
Lee Clark, John Collins, Louis Saha, Luis Boa Morte (Kevin Betsy 86)
Att: 1,587
Fulham's next game is on the coming Tuesday evening, 17/07/01, against Sparta
Prague at Woking FC on Kingfield Road in Woking.
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