At Last, I Get My French Cinderella Story

By: Laurie | May 9th, 2009

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I was heartbroken about the 4-0 thrashing Bordeaux laid down on little Cinderella team Vannes? And I was lamenting the fact that we rarely get the happy Cinderella ending we hope for?

I am cheerfully eating my words today after Guingamp took down Ligue 1 side Rennes, 2-1, in the Coupe de France final.

Yes, Guingamp. The little Ligue 2 club from a town where the stadium has over twice as many seats –18,000-ish — as the town has inhabitants. The club that’s currently sitting in 13th place in Ligue 2, a mere six points outside of the relegation zone. They will now be playing in Europe next year, with a guaranteed spot in the new Europa League. Le Monde’s headline, which I don’t think you need to speak French to understand: Coupe de France: premier grand trophée pour le petit Guingamp.

“It is amazing. We played together, we gave everything,” [goal scorer] Eduardo told reporters.

(I do kind of wish they’d done it against a team that did not include Carlos Bocanegra, but beggars, choosers, etc. Sorry, Carlos. At least you got Rennes’ lone goal.)

The guy below with the huge smile would be manager Victor Zvunka who, in an interesting bit of trivia, won the Cup as a player with Marseille back in 1976.

And here we have the ecstatic team.

	Soccer Forums	Team/International Results

Category: World Football

Tags: Carlos Bocanegra, Coupe de France, Eduardo, Guingamp, Rennes, Victor Zvunka, World Football

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Comments  

• Aaron |  May 9th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

  
  
  

  WOOHOO!

  Posted from United States

  

• Aaron |  May 9th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

  
  
  

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Ribeiro_dos_Santos

  this Eduardo guy has had a pretty good small team career it seems. He has scored 202 goals in 346 apps for 4 clubs.

  Just thought this was interesting.

  Posted from United States

  

• Ian |  May 9th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

  
  
  

  Nice. Domestic cups are the one place that a little team like this can realistically win a trophy in a lot of leagues, so its good to see. Good luck to them in Europe.

  Posted from United States

  

• Laurie |  May 9th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

  
  
  

  Aaron, that’s interesting. Wonder if a performance like this in front of 80,000 people and on national TV will change that whole “small team” thing.

  (Which would kind of suck for Guingamp — ending up in Europe minus your goal scorer.) :-/

  Posted from United States

  

• Michael |  May 10th, 2009 at 7:01 am

  
  
  

  Excellent performance by Guingamp. They fully deserved this cup. Good luck in the European club league next year.

  Posted from United States

  

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