Handball: against Toulouse, Occitanie derby act I for Usam Nîmes
In the space of a month, Usam Nîmes will compete in the three Occitanie derbies. Before Montpellier, on November 10 in the Coupe de la Ligue, then on November 27 in the Hérault in the championship, the Green team welcomes Fenix Toulouse, this Saturday October 23 at 8 p.m. at Parnassus, as part of the 7th day of Starligue .
This Occitanie derby therefore pits the 4th in the standings, Usam Nîmes, in … 16th and red lantern, Fenix Toulouse. However, “having seen their match in Germany, I still expect to see the team who lost narrowly, even leading at the end (29-28, 54th) in Berlin, Tuesday in the European league (32-30 for Fusche) that the last team in the league “, warns, from the outset, Franck Maurice, the Nîmes coach.
In the last six encounters, two victories everywhere
The record of the last six confrontations between Nîmois and Toulouse is, it is true, balanced: two victories on each side and two draws. The whole with, generally, a lot of goals and spectacle. In the league, this season, Nîmes and Toulouse (5 defeats in 6 days) remain on two setbacks and at heart to recover. “We are a group of four teams with 8 points in the standings, the goal is to take care only of ourselves, to think about taking points”, defines the coach of the Gard.
Return of the versatile Benjamin Gallego
In front of his home crowd, Usam will also have to succeed in making the switch four days after his success (26-21) at Pelister (Macedonia) in the European League, and this with only one training session. “Considering the very short period of time between two matches, it is more of the match preparation that we do,” said Maurice. A technician seeing with a good eye the return of the versatile Benjamin Gallego, recovered from his quadriceps injury: “It is indeed a very good choice that Benji comes back, it will make one more rotation at the back.”
The 16 usamists summoned
Desbonnet, Paul (l.). Poyet, Derisbourg, Gallego, Rebichon, Jakobsen, Gibernon, Dupuy, Tobie, Guigou, Acquevillo, Minel, M. Salou, Hesham, Sanad.