Stade Rennais falters in Le Havre

From Greek mythology, the story of Icarus tells of Daedalus and his son trying to escape from imprisonment by affixing birds feathers to their arms with wax. Ignoring his fathers warning of not flying to close to sun, lest the wax that binds the feathers together will melt, young Icarus soars high only to find himself flapping his arms in vain, feathers no longer attached and falling into the sea below.

Like Icarus, Stade Rennais has ignored advice and now stands on vista looking out what might have been. Since their victory over Paris Saint-Germain at the end of November they have stumbled and seem to lost track of the task. Were they merely pretenders to the throne who flew too close to the sun or is this a mid winter swoon?

That question may have been answered yesterday as they fell 1-0 to Le Havre, leaving them with only one point in the previous three matches and dropping them to seventh in the table. To reflect on this match it is best to first consider Le Havre, a fine club that has stumbled following promotion but as Rouges & Noirs found out, not about to go back down quietly.

The opening forty-five saw Le Havre defending unable to contain the width and pace of the Rouges & Noir but Christophe Revault continued to deny each attempt, just as he has down for over fifteen years. Guy Lacombe's side is sowing the seeds of success but the final thrust whether Stéphane Mbia's early chance or Asamoah Gyan's were insufficient. At the mid part of the half Gyan is stretchered off and Moussa Sow enters and has his own chance at finding the goal ten minutes before the break but it is to no avail and the match remains scoreless.

The overall pace of the match increased after the break as Monsieur Lacombe see's his sides slipping down the table. Yet Le Havre also seems woken from their slumber and immediately goes forward with confidence. Sensing urgency the small band of Rennes supporters that have made their way to les Normands, urge the club on but clearly the momentum has swung and it is now the Rouges & Noir who are forced to defend. Nicolas Douchez appears to have saved the day stopping Amadou Alassane as regulation time ticked down but he has one more chance in injury time and this time, he does not disappoint the home fans.

Guy Lacombe, now in-charge of Stade Rennais for just over a year, spoke of the disappoint:

"Football is played with 11 men, and it should be simple and effective. We didn't display these qualities tonight, the same as when we played Lille. Tonight we took some backwards steps, we tarnished our reputation.

"Before you can attack, you need to have the desire to win the ball as a team and then attack intelligently. It's more easily said than done. Right from the start, we knew Le Havre were out to cause us problems."

This is the greatest question, do they have a desire to "win the ball as a team" or are they merely a club that flew too close to the sun.

The Rouges & Noir have the talent, now they must learn from the good lesson les Normands taught and have the heart.