Favorite, not favorite?
Laurent Bezeau, coach of Brest, prefers to circumvent the question without shying away from it.
“We are necessarily looking for first place.
Our ambition is to go and find it.
We have a workforce which, indeed, can claim the title, ”said the 52-year-old technician.
Unlike previous seasons, where the group was renewed for half, Brest kept most of its players and strengthened with the arrival of Djurdjina Jaukovic, from Podgorica (Montenegro).
"I don't think we've ever had such a powerful player in the Women's League," said Brest captain Coralie Lassource, about the Montenegrin center-half of 1.85m.
The team will be able to rely on its “very good season” 2019/20, even if the Brestoises were cut off in their tracks by the Covid-19 pandemic which interrupted everything: at the head of the Women's League tied with Metz , they were in contention for a Champions League Final 4 after a remarkable European campaign so far.
"By dint of wanting to capitalize too much on what happened, it's the best way to go wrong," warns Bezeau, in Brittany since 2009, apart from a season spent at the head of the Tunisian selection (2012 / 13).
Especially since the health crisis continues to have a major influence on this season.
The players will be tested between 72 hours and 7 days before a match and if a positive case is detected in the squad, the threat of a postponement of the match, which will not be automatic, will hover.
A real sword of Damocles, while the calendar, between national and European competitions and selections, offers few fallback solutions.
"The slightest match will be important, because the slightest point lost, we lose it for the end"
Laurent Bezeau
In addition, with the passage from twelve to fourteen teams, the League has given up the play-offs.
From now on, "the slightest match will be important, because the slightest point lost, we lose it for the end", slips Bezeau.
He is particularly wary of clubs with a strong workforce and which will not be engaged in the European Cup (C2) until November, such as Paris92, Nantes or Fleury.
And then there is Metz.
French champions 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 and therefore quadruple title holders since there was no national coronation in 2020 due to Covid-19, the Messines lost five major players, including the French internationals Thanks Zaadi -party in Rostov in Russia-, Laura Glauser -in Hungary in Györ- and Laura Flippes -in Paris92 -, as well as the German Xenia Smits - in Bietigheim in Germany.
A new cycle in Metz
A new cycle which therefore begins in Moselle around Orlane Kanor (23 years old), Méline Nocandy (22 years old) and Astride Ngouan (29 years old), while the preparation was disrupted and interrupted by a case of Covid-19.
Not the best timing to find new automatisms.
"But I have the best trainer in the world", with Emmanuel Mayonnade (rewarded during the summer by the International Federation for his year 2019 with Metz and the Dutch selection), mischievously slips President Messin Thierry Weizman.
"Each time we have had a change of cycle, we have made champion of France," he adds.
Answer the weekend of May 22-23, if the Covid-19 does not get too involved.
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