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Olympique Lyonnais Behind the Scenes (Episode 1)

Blah blah standard disclaimers apply; don't harass me for shit or it drops down the priority list out of sheer spite; if you stalk a player your ass should be banned from a stadium xoxo; @OL Comms Dept I do love a good PSL; y'all know the speech by now.

I know I'm being a little slow in kicking things out but I do want to explain what my typical day looks like: get up at 5am, go to the gym, take Damo out for a walk, get home, feed Damo, shower, leave by 730 am, feed Apollo; get to work; hit my billable hours; take care of Apollo; get home; make dinner. Literally I am out of my apartment for 13 hours. By the time I am done feeding Damo his dinner and making my dinner, it's almost 930 - 10pm. I need sleep to function. I also really like my job and want to keep it, and thus cannot be chronically online as I have actual bills to pay since my parents don't pay for everything and I have, like, proper adult responsibilities. Anyway, it's just to explain that yes sometimes there is a delay in me kicking things out, but I do get to things eventually. Just don't be a dick if something is out with your fave and I haven't gotten around to translating in it. xoxo

This is how you do a proper documentary. Walk me through it. Tell me what you were thinking but tell me why you were thinking it as well. I don't care about your favorite movie or your social media content. Let's pour ourselves a glass of wine and just, like, talk.

If you want to know this team, you have to know what it looks like when their eyes change. To know this team is to understand them. This is how you get to that.

OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS BEHIND THE SCENES - EPISODE 1

Eugenie Le Sommer: Hi.

Melchie Dumornay: Hello.

Griedge M'Bock: Hello.

Le Sommer: This year on OLPlay -

M'Bock: - we are telling you about our season.

Dumornay: And it starts right now.

[Footage of Lyon celebrating winning trophies]

[Shot of training ground]

M'Bock: I was there since the very beginning. But little by little, after the World Cup, the international players came back.

[previous footage of players coming back from after the World Cup]

Dumornay: Err, the return from the World Cup was hard for me because we had the goal of going as far as possible in the World Cup. And it was good as well to come back to the group as soon as possible to process what happened in the World Cup, and forget it all. Get back to work. So it was hard but also good for me to join the group.

Le Sommer: Well this year, this season is a bit different because we came back later from the World Cup. Each one came back at a different time. We didn't all start preseason at the same time. So we had to go with the flow.

[Shot of Kadidiatou Diani]

Le Sommer: For the recruits, it's simple. They're there. We act as though they have always been there. We try to make them feel at ease from the beginning. We obviously have an ulterior motive. We have to get to know them [shot of players in practice - that's what Le Sommer meant by "getting to know"], get them involved. Because it's always harder for a new player to approach players who have been there for a while. But it's a really natural process, ever since I've been at Lyon I've always found it easy to integrate the new players and I think they feel at ease pretty quickly.

Dumornay: The players sent me supportive messages, they said welcome home. I found that really touching. The players put me in the best condition possible in the group. It was a really good thing and I appreciate it enormously.

M'Bock: Obviously if there are players who are more at ease, then I will bully them a little bit more. Otherwise I will take more care of them. It depends on the person and the relationship you have with them.

[Shot of the players arrive in Divonne]

Le Sommer: The first important moment of the season when we're all together is the preseason camp, which we did in Divonne this year.

Dumornay: Everyone was there, the whole group. So for sure we were all able to work together, which helped with the team's chemistry overall. It was a really interesting preseason camp, the weather was nice, the sun was shining. So me personally, I was really excited to work with the whole group.

Le Sommer: We're going to say that our sights were set on the Trophee des Championnes. It was the first objective for the season. It was a major objective because it's against PSG. So the week in Divonne really served as preparation for that game.

[Training shots]

[Shot of Sara Dabritz]

M'Bock: It's true that Sara [Dabritz] had to leave preseason camp at one point. We were all really sad for her, because - because she is someone who is part of the team, who - who brings us a lot, and we also know what kind of person she is. She's a really kind person. We were all really touched by what happened to her. And we tried to show her on the field that we were with her and that we were thinking about her.

[Shot of the players arriving at Troyes (where the Trophee des Championnes will be played)]

Le Sommer: First game of the season, it's against PSG. I didn't think I was going to start because we had worked the whole week on a certain formation, and I was playing the role of someone coming in to that formation. But Ada [Hegerberg] got injured the eve of the game, so that's when I realized I could potentially be a starter. So I prepared like I always do, as if I was going to play, and I knew I would start when we had the pregame meeting.

Dumornay: [I was] very excited before the game. I was very eager to play against Paris [Saint-Germain] but also to play my first official game with the team and to try and do something special in the game.

[Game footage]

Le Sommer: We didn't have the start to the game that we wanted because we wanted to attack immediately and put them in difficulty. I think their formation threw us off a little bit at the beginning, even if we knew they would be playing with a backline of three defenders. We didn't adapt quick enough.

Dumornay: The first ten minutes of the game were a little complicated. I had to make a few mistakes to find my bearings. [laughter] Once I was able to orient myself I was off.

[Game footage cont'd]

Le Sommer: It's all about tactics at the start. I saw the space that the defender had left, so I move into that space. I move out wide whereas normally I cut inside. After that, instinct kicked it and I crossed. I put myself in Melchie's [Dumornay] space and I told myself where I would like the cross, and she cut inside her defender pretty well, and we scored.

Dumornay: I wanted to get a foot on it but it wasn't really going to work, so instead I - I don't know, it was more instinctual, cross the header in front of goal. So it ended pretty well. Once I saw the ball had gone in, that I had scored, I felt all the energy I had to let out leave me. It was my first goal, it was also an important goal for the team because it allowed us to gain the advantage. So yeah, really happy and really proud as well.

[Game footage cont'd]

Le Sommer: [laughs] So my goal, I get why people could say it's a lucky goal. But when I saw Lindsey [Horan] getting the ball, I knew that she could take a shot and I was ready to close in on the keeper if she dropped the ball. And then she [Horan] shot in my direction, and I said to myself all I have to do is put it on target and I just angled my foot to try and put it on target. It catches the goalkeeper wrong footed. It was an instinctual goal but there was also a thought process behind it.

Le Sommer: You have to be able to anticipate a situation that never happens. The day it does happen, you need to be ready. That's something that goes with playing in that position [forward/striker].

[Game footage cont'd]

M'Bock: It's true that it was a special evening. You just think about playing, you just think about getting on the field, having fun, even if there was a time when I was thinking back on the rehab, the months of hard work, everything I had gone through to get back. When the coach calls you to come on, it's a really happy moment. And a lot of emotion, because you say to yourself it's finally over, it's all behind you. To be able to come on in a game like the Trophee des Championnes and win the title, the emotions are obviously heightened.

Le Sommer: It warms the heart, it's the kind of emotional moments that you don't experience every day. And Griedge is a player I've been playing with for a long time, someone I appreciate enormously. So I was really happy for her, that she was involved again in a competition, with the team. We saw her daily, we saw how hard she work even if it was sometimes difficult. It's often difficult when you're injured, especially when it's a longterm injury. So we also know what she went through and seeing her [on the field], it was a reward for all that. It was good for her.

[Game footage cont'd]

Dumornay: My first medal, my first trophy and also my first trophy as Player of the Match. So it was something special. I couldn't have dreamt it any better. But what made me even happier was to have won this trophy with the team and all the players. So that's already something that will stay with me forever, to have come in like that in my first game and to have had so much success. So that will really stay with me.

[Game footage cont'd - Renard delaying the celebration until she received Sara Dabritz's jersey]

Le Sommer: We're a team. It's a real team, not just an expression. What we did for Sara [Dabritz], it's because she was going through a difficult personal situation. We're there for each other. When we say there's a lot of solidarity in the team, it's not empty words. It's really genuine. We want everyone to feel good on the team and that everyone is as happy as possible. So we know that when you're going through difficult times, even a little gesture like that will make you feel better.

M'Bock: It's true those gestures are really touching. Having experienced it personally, I was on the hospital bed right before my operation. When they did it for me, I almost had tears in my eyes. I was really emotional and said to myself, "they're still thinking about me." That does so much good. It's good to feel like people are thinking about you, and that they will be with you no matter what.

Le Sommer: Once the Trophee des Championnes was over, we went straight into the league. So first day of the league, it was against Le Havre. The game started pretty well for us, we played a good game. I scored the first goal. The goalkeeper coach, Simon, told me to be there for the rebounds. So that's all the balls which are [badly] cleared either by the goalkeeper or from the defenders. He told me to be ready in that position. And I just needed the ball to come to me. I didn't question myself, I just took a shot, and, well, I scored.

[Game footage cont'd]

Le Sommer: All these volleys, those are moves I've always liked doing. It's a move I do pretty well. And when I have the opportunity, I try to take it, and it worked out pretty well. But yeah, it was a good goal.

[Game footage cont'd]

Liana Joseph: I think it's Sonia [Bompastor], she was talking to Remi [Pullara], they were like "call up Liana". I was like "nah" but then I got up. I ran a bit, warmed up, then was good to go. There was also Alice [Sombath], it was either her or me who was going to go on. Then he [Remi] told me to step up my warmups, and I was like "okay Liana, it's on." I was a bit stressed, but yeah. I stayed confident in myself. Then they called me over. Sonia was like "okay, just do like you do in practice." When they raised the - the thing so you can come on - I was like okay, you have to give everything now. I didn't want my family to have come for nothing. Coming on in front of them was a big honor for me. So I gave everything I had, but the first minutes were a bit complicated because I had to get oriented and yeah. It was a bit complicated.

[Game footage cont'd]

M'Bock: Honestly, the cross was Wendie [Renard], it was really good. It was almost a magical moment.

[Game footage cont'd]

M'Bock: After Le Havre, there was the international break. When you're called up to the National Team, obviously you're happy. You savor each moment, each day. Obviously for me it was my big return, so there was even more happiness and emotion, I think. But I also experienced that period where the [Lyon] team wasn't at full strength. It's true it's not easy. At Lyon we're lucky to have an enormous amount of international players, but that means when pretty much everyone is gone, there's barely anyone left [at Lyon] for the training sessions. So it's sometimes a little complicated to practice in terms of quality [of practice], even if the staff does their best for us. It's just like that, you have to continue to train. But it also allows us to practice things that we don't always have time to do when you're off on international duty or when - well yeah, when you're away on international duty. There's good and less good.

Le Sommer: The context is a bit particular this year because we're playing PSG twice in three weeks. So when we come back from the international break there isn't a lot of time to prepare [for PSG]. We only had two training sessions, only one of which had all the players because there were some who were [playing] on the other side of the world. So when we get them back, you have to quickly get back in the Lyon state of mind. But that's also how football is, so you don't have a choice, that's just how it is. And we're playing at the Parc des Princes on Sunday night, so that's going to be good for the game in that sense. It's the match of the weekend.

[Game footage cont'd]

Le Sommer: It's one of the games where there was a lot of back and forth, no team dominated. That's not always the case against PSG. Each team had chances. We started the game pretty well. We were able to create some chances, we were pressing pretty high. They were able to put us in difficulty on the counters, but we continued to push and I was the one who scored the goal in the first half on a free kick from Selma [Bacha], she crossed it to Dama[ris] who headed it back to me and I took it on the volley. It ended up in the back of the net.

[Game footage cont'd]

M'Bock: She [Le Sommer] rolled back the years. Honestly, what she is doing is impressive. On the one hand it doesn't surprise me because I know Eugenie [Le Sommer], I know her quality, and I know what she is capable of. To see her perform like this, it makes me really happy. It can only be beneficial for the team as well.

Le Sommer: Chris[tiane Endler] had a big game as well. I think the win is because of her as well. She had some great saves. I think the goalkeepers on both teams had a great game. That being said, Chris isn't able to showcase her abilities that often because we don't usually concede that many chances. But it was still a game against PSG, her former club. So she had a really, really great game and that was good.

[Game footage cont'd]

M'Bock: So there you have it, we finish the month with three games, three wins. It was a productive month you can say.

Dumornay: As I said, I couldn't have hoped for any better. I spent my birthday here, I won a trophy here, I met people that I've always wanted to meet.

M'Bock: In terms of the style of play, there's still a lot we need to improve on. We know that. We know there are things we need to improve, but it's going in the right direction. We'll have a bit more time to work on things. So we're going to make the most of the time we have to continue improving as a team. There's a lot of clashes coming up, especially with the derby [againt ASSE], the UWCL draw, and everything after that. So we're eager to get to it, and we're going to prepare like we should to be ready.

Dumornay: Eager to see what's next. We're going to continue as I said with this consistency to work and conquer what's in front of us.

#all good love stories start in the rain #melchie dumornay #eugenie le sommer #griedge mbock #liana joseph #god i need a glass of wine now #and by glass i do mean bottle #monsters recognize monsters

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