The sky fell on the heads of the Jura residents this week. Literally, with the torrential rains having fallen on the department since the beginning of the week, as figuratively, when the players of Jura Sud Foot learned of the relocation of their 32nd final, Friday morning, at forty-eight hours only from kick-off.
Valentin Guichard (32), his central defender from 2004 to 2021, before becoming his coach, explains that there was no other possible choice: “As soon as it rains, the pitch of our Moirans-en-Montagne stadium turns into quicksand, due to a drainage problem. In order not to tarnish the image of the club and the department by seeing Madame Frappart not kick off, on a request to the FFF to move the match to ten kilometers, on the synthetic of our training center in Molinges . This gives us the assurance that this 32nd final will take place. »
If they continue to train on natural grass, its players have already played their last three National 2 matches at home on synthetic, since November. What benefit all the same the Jura residents? “It’s rare, for a Ligue 1, to evolve on syntheticrecognizes the coach of the provisional leader of group C of N2
. But this surface allows you to play faster. It will not smooth the gap in level between the two teams and even proves to be detrimental for us. »
Two thousand supporters expected, against 400 in N2
From a technical point of view, therefore, but also psychologically. In the absence of the picturesque setting offered by the Moirans-en-Montagne stadium, set on the mountainside and where they remain undefeated this season, the “Marines” are playing a 32nd gala final in their… training center, where they conceded their only two defeats. Despite the support of more than two thousand supporters – against an average of four hundred in N2 – and its dressing in the colors of the FFF, the Edouard-Guillon stadium, with its small seated stand and its long handrail, will have nothing a cutthroat for the Corsicans. Edmond Perrier, one of the four co-presidents, nevertheless recalls a fact:“While it is not at all a will, we perform in the Coupe de France” . Founded only in 1991 by the merger of several clubs, JSF has already reached the round of 16 four times. Anchored in National 2 since 2003 –“where we have always had the smallest budget (700,000€)”
slips again Edmond Perrier – the Jurassians would like to see the sky fall on the heads of the Ajacciens, this time.