Versailles in the Coupe de France
I’ve been following FC Versailles 78 for awhile now. It’s fun to follow a team in the lower leagues, where the results are much less certain, and teams can’t simply throw money at their problems and win games based on a large disparity in talent. Versailles plays in the National 2, the fourth level of the French football leagues, but recently I attended a couple of their Coupe de France matches.
The Coupe de France is a tournament for teams of all levels in the French football pyramid, similar to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in the United States, or the FA Cup in England. Teams from the very lowest levels of the pyramid start play in August, before their league seasons have even begun, in order to start the process of elimination early. In each match, the loser is eliminated from the tournament. The cup games are on certain weekends which are set aside during the season, meaning no league games. This means that teams which are eliminated have extra time to rest compared to those teams who are still playing in the cup in addition to their respective leagues.
As Versailles is in the National 2, they didn’t have to start playing in the tournament until the fourth round, which started in early October. Their 3-0 win against CS Brétigny, a National 3 team (one level below the National 2 in the pyramid), started them on their current seven-game win streak in the tournament, where they currently sit in the final 16 teams yet to be beaten. That’s right, of 8,506 teams which have participated in this year’s edition of the cup, only Versailles and 15 other teams remain. Of course, Versailles didn’t have to beat all those teams to advance. On the contrary, Versailles had a relatively easy path, only being asked to match up against a team of their own level one time (AS Poissy), and never having to play against a team of a higher level.
Versailles’ streak in the cup is composed of the following opponents and scorelines:
- CS Brétigny (National 3, 5th level) : 3-0
- CO Cachan (Departmental 1, 9th level): 4-0
- Neuilly-sur-Marne (Regional 2, 7th level): 1-0
- Olympique Lumbrois (Regional 1, 6th level): 3-2
- AS Poissy (National 2, 4th level): 1-0
- US Sarre-Union (National 3, 5th level): 1-0
- La Roche VF (National 3, 5th level): 4-0
Most of the games were well won, without too many scares. The exceptions were the game away at Lumbrois, which was equalized and then won near the end of the game. Versailles also gave up a penalty kick at the end of the game against Sarre-Union, which was missed. The streak was also kept alive in part because of a relateively favorable draw, in which teams from the Championnat National, the third division, as well as Ligue 2, the second division, and Versailles never had to play any of them. Of the remaining teams, ten teams are from Ligue 1, four are from Ligue 2, and the remaining two teams, including Versailles, are from the fourth level, the National 2.
On January 29, Versailles’ path crosses a significantly better team in that of Toulouse FC, a Ligue 2 team who is aspiring to make a return to Ligue 1. Though the match was originally scheduled to be played in Versailles (the smaller team traditionally has the right to host, which is one of the best parts of the cup), the unlighted stadium which FC Versailles calls home was judged to not respond to the necessary criteria, and thus the fixture will be played in Toulouse. The match was always going to be a tough one, but this misfortune makes the matchup that much more difficult. I was able to attend the matches against Poissy and La Roche, both of which were highly entertaining. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to see Versailles play in this new matchup in-person, but whatever happens, it will still have been a great run in the Coupe de France.