Charléty’s audience chanted his name for a long time. Vincent Demarconnay, 39, 14th season at Paris FC, where he is the record holder for matches played, deserves it. The Paris FC goalkeeper still achieved a huge performance on Tuesday against Caen (1-0). An XXL performance with duels won on point-blank shots, a clear round in the air and a penalty saved which preserves the short but crucial success of his team. Voted best goalkeeper in L2 in 2019, Demarconnay should not be far from this trophy this year…
“Vincent is a great guy, he doesn’t just save penalties, I’m amazed by what he’s achieved. He reassures us, he gets involved. It’s a pleasure to train players like him, he deserves a reward at the end of the season, ”underlines Thierry Laurey.
Do you know your penalty stats?
VINCENT DEMARCONNAY. Honestly, I kinda don’t care. I leave that to the public and to you, the journalists…
We’ll give them to you anyway. It’s 7 saves on the last 16 penalties conceded in L2 by Paris FC…
It’s good. Almost 50%… Like this season where I stopped two out of four with tonight’s. Ferhat from Nîmes, Mendy, what fine shooters… But Autret (Auxerre) and Tchoukounté (Dunkirk) managed their penalties against me. We can always do better. I’m still working on that with Mickaël Boully (goalkeeping coach).
Do you remember that you had stopped Alexandre Mendy’s penalty during a previous Paris FC – Caen on October 31, 2020?
Yes, of course (smile). It was at Charléty, for the same purpose but he hadn’t fired from the same side. Of course, I thought about it. He too, no doubt… I knew he was going to change sides but also that he was capable of anything, like trying a Panenka as he has already done. A penalty is a bit like the feeling of the moment. I had a good feeling at the time of his race and also of the success. But it’s good that he got a little justice. It would have been frustrating for us not to win because of such a contentious penalty.
On the action, we actually have the impression that your former teammate Ali Abdi adds a little?
We don’t blame him. That’s the game. He did his job by claiming and the referee fell into the trap. But in my opinion, he was very generous. I really feel that Morgan (Guilavogui) pushes the ball for a corner and touches the ball. There is certainly contact, but we still have the right to defend by touching the player if we touch the ball. Especially since it was not a dangerous gesture. But once again, fortunately there was justice.
“The workforce has resources. We have proven that this season.”
The scenario of the match resembled that of Rodez on Saturday. A quick goal and then a big defense where you are impeccable in your goals…
Yes, it’s getting closer with Moustapha (Name) scoring two free kicks in two games. We knew it was a big game that awaited us against one of the best teams of the moment. They hadn’t lost in six games, they are in the Top 5 for the calendar year in 2022. When you see the names in this team, we expected the task to be complicated. It’s good to have been able to score that first goal, to have raced ahead and to have held on… I was dreading this match. It’s good to have passed it. Now another big game awaits us in Bastia on Friday.
The downside is that Ajaccio and Auxerre also won and you don’t take any points from them…
Yes, the others also took points. The mad race and the sprint continue, we have 4 games left to be the best ranked possible on the evening of the 38th day. These close matches are a bit complicated for us to manage because we don’t yet have a full squad and 100% players because there are a lot of injuries coming back. But we hang on and we don’t let go. It’s been two games that we haven’t conceded a goal. This shows that we have become quite solid again.
The very bad news of the evening is that Paris FC has probably lost Ousmane Kanté (Achilles tendon rupture?) for many months…
We are not very optimistic but we will still wait for him to pass other exams. It would be a new blow for us this season. Ousmane is a very important player, he is our vice-captain. We had already lost our captain (Cyril Mandouki) several months this season. We are really not varnished. We had everything, the ankles, the knees, the hamstrings, the shoulders… We can go around the whole body. But the workforce has resources. We have proven it this season.
