19.10.2015, 04:10
"Le Crunch" for Paris Saint-Germain

BLOG: Tom reflects on a dramatic end to Match of the Week in Kielce and compares PSG to apples

"Le Crunch" for Paris Saint-Germain

Kielce will be disgusted albeit they did the same to Rhein-Neckar Löwen, Barcelona will be in two minds as to how they feel. They controlled large portions of the game, but in the end, their comeback was as exciting as we have witnessed this term.

Spare a thought for Jurecki. His heart says it all about the man. That he was devastated at the final whistle shows his emotion because he felt his mistake had cost the win. He hadn't dwelt on the fact that his seven goals at crucial phases of the game had gotten his team in that position. 

He also didn't factor in Arino. He is a past master at the dark art of +1 defending. It shows how important every second is on a handball court. He stuck in the hand that won the ball, got Zorman a red card by default and led to the drama of the "Barcelona Clock" and the tying goal. 

"It restoreth faith"

I feel quite poetic, but the quote could almost be biblical. 

It isn't, but I needed a segue to lead me onto Paris. 

Not quite the big apple, but they do a mean “duck a l’orange”. The city is a gem, the team an uncut diamond. 

As a Catholic nation, Ireland has a kind of morbid fascination with apples. It may have something to do with the bible. An apple on the desk of the nice teacher, someone with big teeth can eat an apple through a letterbox and if someone isn’t particularly bright they think a peach is a suede apple.

When I was a kid my mam would go to the market each week and buy a box of apples. Always one for an old saying, she would quote the old “apple a day keeping the doctor away”. As an asthma suffering kid, apples weren't really doing it for me. By the way, never eat an apple after brushing your teeth.

I never really appreciated the red apples. I was more a green apple man. 

There was one particular kind that appealed to me more than others and they were called "French Golden Delicious". They weren't gold and I seriously doubt they were French, but they were juicy and delicious. They made your mouth water when you bit into them. 

This Paris team reminds me of those apples. The core is French, they are a golden generation and slowly, but surely they are starting to look delicious. 

An arrogance pertains to them as you would expect from any French team (apart from the rugby boys) sorry France for mentioning that, but they have character now. 

Believe it or not the moniker for these apples (yes I'm back to the apples) was "Le Crunch". Someone advertising executive back then thought that if you put "Le" on front of anything it gave it a Gallic charm. I liked the idea as it always reminded me that "Pomme" was feminine. Should it not have been “La Crunch”?

The fact is that Paris hasn't really been tested since Round 1 (although the boys from Celje gave them a good run). Anyone can lose a first game as they did against Flensie, but they have a “firmness” about them now. A sign that their coach is starting to weave his spell. The fact that his tactic reminds me of a bygone age shows that just because something is gone out of fashion doesn't mean it isn't effective. 

Veszprem is in town and although it's "only two points" for me it would be a serious test of Paris Saint-Germain’s credentials.

It is "Le Crunch" this season for PSG.

If their genesis is to continue, they need to “pip” the boys from Veszprem to a win.

The big question is (to borrow some cockney rhyming slang), do they “Adam and Eve” they can do it?

TEXT: Tom O'Brannagain, ehfTV commentator