Bocanegra, Rennes among Lyon's challengers

Soccer Betting Lines

01/22/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United States national team veteran Carlos Bocanegra, in his first season with Rennes in France's Ligue 1, has a different outlook on contending for titles.

Since leaving the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer to join England's Fulham in 2004, Bocanegra has never experienced a top-half finish. Fulham was usually lucky to just avoid relegation in the brutal English Premier League.

His switch to France didn't immediately present a great opportunity to conquer Ligue 1 - Lyon has won the last seven titles - but, if nothing else, a chance to compete for a top-half finish.

Instead, Bocanegra's new club - which has never won France's first division - is among a group of teams threatening Lyon's incredible run.

Although Lyon has always found a way to extend its title run - winning by just one point in 2003, three in 2004 and four last season - Bocanegra wasn't at all deterred.

After all, this isn't exactly the same as trying to dethrone any of England's giants - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United.

"Why shouldn't we aim for the top spot?" Bocanegra, who has started all 21 of his club's matches, said on the league's website. "Our ambitions have not changed, but they have become more realistic.

"It will be difficult, as there are some good teams both behind us and in front of us, but we are very much in the mix."

Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, PSG, Lille and Nice are the others in the mix, and Lyon has never faced a group of challengers this deep halfway through the season.

All seven of the teams chasing Lyon are less than 10 points behind the leaders, and clubs at the bottom of that list - Lille and Nice - have played one less game.

Bordeaux, which finished second to Lyon last season, is currently just one off the pace. Fernando Cavenaghi leads the way with a team-high 12 goals, and this club resembles Bordeaux's last title team, according to its ex-coach.

"We had this quality of play, this creative and offensive state of mind," said Nantes coach Elie Baup, who led Bordeaux to its last French title in 1999, on the league's website.

"Bordeaux's actual team looks much like the one we had back then."

Marseille follows in third, four points back of Lyon. Marseille is the last club to dominate France, winning five titles from 1989-93 (the last stripped because of a match-fixing scandal).

Bordeaux and Marseille - the only other team in France that might equal Lyon's star power - are the teams that were supposed to contend.

Rennes, in fourth, extends the list and starts a run of challengers with which no one - especially Lyon - was expecting to contend.

Bocanegra's club put together an amazing 18-game unbeaten streak this season, winning nine and tying nine during that stretch, to emerge as a contender.

"Why not?" Bocanegra said again of winning Ligue 1. "Lyon are only five points ahead of us."

Fifth-place Toulouse, which features Andre-Pierre Gignac and his league-high 13 goals, sixth-place PSG, despite being in financial turmoil, and Lille and Nice feel the same way.

Why not?

Even Lyon might have a tough time answering that question this season.

The French giants are 3-2-2 against their top challengers this season and over the final 17 games visit Bordeaux, Lille, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse. It has home games against Rennes and PSG - teams it lost to in the first half.

Lyon's injuries have piled up ("Have I ever had so many injuries to my squad as a coach? No," Lyon coach Claude Puel said on the league's website), most recently and devastating to veteran and leader Sidney Govou.

Govou ruptured his Achilles tendon, but just before the injury called out the team, which is just 1-3-3 in its last seven games.

"Unity in the dressing room can't be invented," Govou, who joined Lyon in 1999 and has spent his entire career with the club, said on the league's website. "It either exists, or it doesn't. With us, it doesn't exist."

In addition to holding off its challengers, Lyon faces a monumental task next month in the Champions League knockout stage against Barcelona. Although Puel admitted the "league is our priority," doing everything possible - including resting some of its top players in league matches - to beat Barca is a must.

"We've often stood up to be counted in adversity and we'll continue to do so," Puel said.

However, Lyon's reign can't last forever - no team in England, Italy, Germany or Spain has ever won more than five titles in a row. Seems like Lyon is on borrowed time, even if France's league doesn't exactly compare to the top countries in Europe.

Lyon has a little time to relax this week with Ligue 1 off for the French Cup, but when it resumes on the last day of the month, the bulls-eye on the seven- time defending champions will be as evident as ever.

Is this the season another team finally hits its target?

Why not?