Marine Johannès, full-back for the French team, victorious over Finland for the second time in three days in preparation for the Olympic Games: “We had set ourselves objectives, Aimé (Toupane, the coach) had given us objectives before the matches. We remained serious, we worked as best we could and we tried to adjust for the second match. We did the job. We knew that the preparation would increase crescendo, it also allowed the staff to see everyone a little bit.
We know that the next match against Serbia will be more interesting for us. It’s not easy to stay serious in this kind of match, and the staff had warned us that the changes would be made in groups of five. It wasn’t easy. You have three or four minutes maximum on the pitch. We made a few small mistakes that we didn’t make in the first match. We talked about the lost balls (17). Maybe the score meant that we tried more things, to share the ball more. We’ll have to iron that out as we go along.”
Marine Fauthoux, leader of the French team: “Everyone gave their all, we trained very hard and it paid off. We were the steamroller that we want to put in place, and showed the basics to hold, to defend strongly, what we want to do against the best. We can’t wait to rub shoulders with the strongest.”
“We are in a phase where we are trying things out. We are going to build up to a crescendo.”
Jean-Aimé Toupane, coach of the Blues
Jean-Aimé Toupane, coach of the Bleues: “I draw a positive assessment considering the objectives, intensity, race. I liked the face of the team. We would like to do better, we are in a long preparation. We ask a lot of the players, they do things well, with sometimes mistakes. The changes of five players at a time allowed to maintain the intensity and to test different fives, in search of a balance. I always look for a very defensive five, there are complementarities between players. We are in a phase where we try things. We will build up crescendo. Serbia (on July 12, in Lyon) will be formidable. Finland, to start, was a good thing.”
Marième Badiane, center of the French team: “It’s never fun to play the same opponent twice. I’m still satisfied because we had to focus on ourselves, maintain the level of intensity despite everything. We managed to do it. We can’t wait to know the list of twelve, it will allow us to focus on this group, to step up the pace. Knowing will unite us even more, and allow us to work harder.”
