Sunday, November 16, 2008

Bocanegra and Rennes Top Adu's Monaco

Stade Rennais' Carlos Bocanegra went the full 90 and AS Monaco's Freddy Adu came on in the 69th minute in a 2-1 home win for Rennes. Bocanegra was among the match's most efficient players with 73% of his passes being successful. Adu had only a handful of touches in the late going but did manage to take a shot which went wide of the Rennes goal.

Monaco did well to maintain possession but continue to struggle to create dangerous scoring chances, producing only one shot on goal today. Their attack still seems static and without much creative flair.

The win put Rennes into 3rd place in Ligue 1 on 25 points while Monaco continue to struggle in 14th place with 16 points. Bocanegrea has established himself well as the mainstay of the Red and Blacks as they continue to pick up points at a respectable pace but are still five points shy of league leader Olympique Lyon.

Adu continues to struggle for minutes at Monaco, making it less likely the team will decide to take the buy option on his loan deal from Benfica. That said, the longer the team floats in the lower half of the table, the more pressure there will be on coach Ricardo Gomes to shake things up, especially in their lackluster midfield. Whether that shakeup leaves room for Adu remains to be seen.

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