Alyssa Lagonia’s crazy week, Sandy Maendly’s bitter end
The Canadian left five minutes before retiring on Saturday. Before leading his team to the Super League final. She started the week sick. Maendly has done her colors one last proud service.
Alyssa Lagonia will play her last match on Whit Monday in Lausanne. The championship final.
Eric Lafargue
The Servettiennes walked a tightrope. Two of them in particular. The reality of a failed semi-final first leg in Basel (0-2 defeat, score after 15 minutes) left Geneva with nothing. Because without it everything would stop a proud reaction on Saturday at La Fontenette. The season and the dreams of the second title in a row for everyone. And even more for Sandy Maendly and Alyssa Lagonia. The two garnet spearheads played a double game: against the Baloise and insecurity. For them, the end of the season rhymes with the end of a career.
So we had to live with the fact that the end of the flagpole was reached until the 87th minute. As much as the two women tried to avoid this scenario, it was never felt on site. Nevertheless, the end was there, very tight, more and more threatening, because the 2-0 didn’t want to fall. Obviously, with five minutes left, Sandy Maendly needed a corner to put it in play. extensions. Happiness? For ten minutes, yes.
Then the personal blow. Number 8 commits a midfield foul, sees the warning fall and understands. She pulls her hair out. The sanction will deprive her of the final, which she will snatch with her team-mates before penalties. With an attitude and a class that could not better highlight and summarize all that has brought her to Servette Chênois. “The way Sandy fought to the end and knew what was going to happen to him was very strong,” said his coach Eric Sévérac. She will no doubt be able to play a crucial role behind the scenes on the way to La Tuilière, where the final will be played on Whit Monday. Before donning Switzerland’s jersey for the last time at the Euros this summer.
The path of trust
History has reserved a better fate for Alyssa Lagonia. The Canadian will be entitled to her “farewell match”, timed, without uncertainty and with the hope of a elimination recorded in the title celebrations. Because Servette Chênois delivered a great collective match on Saturday. And because their captain lived up to himself in being the best possible leader. If Geneva lift the trophy in ten days, we will long remember his 25-metre shot against Basel on the 27th (with a deficit of… Sandy Maendly). The one that paved the way for the grandiose turn that followed.
“If I were 100%? Oh no! But I gave 100%.
A week earlier, during the first route, the captain was not there. A Champions League final had to be prepared, Alyssa Lagonia (32) works at UEFA, her future is that of an employee and not a footballer: the choice seems logical. The fact is that the Canadians could not make up for lost time as hoped.
She fell ill earlier this week without death. She worked out as best she could, then tried to forget the germs by donning her armband on Saturday. Without a doubt it was she who got the first ball in the fateful penalty shoot-out. She scored, showed the way to goal and confidence. “When I feel 100%? Oh no! But I gave 100 percent,” she summed up in the euphoria of victory, after long emphasizing how proud she was of her teammates. Zurich can tremble: Servette Chênois arrives at La Tuilière fully strengthened.
Florian Waney has been a journalist in the editorial department of Sport-Center since 2019. Trained in the regional press, he follows Swiss football closely, from the 5th division to the Super League.
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