Not going to win goal of the year, but you have to start somewhere, and Djamel Bakar scoring a nice curler from 20-something meters out against Lille for Nancy in the 1-1 draw on Friday night is probably the first real impressive goal of the 2012-2013 season, at least in French Ligue 1.
Besides the match, which was between two teams that won on opening weekends and now, temporarily, occupy the top spot in France, the big occasion was Lille’s first home appearance in their new 50,000 stadium, Grand Stade Lille Métropole, the first stadium in France with a retractable roof.
The home fans didn’t a show, although Lille were the better side for most of the match, only to fall behind after 33 minutes due to Bakar’s fantastic goal, one of the very few opportunities the visitors managed to create. This wasn’t Lille from last season, although the style and the attempts at pass & move football were easy to see; It just didn’t work that well, especially because of Salomon Kalou’s inaccuracy in front of goal.
Still, the Ivorian did manage to score the equalizer before the break, and his ability to create chances for himself or find space to make himself available for crucial passes indicate that he might return to his scoring numbers from his days in the Dutch Eredivisie, when playing as a teenager for Feyenoord.