OL Lyon Finally Breaks Its (Losing) Streak

This was the scene at last week's Lyon game versus mid-ranked Lorient, a team from the northwestern region of Bretagne. Fans have been flagellating themselves (no, just kidding) over the team's devastating January (three losses, one tie) and were praying for a miracle, going to such lengths as to send streamers of paper all throughout the stands (see photo). The incredible thing is that these strips of paper were the kind of threaded strips that you find on printed paper when you have invoices, or especially the old dot-matrix printers that we use to use back in the, err, 1990s.

The poster in the other photo is a "call to arms" by fans, and is meant (I suppose) to invoke similar feelings as the Resistance posters that appeared on French buildings in Occupied France during World War II. (Of course, this call to arms, in jest.)

Oh: and the result? Fortunately, Lyon scraped out a victory, 1-0. Their inability to score goals (since the end of November) has been noticeable and worrisome. Tonight (Friday), they take on third-placed Lille, which has booked itself a place in the final knockout round of the Champions League, and next Wednesday, they travel to Rome to take on AS Roma, the team with Italian captain Totti.