RENDEZ-VOUS AT JUVISY
For their entry in the Coupe de France 2002, Red Star have been paired with Juvisy, a town in the Essonne of 11 937 inhabitants, close to Evry)
An important railway marshalling yard, the town suffered during the bombardments at the end of the War on the 18th April 1944, when the attractive castle in the town was destroyed.
A bit of history - on their way to Fontainebleau, the Kings of France paused at Juvisy-sur-Orge. Also at Juvisy, Napoléon heard of the capitulation of Paris, in 1814, and decided to abdicate.
A one-time D 3 club in the 1970's, Juvisy-sur-Orge was one of the major clubs of the Essonne departement, along with Viry-Châtillon and Corbeil-Essonnes. Out of those, the Juvisiens are the only ones never to have reached D2. The Stade de Juvisy, Stade Georges Maquin, is actually in Viry-Châtillon and once held big games of up to three thousand spectators, such as the games against the reserves of the big clubs, Saint-Etienne, in particular.
During the 1980s, the Etoile Sportive de Juvisy fell from grace, and now play in the more modest level of the Championnat d'Excellence de l'Essonne - their last outing was a 2-2 draw with Massy.
The club now has tkaen an important role in the development of womens' football, and their club finished third in last seasons' championship. They have three internationals playing for them - Soubeyrand, Riéra and Mugneret-Beghé. Recently they thumped Tours 6-1 away from home.
In fact, the Stade Georges Maquin will not be available for the tie with Red Star due to a womens' D1 game being played on the same day (Juvisy – Montpellier), so the game is switched to Saturday 15th September at 8pm CET at the Stade Francoeur of Viry-Châtillon.
Several Red Star players have also turned out for Juvisy over the years - Hubert Guéniche, Jean-Daniel Piwowar and Ahmed Rached.
© GV 2001
