A Power Shift in Ligue 1?

Olympique Lyonnais’ utter dominance of French soccer has ceased to be funny. Whenever a team can win seven consecutive league titles — a streak that Lyon is planning to keep alive — there is something radically wrong with the other 19 teams it is playing every year.

Lyon’s recipe has been a string of quality managers, including the likes of Jacques Santini and Gerard Houllier, and the remarkable ability to keep young French prospects. While other clubs are routinely fleeced for young talent — and French talent — every summer, Lyon has instead made them into its core.

In recent seasons, that has meant Lyon could run away with the title and usually have it sealed up by early April. But, a little over halfway through the French calendar, there are hints that its dynasty may be headed for a speed bump.

After 21 games, two of French soccer’s traditional powers are hot on the heels of the league’s parvenus: Bordeaux and Olympique Marseille. Though Lyon is still in the lead with 42 points, Bordeaux Girondins are sniffing around just a point off the top. O.M. is another three points back and comfortably within striking distance.

That means the championship could come down to a pair of games late in the season. Lyon must travel to Bordeaux in mid-April and, better yet, will have to go to Marseille’s nasty Stade Velodrome three games from the end of the season.

It’s hard to remember the last time anyone ran Lyon so close. And it’s probably the best thing for a league that has developed a reputation for being terribly boring.