yo Mathieu Debuchy is the man of the match WARHORSE HES LEAVING LILLE THIS SUMMER NO DOUBT, Oh snap, looks like Ozil developed an attitude since he became mourinho's little soldier still looked world class tho Alou diarra looked out of place again hes not a good player the whole France team play pretty great im sooo proud of France , i think Mexes said it best : "If we win 4-0, people will be hysterical and will say that we will win the European Championships," he noted. "If we lose 4-0, they will say there is no point in going to the tournament. "It will be a good match. We have nothing to lose." ALLEZ LES BLEUS!
Finally watched the rest of the game on the web. They looked full of confidence today and they were looking like they were enjoying themselves! Great performance by les Bleus. Debuchy was player of the match for sure!!
i thought it was a pretty good match from france and a deserved victory; the germans were poor sports to stop trying in the last 20 minutes. if not for an excruciating lack of sangfroid it would have been 4-0 at 90'. the reducer revealed a loss of concentration that can't be called any more than "unfortunate"... by then la messe était dite, and even a fluke german equalizer would have been gratuitous: they had been trounced at home and they knew it. for a match in which we were supposed to get steamrolled lloris had surprisingly little work, the defense was fairly reassuring overall. my repeated comments that debuchy may be a good player but not good enough to disturb the pecking order at RB were thrashed: that was by far the best performance at that post we've seen in years; the job is not instantly his but a complete reevaluation of the hierarchy now seems necessary. one could wish it could be the same in the midfield, but when one sees gonalons put in two excellent matches get left at home, while m'vila gets another automatic start only to play once again like a big girl's blouse, one is entitled to doubts. a. diarra finally starting a match on the bench may be a start in that direction; some may say his starting it in the stands wold be better, and in front of his TV ideal, but he was actually better than m'vila when he came in... though it's not completely fair to compare those who played against the very active and aggressive germans of the first hour with those who faced those of the last 30' who already seemed to be concentrating on which scent of shower gel they were going to use. for example it would be unfair to say ribéry was crap and menez was great. menez did do very well, and despite a reputation for which he bears some responsibility was active both running and defending, but the main difficulty he faced was not dogged defending but dodging cynical potshots taken at him as he blew past. he certainly can run fast... if only he could think fast. it's perplexing to see a player so generally able prove so entirely unable to do anything en première intention. (i say this as constructive criticism). nor can malouda be automatically considered to have put in a good showing despite a very savvy goal and an appreciable deal of running for an old man. then again, amalfitano was up against those same fonctionnaires à la retraite and he looked like a deer in a mercedes' headlights every time he got close to the ball. giroud put in a fine first start in my opinion; débuchy handed him his goal on a silver platter, but his shot was luscious, and he was at the rathole for the second goal too... in fact he had been dans tous les bons coups and what else do you expect from a point man?... they don't all go in, not even if you're gerd müller. final note: a couple of years ago i was angry to be subjected to a french telecast with bixente lizarazu showing such virulent favoritism in favor of bayern against lyon, but the fault was with TF1, not with liza: after all he played almost 10 years in munich. but he was also world and european champion for france so it was shocking to feel such a pro-german bias from him... he seemed gutted to see france go ahead.
Well Germany was better in the first half and had 6-8 chances for a goal. It wasn't clear at all at the beginning....later on could've been 4:0 you are right, but it could also have been maybe 3:2 or 4:2 Germany. We just didn't score shit and if that happens during the european cup it's 100% over anyways.... For 90 minutes 0 goals is absolutely bullshit.
Like France back in the 4231...think it works better than the 433 or 442. I prefer 2DMs sitting and providing a good base and cover and it keeps a better shape. (Although still not sure what is the best DM pairing exactly). In the 4231 you have to get the 3 players behind the CF attacking or the CF can get isolated. (also the fullbacks have to help the attack). Overall good performance from France, disappointing from Germany I thought. Debuchy was good and congrats to Giroud for getting his first goal with France. The new France away kit...ok is all, maybe it will grow on me. Think the new German one is great.
Credit needs to be given to Blanc where credit is due. He clearly told his players to play for a win away in Germany. The starting formation was surprisingly offensive and the commentators at RMC were impressed with the ambition of the attacking intent that France showed with its starting 11. Blanc also had the foresight to start Debuchy and that was perhaps the great success story of the night. Both wingbacks played well and its obvious that Evra and Sagna are no longer Blanc's first picks. Valbuena was also a good choice in the winger position. His fighting spirit set the tone for a France side that showed aggression and attacking verve from the outset. Though Ribery put in his usual mediocre performance, France's front line was clearly playing for glory. The midfield is probably still in search of a definitive core 3 players but the good news is that Blanc has plenty of options to choose from. Marvin Martin might have made an appearance in the second half but Blanc apparently liked what Nasri was doing and wanted to give him more playing time to settle into the playmaker role that he may end up dominating in time. I think the Guardian summed things up pretty well with this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/01/olivier-giroud-france?newsfeed=true
Grats to France.. You guys obviously went into this match looking to play and WIN.. I am very disappointed in Germany however, I was looking forward to this match for a long time.. The way they played most of the game despite missing many starters, was depressing. It looked like they just wanted to get the game over with and go back to their clubs.. Only when Ozil decided to spring something between him and Klose did we see something a few times.. Alles alles
very true but we'd need tow good ones and obviously none of the three we saw last night; none of them even remotely fill the bill, and they've had enough chances we can be reasonably certain they never will. 1) playing for the win in this nothing and i mean NOTHING to lose away friendly was a no brainer. 2) foresight? i think he wanted to give time to the candidate who had been given the least and came up lucky. it's not like he even had a rassemblement to check for form. 3) another no-brainer : valbuena has been on fire for a month. 4) more likely he was so scared by what MM's been up to at sochaux that he figured even nasri's pale first half was better than that. but lolo does deserve much credit for the way the team has come together. despite a few very solid beefs i have it's clear he's doing a good job.
of course Guignol. The team isn't perfect. far from it. This is still a period of reconstruction and the Euros will be a testing ground for this, still young, team. I think the WC is what France need to be really building for.
dominant game. maybe people will start giving us respect for euros, our world ranking is horrific. i actually loved this new jersey, so simple, classy, and the stripes on the sleeve a beautiful touch. i don't understand what people like about the german ones, plain boring and ugly color to me.
Can't say this often enough, first half France was not dominant at all, Germany was better! Second half France was clearly a lot better... Don't just make a friendly more than it is like saying France is brilliant, better than Germany, they were dominant, we will win the Euro....that's bullshit from top to buttom! France has the chance to win the Euro like Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy and maybe England. That's a fact and that's all ^^
this. all this folderol about "building" a national team for 2-3 years down the road is absurd. lolo feeding this mentality is practically criminal. a euro or WC-winning national team is "built" in a matter of months, perhaps weeks. look at how domenech got us into the 2006 final: you can practically say that team was built during the tournament itself. you need the talent. all these countries have that... maybe even england. that takes a decade or more. then you need to get the right guys on the field the right day, fired up and playing together. that you basically make up as you go along. consider 2002: everybody and their grandmother had practically given the trophy to france before the opening match. brazil? a lot of brazilians were already wincing at the humiliation they were expecting to endure. et pourtant...
I completely agree. That was one of Domenech's many mistakes, saying in 2008 we should really be building for 2010, then saying the same in 2010. With this kind of mentality you are going nowhere, you are constantly delaying things and implying being bad during the current tournament would be OK. You should go in every tournament with the wish to to win, especially when you are France, a nation that can win any year provided the team clicks.
very true. and let's not forget that domenech started his tenure by bypassing thuram, makalele, zidane... thinking he needed to start fresh right away to give himself two years to build a team for 2006. coming from the youth ranks he probably had concrete and valid ideas in terms of play and players. i imagine he had a master plan of great merit... on paper. one can even postulate that he already saw knysna coming when in 2004 he said things like "the EdF doesn't belong to anyone"; when one sees the proportion the ingérence of certain '98ers took on, one can't say trying to nip that in the bud was a bad idea in itself. but it's not that easy. 2006 was probably a great eye-opener for him. or perhaps he read the parts in war and peace where kutuzov stars: a great primer in my opinion on how to manage an NT. ironically, he let his pendulum swing too far. by june 2010 he was faced with half a dozen whippersnappers each thinking the EdF was their personal property. the rest is history.