bini's babes

autodénigration is also a peculier french habit. muppetry of the kind you speak of is universal.

the real reasons to learn french (in no particular order)

rabelais
rousseau
les shadoks
proust
verlaine
les cahiers du football
frenchwomen

 

i think those fans are jumping to conclusions. JMA is definitely going to send all his ladies to the mobcast cup (even if first prize will only about cover airfare). since this tournament is not sanctioned by FIFA but only the JFA that doesn't dispense them from obligation to answer the FFF convocation but since the final of the mobcast cup is the 26th (GMT+8 as well) and the germany match in question is the 29th, they could still make a reasonably planned rassemblement and play this match. and that will put bini's good faith to a test : will he make adjustments for what, even if it doesn't concern him directly, is a good thing for OL, for the FFF and for women's football in general, or will he grab an opportunity to accentuate the rigidity of his stance?

as for the players available, i think you can put together a reasonably good lineup with the players you mentioned:

Philippe or Benameur (i don't know if laëtitia is available yet)
Soyer - Gadea - Delannoy - Boulleau
Plaza - Hamraoui - Morel
Catala - Delie - Thiney

he also still has the possibilities of lattaf and bretigny (doing very well in germany apparently). if he doesn't call them, or insists on playing meilleroux and soubeyrand, that has nothing to do with the availability of the lyonnaises. and one can argue their absence will be no more prejudicial than that of the growing list of players bini chooses to do without already.

 

QED

because they don't have the nerve provoke a clash with JMA who has done more for women's football in this country in 8 years than the fed has done in a century.

 

well, BB spoke about renewing the group before the england match, and we saw that "renewing the group basically meant getting rid of sonia but still starting soubeyrand and meilleroux. so maybe he is waiting for germany to give the new kids a chance... or maybe it was all just another layer in his millefeuille of blablabla.

 

the official response to bompastor's com has come out : not a direct statement from bini of course, nor even from the FFF, but this article in komsomolskaya prav... errr, footofeminin.

Q : did bompastor's absence bother the bleues? A : don't be daft. of course not.

the article deserves some decoding (décryptage). first of all, anyone who's read a little cicero can see the attempts to appear balanced only to carry your point without having to resort to reason.

the choice of players is interesting. three lyonnaises, eugénie le sommer, corinne franco and laura georges (but not nécib who is known to be quite close to bini) and marie-laure délie : what do they say?

i'll start with MLD : "we cleared everything up. we communicated. [...] we have a group. sonia's not here today, but may be at the next camp. it's not definitive. but it's the coach's choice, we respect it. we're just players".

marie-laure tends to be complètement à l'ouest when interviewed (she called the england match "une belle prestation") so that explains her saying sonia might be in the next camp. but the other part that is interesting is the "we're just players" theme that all four ladies echo... as if they had been... coached.

now for the lyonnaises. first of all ELS : "it didn't bother us. at practice, we practice with the players who have been picked. i know sonia well and it's true things go well, but other players haven't been picked and we can't do anything about that. it's the coach's choice. "

gégéne is generally a rather shy and clumsy interviewee but fairly fluent in la langue de bois and here is no exception. still, she brings up the "other players" not picked... perhaps an attempt to play both sides of the fence, or perhaps her best albeit timid attempt to stand up for sonia... and amandine.

next laura : "sonia's not in the group, that was noticeable. we talked about it but we're all professionals. what's important is the game and we try above all to stay mobilized on the field. [...] sonia is my teammate at lyon and i know her qualities, but the coach makes his choices and that's how it is. what happens off the field is beyond us."

laura is rarely interviewed but she's one of the brightest and well-spoken ladies in the game, so when she says we're all professionals it's possible she's taking a small dig at those decrying OL's professionalization to the detriment of amateur clubs like juvisy. but " knowing her qualities" is a way to say she sides with the coach nevertheless. for what it's worth i seem to recall (though can't find) a statement from her showing some bitterness when abily and bompastor left OL just before the CL semi-final... which OL went on to lose.

last of the fenottes, franco : we tried to make sure it bothers us as little as possible, to stay in the match we're preparing and stay together. you try not to pay to much attention to what you read or hear outside. [...] i'm just a player, i stay in my place [...] in any case in any team sport no one is indispensible. this time it's sonia who's not called, tomorrow it might be me."

cocotte was also on the team that felt confident in their chances to be european champion until "abandoned" by camille and sonia, she's also gaëtane thiney's best friend and roommate in the EdF so not necessarily sonia's biggest supporter either. but the "i stay in my place" seems to push the "we're only players" tune a bit too far to sound perfectly frank and candid.

does this mean there's similar trouble brewing at tola vologe (OL's training ground)? not likely. LG puts it best : they're all professionals. for example it's long seemed pretty clear to me that eugénie and lotta don't spend their vacations together. but they still play and practice together as conscientious pros. that doesn't take a projet de vie with little elfen role-models. it just takes a little maturity.

it's obvious that there remains appreciable support for bini on the team. but "unanimity? methinks pravda doth protest too much.

 

a different angle on this question... might a lyon squad without OL's internationals be better than an équipe de france without them?

i started out to say certainly not in absolute terms, ybut still more likely to fare better in D1 than les bleues in international play. yet when i put together the squad:

peyraud-magnin​

? - agard - viguier - bompastor​

majri - henry - dickenmann​

otaki - tonazzi - schelin​

suddenly i wasn't so sure!

 

not good, not good at all! and yet even before reading any reactions or reports i know that all bini or his babes are going to talk about is the positive of coming back in extremis once again.

i'm not going to judge soyer on one performance but she got eaten alive at RB last night. as for catala i'm more disappointed to see her chucked in at a position she just can't do (an orphan in a storm at n°6) when she is such an exciting player higher up the pitch.

the attack was once again shockingly impotent, but to be honest the whole team has been flat, and it's hard to pinpoint where or why. so let's indeed come back to sonia. she definitely isn't lacking at LB per se since boulleau was on of the few satisfactions of both these friendlies. but when you compare the EdF conquérante seen in cyprus (and beyond) with the amorphous puttering around of these last two matches something definitely seems badly broken. that it coincides with the ousting of bompastor doesn't necessarily point to a cause and effect, but it's more than possible that the projet de vie à la bini, an idea that has merit, is even indispensable, has run its course and has gotten stale.

take the players one by one: bouhaddi was good last night, the dutch goal wasn't a question of bad placement or not enough girls in the wall, but of a righty kicking a lefty FK. s*** happens. the back four all did well enough, including delannoy who can fill in for pireroux (but not for wendie obviously) anytime in my book. abily much better than against england, soubeyrand once again with a volume de jeu not much different from mine (i get up at halftime to make a cup of verveine) but that isn't anything new or different. nécib almost invisible but against england she was personally quite good... though to no better effect. whether the plaque tournante doesn't get balls or has nowhere to give them the end result is the same. as i said the attack was once again aux abonnées absentes but the problem isn't any one of the strikers imo. they got almost nothing to work with in either match, and in this one something else stuck out: in the first half each of them got one good chance, but on each of these chances they were all alone on the charge. if tatane has MLD alongside she doesn't end up heeling the ball away from herself, if ELS has either of the others to pass to she gets an assist before she gets robbed of a penalty, and if MLD has someone to play to... well ok, two out of three ain't bad. but that's just it. there wasn't that drive, that oomph that makes all these things come together. bini said after the england match that his girls were all ready to make that centimeter one for another. but it's not about centimeters. it's about runs of 10, 20 40 metres. and that they're not doing.

i agree. it's not a question of the team "coming apart". it's a question of them being copines. it's a question of getting out there and demanding the utmost from themselves and from each other. there's too much comfort in biniland. a little dissension and yelling and cursing might help. but i'll be precise : it's not necessarily sonia herself that's missing but as you say, her mentality.

i always laughed when people said patrick lair should take over the EdF. now i'm not sure but that he might be just the fellow they need.

 

i may indeed read too much into these things... just as bettelheim probably read too much into fairytales and apostolidès too much into tintin. but there's a lot in their analyses that make sense and i am pretentious enough to think that there might be something in mine too. and while we're in analysis, something last night really caught my attention : the attentive, almost loving way cocotte adjusted soubeyrand's armband... just like she would do for a daughter... or a grandmother. don't say there's not a lot to interpret and over-interpret into that!

soso a pain in the ass? and that would be a bad thing i suppose. i'm reminded of the oakland A's baseball team of the 70's. they hated their owner. i'm talking make a dolly and stick pins ito it hatred. they couldn't stand their manager who was a real tête de noeud. they were getting into fisticuffs in the locker room constantly. and they won three world series on the trot. so about putting their chances to lift a trophy or wear a medal into danger, consider this paolo coelho quote: if you think adventure is dangerous try routine. it's deadly.