Well you can see the highlights of France Australie on the FFF website. I do wonder if Bergeroo rang Cocotte actually.
highlights are next to useless for rating anyone except maybe strikers: if you score twice in a match, it's hard to say you played badly no matter what happened for the other 89 min. 50 sec. on australia's 1st goal corine clears indifferently, but not catastrophically. her positioning is probably bad when the ball gets back in; we can't see if there are any green shirts outside of her (the camera work doesn't help understand or even see the goal) but in the previous shot it seems not. but there were a lot of blue shirts in the area. and a lot of them thought the sheila was offside. on the 2nd goal her responsability is pretty indisputable. it doesn't look like she's fouled when she loses the ball even though she goes down, and the penalty was very stupid. but it's possible to do all the bad we see in those few seconds and still have a great match over 90 min. i'm not saying it's the case, and i'm not trying to defend CP at all costs, i'm not really shocked at her being passed over. i'm just saying that it's not possible to really judge based on those highlights (and i know you agree, that's why you take the trouble to go see matches). you can't even know for sure if the wallabette with the timoshemko braids had a bad game... though i'd have no hesitation in betting a thousand dollars that she did.
The Romania v France B teamsheet : One of the funniest thing happened after the games, 2 romanians fans came on the pitch and asked a French player for her pic. But they were interested in only one, they did not bother or look at all the other players around. Our number 7 is an internet superstar ( her name is banned here f0r some reasons Marion Torrent) g
MT's name is a banned because it's a pirate word. i know not all coutries ban beer ads the way france does but i doubt you'll find many FA's that put them on the official matchcards.
Les Bleues will play Brazil on June 11 in Guyane, just before their two other friendly games in USA. Good news ! For Guyane's people who will see their first ever international game with a France NT, and for everybody else and above all the team itself.
Good football connections in the Guyana's. Charmaine Hooper comes from the English side, and Dwayne de Rosario's parents as well. The Brazilians are saucy opponents. I wonder if the local rule of suspending the game if a team goes below nine players will be called.
France beat Kazakhstan 9-0. Big test on Wednesday v Austria. The coach will surely revert to his best 11 bar the injured Boulleau.
Good 25 minutes, then a boring game. Particularly in second half when France seemed deprived of "joie de jouer", of creativity, inventivity, rythm. Many bad passes. Against Kazakhstan (66th in FIFA ranking), and leading 5-0 at H-T, we NEVER saw Georges and above all Delannoy crossing the midfield line to give an advantage number. France kept playing with four defenders in line until the end (Kazakhstan never came into the French half)... That's what I don't like with the new way of playing, which seems to be the "Bergeroo style". The team has become incredibly overcautious. As for the players : -Thiney was miles above the others. She had a real great game, like her whole season... Her technique and intelligence shone bright. Two goals for her. - Bussaglia played neat and well, good game... Very precious, as ever. Won all her duels. - Deville, impossible to say anything... - Houara was very average, particularly against such a weak opponent... - Dafeur had a good start (1rst cap). She played 45 minutes and at least 35 really well, with 2 or 3 good crosses, one being a decisive one... - Georges missed some heading opportunities on offensive CK... - Delannoy : was she really playing ?... - Abily was active, but not very productive. Once more, against such a team, she too should have reign over the field, as Thiney did, or Bussaglia. She was just average... She even lost some duels. Fortunately, Buss was always there to get the ball back. - Thomis was useless... - Delie had 25 excellent minutes (with 2 great goals), then disappeared.... - Replaced by Tonazzi around the hour. Toto was, if possible, even more useless than Tomtom... - Nécib had a good - if not great, far from it - firt half, then disappeared too... - M'Bock entered the second half as left full-back (not her natural position at all). She was alright and gave two very good crosses... - Asseyi replaced Thomis and was not really better...
I expect the best 11 to play against Austria tomorrow : Bouhaddi, Houara Renard Georges or Delannoy M'Bock Bathy, Thomis Henry or Abily Bussaglia Necib, Thiney Le Sommer or Delie
saves me the trouble of a longer post since it's exactly as i saw it. all i'll add is that thomis actually had a very good FIVE minutes before becoming useless. in her defense she was the wrong player for this kind of match, no room to use any speed. i'll underscore how awesome thiney was, even taking the opponent into consideration i think i've never seen her play better. i'll also underscore how great MLD was for 25 min. really world class. dafeur was pretty convincing. i had no idea why the hell bergeroo would call her considering her situation... until i saw this. probably the best player over the whole first 45 after GT. george not only brought nothing on the setpieces, she gaffed almost every first pass she had to make. the only player you can say was truly bad with no excuses. delannoy served no purpose except insurance against a possible "you never know". she was sacrificed since after all, france only needed 6 or 7 girls to beat kazakhstan. now to come to the defense of bergeroo and the whole team in the second half. shutting down shop when you're up 5-0 is not what we're used to and goes against the delperier principle of the show always goes on and on. but it's a serious, professional attitude. the job's done, th task that remains is to save energy and avoid injury. fun is fun but business is business. of course the players who subbed in wanted to show their stuff and make points for the future. but when a match has gone as flat as that, it's very hard for anyone to get anything done. even a punching bag needs a little air in it, and kazakhstan had none.
The starting 11 : Bouhaddi - Houara, Georges, Renard (cap.), M'Bock Bathy - Thomis, Henry, Bussaglia, Necib - Delie, Thiney. Bench : Deville, Soyer, Delannoy, Hamraoui, Abily, Asseyi, Le Sommer. In the stand : Phillipe, Jaurena, Makanza, Tonazzi Abiliy, Delannoy, Le Sommer dropped.
It is funny, all the players mention the physical challenge in their post match interviews. We know that they are working hard to catch up with the top nations. That's one of the problems identified by Bergeroo. Bruno Bini was not a fan of the physical play and used to prefer the pass and move way of playing to counter physical teams but we always came short in the past against physical teams.
Right. But - that's my opinion - its was because the mental was not strong enough. I think Bini's choice was right (I mean tactically, or more rightly as long as football philosophy is concerned, and it has nothing to do with "le projet de vie", I'm talking here about football stricto sensu). Japan has the same problem (well, worst actually) against more physical teams. They chose - as Bini - to develop the technical aspect with a playing made of passes and speed. They are World Champions and Silver Medal at the Olympics, plus two Algarve Finals in three years. But their mental was always extremey high and that made the real difference. Les Bleues were semi-finalist at the WC and the Olympics, and brillantly won Cyprus two years ago, playing "their" game. It's interesting to see that the last French NT who worked hard in order to level the pysical of strongest opponents is the Rugby NT, obsessed with the South hemisphere nations' physical strength... What is the result today ? France has become one of the European most physical teams, yes, but is still miles behind the All Blacks, the Springboks and the Wallabies. And the famous "French flair" has completely disappeared. It was sacrificed on the altar of physical strength. What a mistake ! French Womens's Football NT will beat USA, Germany, Japan and others, not because they are more or as much physical, but because they will play their own style AND because they will have learned how to improve their mental. Then, they will be in the conditions to resist better and turn all the opportunies they always have into goals. Keep the "French style" (of former years) and develop the mental, trying to teach some players how not to cry rivers of tears each time they lose.
I remember well the Olympics and the French girls were just nowhere near the physical level against the USA. Even 2-0 up, you could see they were struggling on every phsyical impact. My seat was level with the US bench close to the pitch and it was very annoying to see the difference in physical power. And yes the Japanese are the only team in the world that I have seen with the ability to beat the USA on their technical skills level. But the French players are nowhere near as good as the Japanese. Some players have "les pieds carrés" and cannot sustain a possession game plan under pressure like the Japanese can. maybe it is a mental problem as well though.
I think it's more a cultural problem , we have physical players but they are not willing to use their strength like the others nation does....just look Delie - Wambach or Renard - Fischer , both french girls despite being naturally strong/powerful don't rely on their physicality like Abby or Nilla, same could be say to Soubeyrand vs Boxx or Delie comparing to Tancredi . As for physical impact most of the time a girls as to be willing to challenge her opponent in order to have a chance to win a duel....in France only Bompastor , Georges and Henry had that will only Hamraoui and Mbock seems to have it form the new generation. Lol....dear old Bruno... French players with "les pieds carrés" quel honte!!! They should be kicked out of the national team...but wait a minute one is a guarantee starter under Bergeroo ....looool
Yes, I guess it's difficult not to feed the troll, as Gromit06 suggests, when the troll is over-reacting in all ways to the yellow card he recently received... Ok, you could say that he basically always did the same all time, but now he's doing all of these things together... Quite childish from him, but it looks like he's saying: "you want to see what I could really do to get a yellow card?". Wonder if he'll manage to be sent off...