Does it bother anyone here not to have scored the 5th, let alone the 6th goal

[midknight]

I'm not trying to play down your qualification. I'm just wondering...I mean its not like if Cyprus was playing bunker defense...

[ilv2]

not really. cisse had a bucket of golden opportunities that he somehow screwed up. On another day, or perhaps with another striker, they would've been converted.

[guignol]

it doesn't bother me because:

1) 4 is already knockin' 'em in pretty well...

2) the difference between 4-0 and 8-0 was more than a little bit luck...

3) the players kept fighting like devils for the 5th even after they knew it wasn't needed.

[Metropolitan]

Celebrating qualification after a 4-0 victory is not something I'll complain about. ;)

[sl7vk]

I'm not trying to play down your qualification. I'm just wondering...I mean its not like if Cyprus was playing bunker defense...
I understand what your saying but...... Nothing can take me off of the high that going to Germany has created. I don't care about anything, knowing that we can book our tickets.
What would Germany have been without France? :eek:

[Nanbawan]

I wish we scored the fifth, so that the Swiss wouldn't think they handed us the qualification. :cool:

[Metropolitan]

I wish we scored the fifth, so that the Swiss wouldn't think they handed us the qualification. :cool:There has been about 25 minutes in the 2nd HT when the team wasn't playing at 100%. I'm pretty sure that in case Switzerland had scored it wouldn't have been the case and we would have scored 5th.

No one believed it before Cyprus, but actually we ended with the best goal average of the group...

[Ballon d'or]

Yes i am a bit worried, cause despite the many chances we got, against a team that didn't close itself up, our forwards or shall i say Cissé haven't converted them into goals...and that isn't good, cause this will stick into the player's mind, the fact that they can't count on him.

What worries me the most was how we often were dominated in the middle...against Cyprus at home. Now that is worrying.
Had it been Brazil, Holland or Argentina we would have bitten the dust.

[midknight]

I understand what your saying but...... Nothing can take me off of the high that going to Germany has created. I don't care about anything, knowing that we can book our tickets.
What would Germany have been without France? :eek:

same as Italy and the USA :cool:

[midknight]

Yes i am a bit worried, cause despite the many chances we got, against a team that didn't close itself up, our forwards or shall i say Cissé haven't converted them into goals...and that isn't good, cause this will stick into the player's mind, the fact that they can't count on him.

What worries me the most was how we often were dominated in the middle...against Cyprus at home. Now that is worrying.
Had it been Brazil, Holland or Argentina we would have bitten the dust.

Finally.

What bothers me most about the French when it comes to talking about their national team is how little people actually put into the analysis of the matches. For most a simple slogan suffices...in Zidane we trust...

Everyone became all optimistic after the ivory coast match, but few actually mentioned that Ivory Coast conspired not to score at least two goals in the last 20 minutes of the game, that the French defense virtually gave to them.

Against the Faroes, no one seemed to realise how often the French defenders lost the aerial battles and how easily a simple high defense strategy put the Franch attack into offside on almost every occasion.

Against Ireland, no one seemed to recognise that the only thing that separated the 2 teams was a moment of individual brilliance from Henry.

I won't talk about Switzerland.

The domination in the middle from the Cyprus game was flagrant.

As far as I'm concerned, the best matches played by the French National Team (the whole squad) was the Friendly against Sweden, and the tie in Ireland. My point is they had an objective in mind before the match and didn't achieve it, and from what i heard, Switzerland could have scored that goal anytime in the last 20 minutes...I found particularly worrying the spell between the half time whistle and the fourth goal when the team seemed to run out entirely of ideas. Cisses misses were unfortunate and one would hope that the bad luck that saw trezeguet and henry both out with injuries would never return, but i find the failure to get that fifth goal reminding of the fact that the French team, although it has gained talent wise and experience wise with the return of the old guard, still lacks the killer instinct that it had even as recently as the Santini era.
Before the return of the old guard, one thought that it was a question of self confidence, like Spain always have. Now I'm not that sure that it has anything to do with that.

[guignol]

mais tout va très bien, madame la marquise.

[fishbiproduct]

mais tout va très bien, madame la marquise.

Absolument! :D



What bothers me most about the French when it comes to talking about their national team is how little people actually put into the analysis of the matches. For most a simple slogan suffices...in Zidane we trust...



In case you haven't noticed, there are very few
regulars on this forum...I mean, we almost have
more moderators than participants :p
I come here for ... "fun and relaxation"... but I can't
leave 100 posts a day.

You want "in-depth" analysis, you'll have to go
to French forums. This one's a good start:
http://www.cahiersdufootball.com/index

Enjoy.

[midknight]

Thanks

[sl7vk]

same as Italy and the USA :cool:
Well, the USA I don't know but Italy yes. Or Holland. 2002 was missing the boys in Orange IMHO.

[Metropolitan]

4-0 is indeed not a terrific score against Cyprus but you should still realize that it's the largest victory on Cyprus in the group. Before the game, most commentators were saying that Ireland had a hard time against Cyprus and that the 5-0 objective was not reachable.

Finally, Cyprus appeared as a weak opponent, that's obvious. However, I wonder what you guys would have told in case we won the game only 1-0 or 2-0 as it was predicted in the media. I like better to complain about France winning only 4-0 when it could have won 8-0 than about France winning only 1-0 as most people expected.

Furthermore, we can wonder what effects it had on the Swiss team to hear at the half time that France was already leading 3-0. I haven't seen the game but maybe the swiss coach prefered to secure a 2nd place than to try to reach a 1st place in risking to lose it all on a counter.

By the way, Djibril's performence wasn't as awful as most people said. Of course he has screwed up few shots, but he's been also terribly unlucky. When he's alone in front of the Cypriot keeper and his shot is stopped, it's not really his fault, mainly the cypriot goalie being lucky. Moreover, Cissé made all the job on the third goal scored by Wiltord.

I'm certainly not saying that France has no problem, it's simply that this game was certainly not the main problem of the French team. Without Makélélé, Vieira, Henry and Trezeguet we had still an easy victory, and I know, it was Cyprus in front, but such an easy win was still not expected.

[midknight]

Well, the USA I don't know but Italy yes. Or Holland. 2002 was missing the boys in Orange IMHO.

No, I meant USA 94 and Italy 90 ;)

[sl7vk]

No, I meant USA 94 and Italy 90 ;)
You'll have to forgive me, I'm a bit slow.....
I do think that France have grown in stature Globally after their success in '98 and '00. One more World Cup with Zidane will be priceless.

[midknight]

4-0 is indeed not a terrific score against Cyprus but you should still realize that it's the largest victory on Cyprus in the group. Before the game, most commentators were saying that Ireland had a hard time against Cyprus and that the 5-0 objective was not reachable.

Finally, Cyprus appeared as a weak opponent, that's obvious. However, I wonder what you guys would have told in case we won the game only 1-0 or 2-0 as it was predicted in the media. I like better to complain about France winning only 4-0 when it could have won 8-0 than about France winning only 1-0 as most people expected.

Furthermore, we can wonder what effects it had on the Swiss team to hear at the half time that France was already leading 3-0. I haven't seen the game but maybe the swiss coach prefered to secure a 2nd place than to try to reach a 1st place in risking to lose it all on a counter.

By the way, Djibril's performence wasn't as awful as most people said. Of course he has screwed up few shots, but he's been also terribly unlucky. When he's alone in front of the Cypriot keeper and his shot is stopped, it's not really his fault, mainly the cypriot goalie being lucky. Moreover, Cissé made all the job on the third goal scored by Wiltord.

I'm certainly not saying that France has no problem, it's simply that this game was certainly not the main problem of the French team. Without Makélélé, Vieira, Henry and Trezeguet we had still an easy victory, and I know, it was Cyprus in front, but such an easy win was still not expected.

Well if this post is anything to judge from, you guys have learnt a lot about humility since Kore/Japan. :D

However if no one else here has the occcasion to look at "Les Guignols de l'Info", I'd share the dialogue with you in the episode the day of the match.

commentator 1: France has a very difficult match lined up tonight
commentator 2: Yes. We must not underestimate this cypriot team. The Faroe Islands know what a big mistake it was doing that after losing 3-0...
Television anchorman (PPDA): Are you guys okay? The Cypriots are terrible!
commentator 1: No, not at all, we must not forget, this cypriot team is excellent, look how they managed to hold san marino to a 0-0 draw in San Marino, when the latter were actually playing with their 3 professional players...

[midknight]

No, I meant USA 94 and Italy 90 ;)

Come to think of it, you were pretty absent in 2002 as well... ;)

[sl7vk]

Come to think of it, you were pretty absent in 2002 as well... ;)

Et un, et deux, et trois zéro!

http://www.footforever.com/English/World_cup_en/Images_en/CM_1998_015_Final_Brazil_France_goal_E_Petit_1_en.jpg

Sorry, I couldn't resist. :D