The "all-encompassing" France National team WC 06 chat [R]

[lefutur]

i think its interesting that its shot in real time during the whole 90 minutes of the match but that the cameras never leave Zidane. supposedly he only plays the ball for about 2 minutes during the whole game so the rest of the time youre just watching him run around or his facial expression, poses etc.

Another cool thing is that the band Mogwai wrote the soundtrack.

[lefutur]

Cisse scores a hat-trick in a practice match against a side put together with Ligue 1 and 2 players ( l'UNFP). The purpose was to give the "reserve" players for Les Bleus more playing time together.

Final score 6-2 for L'Equipe de France with goals by Cisse, Wiltord and Trezeguet.

http://www.eurosport.fr/football/coupedumonde/2006/sport_sto896654.shtml

[guignol]

if this is all encompassing, then here's a sad little post about the bluets...

they lost in extra time to holland in the finals of the euro U21, coming back from 2-0, but at 104' they were down to 10 men with no legs, and so now they're the first of the last...

scintillating right up to the final, which they had to play without le tallec or flamini (or ribéry; let's hope domenech gets good use out of him, because rené girard would have), they have no regrets but the greatest one of all...

[Metropolitan]

if this is all encompassing, then here's a sad little post about the bluets...

they lost in extra time to holland in the finals of the euro U21, coming back from 2-0, but at 104' they were down to 10 men with no legs, and so now they're the first of the last...

scintillating right up to the final, which they had to play without le tallec or flamini (or ribéry; let's hope domenech gets good use out of him, because rené girard would have), they have no regrets but the greatest one of all...It's not that sad. It's not as if winning a U21 championship was that huge. What I've learnt from that championship is that the French youngsters have a good potential for the future. That's already good news. :)

[navid90]

i dont speak fluent french so can anyone tell me what the heck is going on here??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwT0wFjQ8K0&search=barthez

[gaijin]

i dont speak fluent french so can anyone tell me what the heck is going on here??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwT0wFjQ8K0&search=barthez

That was the game, where the match was called off due to the Algerian fans invading the pitch.

The sound quality is a bit shit, but I think they are refering to the behaviour of some of the fans. Thuram (?) is clearly pissed at the situation when he's walking down the tunnel.

The irony of the whole game, well not so much irony but marked disappointment, was that Zizou was made French captain for this game (an ethnic Algerian)

A lot of the French media made it out as some type of protest at the growing resentment amongst the population of racism against beurs and the rights of young immigrant kids. During the national anthem of France, the Algeria crowd started to boo and made numerous references against France and the history of Algeria. A lot the Algerians in the crowd were most likely beurs (2nd generation immigrants from Algeria.) This was a few months after 9-11, and beginning to run into the french election campaigns of Jean Marie Le-Pen - so tensions were very high going into the game.

[ilv2]

oh yea this match... what a disaster, but yea the description explains it all.

the first bit with petit and henry has them talking about the stuff that was thrown at them (piles etc)
the second part is thuram pissed
the third is thuram pissed again, and complaining about the voyous.

[ilv2]

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3236,36-779329@51-767855,0.html

article interessant du Monde : le couple (Raymond Domenech evidemment le selectionneur de l'EDF et Estelle Denis, presentatrice de l'emission 100% foot) ont-ils des motivations malignes?

i am a huge fan of estelle :) :) but frankly, her and raymond is zarbi not to mention disgusting

[Nanbawan]

Er, thanks ? I guess...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/05/15/lalas.france/index.html

[gaijin]

Right now, the Czechs and the Croats are up; the Colombians and the Russians are down. Mexico and the U.S. are on the rise; Portugal and Norway are on the decline. But the most interesting trajectory of all, to a thirtysomething like me, is France -- les grandes Bleus who, finally, it seems, are on the wane.

* Czechs are on the up? Since when?
* Portugal on the down? Again... since when?!?

I came of age with the French team. They taught me the true, sophisticated nature of the so-called beautiful game, because for the past decade, they have practiced jogo bonito even more vividly than the originators, Brazil. France has shown what it means to love the ball, to wink at conventional wisdom and to search out the original and the creative. In the late '90s, the French were artists in a sea of functionaries -- and trust me, without the likes of Zinedine Zidane, there would be no Ronaldinho.

* I hate Nike for having given football noobs a frigging awful expression. Before that fecking ad, that word was non-existant amongst the written world talking about the beautiful game.

* Also clearly never witnessed the side of 82. Seems to be making out that having talented squads and players is something new for the French. odd.

The announcement of Zidane's retirement has produced the predictable onslaught of "Au revoir et merci" articles and homemade YouTube.com highlights. They are nice tributes that might make you think Zidane is on par with De Gaulle or Ghandi or Jerry Lewis. And maybe he is. After all, he has played some of the most beautiful football any of us has ever seen, won every trophy imaginable and done it all with uncommon class.

* Ah yes, the common perception that French people like Jerry Lewis. Or de Gaulle for that matter.

But before anyone gets all teary and reaches for the Kleenex like we're in a therapist's office, let's remember that soccer abhors a vacuum, and already there are some new teams ready to rush in. The Ukraine has made impressive strides recently, boasting, of course, AC Milan's (or maybe Chelsea's) Andriy Shevchenko and other players in Europe's biggest leagues. Poland topped its qualifying group and has one of the most cohesive outfits going to Germany. From South America, Paraguay has now qualified for three straight World Cup finals and has experienced pros placed all around the world.

* Poland topped their qualifying group eh?

1.ENGLAND - 25
2.Poland - 24

Which one was that? Most cohesive outfit? Laughable. The Polish side is not exactly buzzing with confidence and the Polish press aren't under this belief too.

* Paraguay has experienced pros around the world? Only 7 of the 23 play outside of South America (including Mexico)


It's like someone finally whacked the fútbol piñata hard enough to let the world enjoy all the sweets. Mark my words, people -- Mexico will do some damage in Germany. And maybe, with a little luck, it might be the next France.

Well if Mexico can't beat the actual France, the likelihood of them becoming the next France seems rather awash.

See; this is the problem. American journalists covering the sport will put about as much thought into writing an article on the sport as they would about crotchety. If you highlight it, you can clearly see the errors in his argument.

Terrible.

If they want I'll write some articles for them. Anything but reading some failed baseball reporter covering his second sport with feigned interest and knowledge.

[jambon-beurre]

Er, thanks ? I guess...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/05/15/lalas.france/index.html

So riddled with factual errors that it is incredible :
Bixente Lizarazu and Youri Djorkaeff not fitting into Domenech's plans ? :confused:

[gaijin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj0D3Zd8kVI

[gaijin]

Its available on DVD if anyone is interested.

http://www.fnac.com/Shelf/article.asp?PRID=1309803&OrderInSession=1&Mn=3&Mu=-13&SID=82a3f667-f948-9b5c-576c-d3eca43a2016&TTL=050620061027&Origin=FnacFR&Ra=-3&To=0&Nu=1&UID=07b9a5f4f-7400-684e-8a8e-b98ff4d0cef9&Fr=0

I saw the 1st one, that was brilliant.

[gaijin]

And this is the pisstake from 'Nous c'est nous';

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/yeux%20bleus/video/139416

The Jacquet impression is hilarious.

[Lensois]

[I]Anything but reading some failed baseball reporter covering his second sport with feigned interest and knowledge.

No, it's actually worse than that. Greg Lalas is a former footballer who I believe had a "cup of coffee" (to use a baseball expression) in the MLS. He's also the brother of Alexi Lalas, a former professional player in Italy and the US and current GM of the LA MLS franchise. In other words, he's actually supposed to know about this sort of thing. Unfortunately it's a rather regular occurrence with guys in both print and broadcast media in the US. I find I have more facts than they do and this is actually supposed to be their job!

[Pierre-Henri]

See; this is the problem. American journalists covering the sport will put about as much thought into writing an article on the sport as they would about crotchety. If you highlight it, you can clearly see the errors in his argument.



Easy, Ganu, breath. Lalas is a former pro player, and wrote some nice stuff on mls.net . Probably he could check some data better, but soccer in north america needs people like him.

Anyway, since he praises Mexico, I guess US fans will say a few words to him.

And yes, Jerry Lewis (:rolleyes:) was never popular in France. It was a commercial hoax.

[Nanbawan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj0D3Zd8kVI

LOL !

"Il est tout fin son gros lui..." :D

[Nanbawan]

And yes, Jerry Lewis (:rolleyes:) was never popular in France. It was a commercial hoax.

The fact that this one pops quite quickly when it comes to American clichés about France is really strange. In fact, they're not even clichés, it's something that may be closer to urban legends ! :eek:

[Nanbawan]

You know what ? We definitely need better international PR...

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5629974

Afghan Muslims...Terrorist insugents in Clichy-sous-Bois ! OMG, the US is preparing an unilateral military intervention in the banlieues ! :eek: Still, two paragraphs on this topic alone...

Well, they got the ligue overview not too wrong I might say.

[allezlesbleusno1]

LOL that's hillarious! I think maybe they meant Algerian Muslims, not sure where they went and got Afghan from.
You know what ? We definitely need better international PR...

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5629974

Afghan Muslims...Terrorist insugents in Clichy-sous-Bois ! OMG, the US is preparing an unilateral military intervention in the banlieues ! :eek: Still, two paragraphs on this topic alone...

Well, they got the ligue overview not too wrong I might say.