EXCLUSIVE: August 23rd: France-Denmark

[Charge!]

From the French women's football site Foot Feminin:

Match de barrage pour la qualification à la Coupe du Monde 2003.

FRANCE - DANEMARK

23 août 2002 20h30 (or 2:30PM Friday Philadelphia time), in Lens, France at Stade Félix Ballaert. So now we finally know.

Source: http://www.foot-feminin.fr/internet/international/equipe/model.php?id=index

There's a tuneup match against Switzerland, a meaningless friendly on the 14th, but the Charge absolutely should not release Marinette for that one.

Paul

[Adam Zebrowski]

The match begins 8:30 PM in Paris..

So you do the calculations about getting to Atlanta for 4 pm kick-off the next day.

[Charge!]

Originally posted by Adam Zebrowski
The match begins 8:30 PM in Paris..

So you do the calculations about getting to Atlanta for 4 pm kick-off the next day.

Concorde, baybee! :D :)

Seriously, where is Lens, vis-a-vis Paris? Is it a suburb? I honestly don't know or else I wouldn't be asking...

Knowing Marinette like we do, she'd probably try to do something ballsy like fly back right after the final whistle (at least you're getting those 6 hours back when you arrive here, but that's of small consolation)...

Paul

[DennisM]

Well, I don't know about all of this. I wouldn't start her if she gets back in time. No, Lens is not a suburb of Paris. It's more than 200 miles away.

[DennisM]

Slight mistake in my last post. Lens is closer to 150 than 200 miles. Still it's a long way for Marinette.

[Adam Zebrowski]

Ah, play a full international.


Trans-atlantic flight, and if you want to spend some time, try getting the earliest flight from Paris to Atlanta, following an 8:30 PM kick-off flight.

Good luck Martinette, don't believe she can play more than 15 minutes

[FearM9]

From my Soccer America WUSA newsletter:

3. CLUB VS. COUNTRY III. A potential disaster is on Philadelphia's
horizon thanks to untimely scheduling by the UEFA. Charge forward
Marinette Pichon might have to miss the Aug. 24 Founders Cup final,
should Philly get that far, for France's World Cup qualifier against
Denmark.

Pichon, the WUSA's top scorer and one of two or three primary
candidates for MVP, is the star striker for the French, who are among
four teams battling for the last of Europe's five berths at next
year's Women's World Cup in China. France faces the Danes in a
home-and-home series, with the first leg slated for Aug. 23 in Lyon.

DiCicco is seeking to persuade the French federation to move the
qualifier back a day, giving Pichon a chance to play in both games.
Otherwise, France's needs would take priority.

"That is going to be a tough decision for everybody," Pichon said.
"We are trying to work something out. ... I just hope for the best."

[AB1FAN]

if anybody can do it Marinette can!

[Adam Zebrowski]

if her toe permits her.

I wouldn't hold my breath here.

How can you jerk around Denmark and the rest of the French players.
If something is to get worked out, it needs to be done soon, and not in the case the Charge reach the finals.

[judymd]

anybody find any word yet on how frenchie's toe is? reportedly she went to the doctor yesterday. it'd be nice to know if we'll see her play again this year...for france or for the charge!

[sebe]

I sure hope we get to see Frenchie play again this year. She's so much fun to watch. Not just her play on the field, but her gestures and faces. I love her!

[Adam Zebrowski]

Talking with some people at work with a medical background, they said a couple weeks rest are needed depending on the severity of the fracture.

And if she can bear some pain, she could play on it.

I say she has to play for France.

And I'm NOT pissed off at all if she can't play for the Charge.

After all, after Kelly Smith went down, it was Pichon who put the Charge where they are, more than any other single player.

And it'll be up to the rest of the team, to perform well to win a championship.

fate is sometimes pissy.

[sebe]

There are a lot of ifs here, but just think...if we go to the finals and if Smith was still healthy, we might not have had her either because of England's WCQ play-off. That's like the St. Louis Rams going to the Superbowl without Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk. LOL Okay, just trying to have fun with fate.

If Pichon can't play for us, I at least hope she can play for France. Want to be able to watch her play in the WC. She should be able to go though. I also talked to medical people who said there's not much you can do for a broken toe. They say she can play on it after a couple of weeks, if it is not terribly serious, depending on pain tolerance.

[Adam Zebrowski]

I'd think Pichon would want to come back sooner than she should.

Personally, I wouldn't play her the rest of the regular season.

And, assuming the Charge are play-off bound, I'd use her as sub in the 1st playoff game.

Two goals are accomplished:

1) the Charge get used to playing without her
2) Pichon gets to test herself LIVE prior to playing for France

The WC is the biggest stage, and waiting 4 years, is awfully long. Careers come and go it 4 years time.

The magic we saw with this team in May.

You all know how good it was then.

Not winning a championship won't diminish the pleasure gained from observing them.

And as soon as we discount our chances, fate decides to change it's mind again.

Keep FIGHTING TEAM CHARGE.

[Charge!]

Originally posted by Adam Zebrowski
How can you jerk around Denmark and the rest of the French players.

If something is to get worked out, it needs to be done soon, and not in the case the Charge reach the finals.

The fact they're talking now, a week and a half (and maybe more so) before the end of the regular season is a good sign that a decision is going to be made soon enough.

Paul

[tritonspirit]

Sorry, if this question was answered before, but I'm interested in knowing when these playoff dates for the final European WC spot were originally scheduled.

As bad as this would be for the Charge to potentially play the Founders Cup without one of their best players, I can think of an even worse scenario for the WUSA.

What if.....France had managed to finish first in their group and Norway had finished second? And what if Ragnhild Gulbrandsen had been 100% healthy and her and Dagny Mellgren had somehow managed to help lead Boston to the Founders Cup Final vs. Hege Riise and Unni Lehn's Carolina Courage?

I think it is bad enough that the Founders Cup Final could be missing the league MVP because of National Team duty, but if you had four key players missing that would make the WUSA Championship game a total farce in my opinion.

[Adam Zebrowski]

Denmark and France and England and Iceland are all playinmg qualifiers.

UEFA selects an open period where matches are to be played and then the individual nations select the exact date.

For the Charge, Kelly Smith and Marienette Pichon and Rakel Karvellson, would have been placed in very precarious situtation.

WUSA and UEFA are TOTALLY independent.
And finding a solution isn't brain surgery.

But there's a POLITICAL nature to it.

Imagine the uproar if Beckham had to play for England and miss a Champions League Final.

Is this NO different in type of problem?

[DennisM]

First of all, Beckham could not play for England if he wasn't called up. Second of all, name me an international tournament in May. Also The problem is likely to occur when you have a summer league. Same things happen in other places with summer leagues. With the new seasons starting in France, a couple of weeks after this game(England's starts a week later, I think) there was really no other time.

[Adam Zebrowski]

DennisM, do the FEMALE leagues in Europe use the same time schedules as MALE leagues?

WUSA wasn't even thinking of any potential scheduling conflicts with any other nation.

I'm sure, only USA national "real' matches were considered, and even the Norway friendly affected USA.

2004 Olympics in Athens starts August 11, so again WUSA will get compromised.

[tritonspirit]

Originally posted by Adam Zebrowski
Denmark and France and England and Iceland are all playinmg qualifiers.

UEFA selects an open period where matches are to be played and then the individual nations select the exact date.

For the Charge, Kelly Smith and Marienette Pichon and Rakel Karvellson, would have been placed in very precarious situtation.
Does anyone know when UEFA selected this open period? That's a very good sign that "DiCicco is seeking to persuade the French federation to move the qualifier back a day," but I wonder why discussions weren't started before the French federation actually selected a date for their playoff match vs. Denmark?

The example of Smith, Pichon, and Karvelsson being placed in a "very precarious situation" is a much more realistic scenario than the purely hypothetic one that I came up with for the Norwegian players. Just last season the Charge also had that other Icelandic player Margret Olafsdottir. If she had been with the team this year and Smith and Karvelsson were healthy, the Charge could have potentially lost four players for the Founders Cup Final.