Why won't Ray just stick with Coupet??????

[toohyper]

And that is the clincher in my book. other teams supporters are thankful that a player is playing because he is less qualified than another...:rolleyes:

I would be more thankful if Silvestre and Boumsong becomes the starters in that defense but that's most unlikely. :(

[jpg75]

I would be more thankful if Silvestre and Boumsong becomes the starters in that defense but that's most unlikely. :(

I'd cut my wrists if that were the case...:eek:

[Pierre-Henri]

I would be more thankful if Silvestre and Boumsong becomes the starters in that defense but that's most unlikely. :(

Domenech incompetence is renowned even in Korea ? That's worldwide fame !

[ilv2]

I don't know if I completely believe all the hype about Coupet "storming out" yesterday.

Go to the Getty Images editorial site and look at the 20+ images of todays training session. There's about 5 images of Fabien and Greg in close proximity to each and smiling.

well this from football365
http://www.football365.fr/cdm2006/les-bleus/story_118246_La-montagne-ca-les-gagne.shtml
Alors que, le dimanche, un pessimisme régnait sur la station fantôme, jeudi on a cru déceler quelques indices d’un groupe prêt à marcher vers le même but. La preuve : même Lilian Thuram a dit du bien de Raymond Domenech…

i'm of the opinion that things are bad, but domenech ham-fisted tactics are putting a lid on things for now.

[gerby]

What a reward for a goalkeeper who spitted to a ref : a selection as goalkeeper #1 at WC.Imagine the example given to youngsters: "you spitted to the face of a ref kid !!!, don't worryfor your carreer look at Barthez he did the same and went to the WC afterwards"
Shame on him and on the FFF he should have been banned forever of the selection regarding to the fair play example given.

[Pierre-Henri]

Don't worry : one single blunder, and the french fans will make him pay. He will require a refugee status in Cuba or Zimbabwe.

[gerby]

Don't worry : one single blunder, and the french fans will make him pay. He will require a refugee status in Cuba or Zimbabwe.
Mmmhh...yes maybe but the french press seems to have also a certain weight in the fact that he is still #1 and I think he won' t be replaced unless he got a serious injury and after the WC he will leave forever tha team along with his NEW BEST FRIEND Domenech.They may both leave the country for Qatar or Bahreïn who knows ;)

[gerby]

I should have also added the sponsors of the NT in the choice of Domenech.That's an heavy weight of course as Barthez is much more recognizable comparing to Coupet.

[lefutur]

we are family....

http://www.football.fr/fr/images/200621/bleu.jpg


good times!

[gabisu no ken]

Just take a look at neighboring Germany. Klinsi made his decision to drop Kahn and publicly appointed Lehmann the No.1 keeper in WC. Lehmann is playing better football at this moment, so he gets the spot.

I just can't understand why Ray is still fancying Barthez. Coupet has been exceptional all season long and he really deserves to play in Germany. Don't you think? The best player plays, how simple is that??? Why is this so hard for Mr. Domenech to get it???

The best goalkeeper is Barthez, sorry dude. Of course his suspension wasn't good for him, but still you have to look at the matches with France, Barthez did a lot of excellent performances, what did Coupet do with the french national team?
Barthez had a hard time after his suspension, but now he's very good. Look at his last games. Coupet's season was the exact opposite, while Barthez was very good in the Coupe de France, Coupet failed to do anything good. Milan's disilusion, OL-OM's disappointment, very bad game against Lille, Rennes. If the world cup was during december 2005, yes we should had Coupet, but in june 2006???

So yes, if I read the press it's obvious that Coupet is better than Barthez. But we both know that the french press has a problem with l'OM and is very biased towards l'OL. If I watch the games, it's quite different


you guys would all be saying the same about barthez if barthez was playing for lyon... barthez is better than coupet and has MORE experience which is a necesity for goalkeeper in such tournament.

Exactly. In 98, 2000, 2002, 2004, it was the same thing Barthez is bad, he's arrogant,... But still he did a very good job
They say that he was bad against Valence because he received a red card, but it's this same "craziness" that helped Marseille against Inter (with a superb aerial intervention against Cruz), Liverpool and Newcastle. If he didn't try to get the ball we would have lose anyway (1-0 just at the end of the first period against Valencia, yeah easy game)

Coupet is a very good goalkeeper but clearly I don't buy him as one of the best in Europe. He's good when his defense is good, like with Lyon or during the qualifications with France. Barthez's main quality is his ability to save his team when the defense drown.
Coupet's main weakness is his inability to read the game, he stays on the line or do half-assed interventions : like during OL-OM (Coupe de France) against Lille and Rennes. He's too passive.

BTW people seems to forget that Coupet was playing with Lyon and Barthez with Marseille. It makes a lot of difference, on the field (Cris-Caçapa, that's a defense) and out of the field (l'Equipe and France Football just hate Barthez and suck Coupet even when he do a bad game)


As a Korean, i'm rather dumbfounded on how your NT coach chooses Barthez over Coupet.
But i guess it's better for us koreans, facing the crappier goalkeeper.

Yeah as a Korean. Honestly you don't know anything about Coupet-Barthez, you just know what you read about it. Coupet play in a better team so he must be better. I don't want to be harsh or anything but what do you think of Suisse-France or Ireland-France during the WC Qualifications? What do you think of Barthez's past performances with the NT? I suppose you were impressed by Coupet's performances and saves with the NT, so I suppose you have a lot of anecdotes.

The english said the same thing before Euro 2004 : Coupet is better than Barthez, french are crazy to keep Barthez as the number 1. Yeah sure, look at what happened...

[Nanbawan]

What a reward for a goalkeeper who spitted to a ref : a selection as goalkeeper #1 at WC.Imagine the example given to youngsters: "you spitted to the face of a ref kid !!!, don't worryfor your carreer look at Barthez he did the same and went to the WC afterwards"


Of all the reasons not to select him, this one is the dumbest ! I think he showed his middle finger to a driver in 97 and allegedly scratched his balls in public in 88...:rolleyes:

Once you served your sanction, the punishment is over. He did not murder the ref's wife for God's sake.

[triplesevn]

I agree 100% with you!!!

Barthez is the better keeper and always has been.

It's funny how France dislike the man who helped win the WC in 98, Euro 2000, and was the star player, besides Zizou in Portugal in 2004!!!!!!

[essie_majedi]

because hes a twat waffle

[gabisu no ken]

Of all the reasons not to select him, this one is the dumbest ! I think he showed his middle finger to a driver in 97 and allegedly scratched his balls in public in 88...:rolleyes:

Once you served your sanction, the punishment is over. He did not murder the ref's wife for God's sake.

Well, I have a friend who actually saw the match. The guy (let's call him T. Saghouri) is for Morocco and for PSG, if you see what I mean. And he told me : "the match was a brawling, the referee was an ***hole and clearly the players were there to hurt Marseille's players"

What I hated about this whole affair was the lack of support from the french medias/institutions. It's always the same thing, with another team they would have been chauvinistic, they would have blamed the referee, they would have support the french player,...
But it's Marseille and it's Barthez. The whole thing was expanded by the french medias and in the end even a minister tried to get Barthez punished even more (at first he got something like 2 months of suspension).

[guignol]

Come on Nanbawan.... We are the French... We don't enjoy anything... When we are winning we spend the entire time thinking/talking about when things are going to fall apart, and when we're losing... well we're losing.
If you ask the average French person if we won the WC in 98 they'd probably tell you no.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to sl7vk again.before '98 the press was howling for aimé's head. the friendlies leading up to the WC were mercilessly picked apart to show how france didn't have a chance... :rolleyes:

[guignol]

Coupet is a very good goalkeeper but clearly I don't buy him as one of the best in Europe. He's good when his defense is good, like with Lyon or during the qualifications with France. Barthez's main quality is his ability to save his team when the defense drown. Coupet's main weakness is his inability to read the game, he stays on the line or do half-assed interventions : like during OL-OM (Coupe de France) against Lille and Rennes. He's too passive... I don't want to be harsh or anything but what do you think of Suisse-France or Ireland-France during the WC Qualifications? What do you think of Barthez's past performances with the NT? I suppose you were impressed by Coupet's performances and saves with the NT, so I suppose you have a lot of anecdotes. i don't think you've seen coupet that much judging from this. he does save his team when the defense drowns, like he did against nantes and several other times this year. he is much more aggressive in his aerial game than barthez, and rightly so, since i have seen barthez make some real howlers in this area. look at ireland france again and come back to us about coupet's aerial game! as for reading the game... you're right that cris-caçapa is a righteous defense; but aren't you aware of how much credit these two give greg for positioning them and helping them out? since it's only in interviews in olweb or france football it's obviously just propaganda... ;)

it's not just the press that says coupet is better than barthez, it's every players' poll over the last couple of years too.

[guignol]

Okay, this is not what France needs...

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=389870&clid=368&channel=france&title=Coupet+in+French+walk-outno one will know what really happened until the memoirs are out. but my take is that greg expected some gesture of commiseration from barthez, didn't even get the time of day, and was brooding. then when barthez opts out of a cameraderie-building expedition to the top of the glacier, he blew a fuse. for about an hour. now everything's OK...

[sl7vk]

I'm just waiting for Coupet to go Nancy Kerrighan on Barthez' knee! Why why why!!!!!

[ilv2]

actually, all is fine - coupet didn't walk out because raymond has rocks for brains, he went out for a spin in his audi rs4 :D

http://turbo.m6.fr/cms/display.jsp?id=p2_271280


ok, fine, this has nothing to do with the topic, but i hope you enjoy it nonetheless. :)
*en fait, here's a clip that is relevant, 100%'s compilation of the two goalkeepers: http://www.m6.fr/html/emissions/foot/videos.shtml# (scroll down to the emission 21/05 and click on the Coupet/barthez link, there are clips scattered through and a bunch at the end

[gabisu no ken]

i don't think you've seen coupet that much judging from this. he does save his team when the defense drowns, like he did against nantes and several other times this year.

Well I've seen Coupet a lot this season (and the seasons before even more). I watched a lot of Champion's League and D1 matches and I can say that Coupet is a very good goalkeeper. On the other hand, people who just say that "Barthez sucks" are often people who don't know **** about him and the season he played (and the seasons before)
BTW I don't think you're this kind of people

Coupet was awesome against Nantes, yes. He did several excellent games, especially in the beginning to middle of the season. He did a very average end of season. If the WC was to be played in december 2005, Coupet should have been the n°1. But the WC is played in june and I sincerely think that Barthez is the best choice.


he is much more aggressive in his aerial game than barthez, and rightly so, since i have seen barthez make some real howlers in this area. look at ireland france again and come back to us about coupet's aerial game! as for reading the game...

Excuse me, but I remenber Ireland-France and I know what usually this kind of game looks like and it was a really slow paced Ireland-France. Coupet didn't have a lot to do on this game, no saves, several easy to normal aerial interventions (but very well done). Nothing extraordinary.
Barthez is IMHO way better when it comes to aerial and "in the feet" interventions. His suspension was not good for him, clearly, but since he improved his level and he's now able to be the n°1.

The real question is : can Barthez play at his better level? If he is able to do so, then he should play, because he's just better. If he's not, and I would be crazy about the heavy suspension that he gets under political pressures (at first he was supposed to be suspended until the end of the 2004-05 season), then Coupet should play IF he's at his best level (he's clearly not IMHO)


you're right that cris-caçapa is a righteous defense; but aren't you aware of how much credit these two give greg for positioning them and helping them out? since it's only in interviews in olweb or france football it's obviously just propaganda... ;)

it's not just the press that says coupet is better than barthez, it's every players' poll over the last couple of years too.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that Coupet is a very good leader with Lyon. And I'm sure that Barthez is a very good leader with the french defenders.
Let's get real : the press is clearly anti-Barthez and pro-Coupet since several months. Players who voted for the best goalkeeper award of this season clearly choose the most press-pebliscited : of the 4 Bracigliano did the best season IMHO. Coupet was the most well-known, but he didn't do a better season than Pelé for example. Or Ramé...

BTW they weren't allowed to vote Barthez because he did only a half season this year (and the first matches were average at best).