FRANCE vs MEXICO (27th May) [R]

[YOUNGSTARS87]

Final...

France 1 Mexico 0

Mexico actually deserved a draw....

[Jon Pall]

Good lord, Dhorasoo passed more to Mexican players than his own teammates. Gawd awful! Ribery was quite the threat out there though. I have seen very little of him but he looks to be a great player. This would be nice...

4-3-3

.....Henry....Trezeguet....Ribery
................Zidane
........Makalele.........Viera
Abidal.........................Sagnol
............Gallas....Thuram
....................Barthez

[Solid444]

lol...

U.S. beat Venezuela (a bottom side NT which has never made it to the world cup) 2-0.... so they feel GREAT.. :rolleyes:

Oh yea, i forgot, I bet they are hard at work preparing for a great preparation game against Latvia.

Anyway, back to men's futbol

Game over, France was dissapointing in my opinion. Mexico played better but they still need a solid creative attacking mid and they need to sort out their fowards. There were 2 non-existant offside calls that left Bravo 1 on 1 agaisnt Barthez and a multitude of fouls and cards that were not dished out. I think Mexico performed well though under these conditions.

[EstebanGranero23]

Ughh, Zizou looked tired, Cisse sucked assssssss,and Ribery impressed. I kinda wanted to see Pascal the LB, cant spell his last name. Trez was a bit quiet and Boumsong made a fool of himself a few times. I think Ribery is going to be the surprise of the WC.

[gaijin]

What we've learned;

* Dhosaroo can't pass to save his own life and those of his children
* Trezeguet vanishes when in the 6 yard box, where he is most lethal
* Cisse is utter pants.
* Vieria needs a more attacking position - he is wasted by sitting too deep.
* Ribery is the answer, Ray. He livened up the attack when he came on. Start him against China.
* The fullbacks are set. Both Abidal and Sagnol showed why they should be the no1 left back and right back respectively.
* France need Henry's dribbling ability and presence up front badly.
* Boumsong and Silvestre is just wrong... Just..... WRONG
* Zizou needs to up his game and make more authority on the team. At Euro 2004 everything went through him and Les Bleus suffered, now nothing is going through him and the team is suffering.

Pretty dour perfromance from France overall - but Mexico weren't great either. Les Bleus have to improve before the World Cup.

[lefutur]

I think all of us that were hoping that Ribery would play today feel pretty good about ourselves. Raymundo may be a ass in most cases, but at least he had the sense to put Franck in. His performance merits a starting spot in the next friendly. You could sense that the team was trying to feed him as much as possible after his first few touches. he looked dangerous all right...it was a shame that he didn't get that one shot off when he was in good position.

But in order to maximize he effectiveness he must never play with Cisse as a partner. Trez or Henry for sure.

I thought Sagnol was brilliant and Dhorasoo did not play up to his ability at all. I worry about the team when Zizou is off the field despite the fact that he really didn't play all that great today anyway.

[bayernguy311]

I know I may catch some flack...but my player of the game was Sagnol. I know I'm biased because I'm a Bayern fan...but I thought he was outstanding. Just so you know that I'm not biased, if any of you saw the England "B" vs. Belarus game, I thought Hargreaves was pretty poor...:rolleyes:

[fnsandpwr]

I'm actually more interested in if there will be any surprise call-ups to the game than anything.

well obviously I want les bleus to play well too.

my prediction is 1-0 France
Nice prediction.
I'm wondering what French fans thought about Mexico.

[jpg75]

I've slammed Domenech before, but i'll give him props for pairing Gallas with Thuram in the middle and putting Abidal on the left. I would lose it if i saw either Boumsong or Silvestre out there...god knows what my dad would do, perhaps have a cardiac (knock on wood)....

[fnsandpwr]

I've slammed Domenech before, but i'll give him props for pairing Gallas with Thuram in the middle and putting Abidal on the left. I would lose it if i saw either Boumsong and Silvestre out there...god knows what my dad would do, perhaps have a cardiac (knock on wood)....
When Tweety was out there, I thought Mexico would bank one in.

[gaijin]

I know I may catch some flack...but my player of the game was Sagnol. I know I'm biased because I'm a Bayern fan...but I thought he was outstanding. Just so you know that I'm not biased, if any of you saw the England "B" vs. Belarus game, I thought Hargreaves was pretty poor...:rolleyes:

Well I thought whilst no-one really stood out except when Ribery came on, Sagnol was solid on the right, put in some good crosses and made few mistakes.

He proved he is France's no1 right back in this match for sure...

[Mehr]

This was a pretty crappy game imo..neither side looked very good in attack, way too defensive.

For France...

Cisse is absolute crap! Why the hell is he even on the team? Anelka is way better.

Defensively you guys are good but weak as hell in attack. Zidane looked way past it, he hardly moves anymore.

Mexico were similar..solid in defense for the most part but they were playing with 5 defenders much of the game.

Salcido is a good player, he suprised me.

Borgetti looked useless and lost out there...at this point, Fonseca probably a better choice as he is fit.

[NachoNation]

This was a pretty crappy game imo..neither side looked very good in attack, way too defensive.

For France...

Cisse is absolute crap! Why the hell is he even on the team? Anelka is way better.

Defensively you guys are good but weak as hell in attack. Zidane looked way past it, he hardly moves anymore.

Mexico were similar..solid in defense for the most part but they were playing with 5 defenders much of the game.

Salcido is a good player, he suprised me.

Borgetti looked useless and lost out there...at this point, Fonseca probably a better choice as he is fit.
You will see Salcido in Europe soon.

It's beyond me why he hasn't been picked up.

[Ali_reza]

I
... he must never play with Cisse as a partner ...


I think Cisse played good today. He was very active and the goal came from his pass. He's played a lot better than this, but everybody's saying he sucked ?

[dna77054]

France is a good team, but one thing really rubs me the wrong way concerning France: their cynical defensive tactics. Let me be precise about this. Whenever an opponent has any forward momentum that may develop into a chance, France stop play with a foul. It is not just this game. I was posting the same compaint during Euro 04. This tactic was especially evident agaist Greece. Every Greece counterattact was stopped by a foul in midfield. Also should an opponent play a good ball forward, such as a give and go, France will foul or obstruct the trailing player taking him out of the play, but because the pass was complete and the other player is going forward the ref waves play on every time. I wish the refs could do more to stop this, the rare yellow card is just not enough. Or maybe France could play a cleaner game

I find the rest of the French game to be a very postitive entertaining experience.

[NachoNation]

France is a good team, but one thing really rubs me the wrong way concerning France: their cynical defensive tactics. Let me be precise about this. Whenever an opponent has any forward momentum that may develop into a chance, France stop play with a foul. It is not just this game. I was posting the same compaint during Euro 04. This tactic was especially evident agaist Greece. Every Greece counterattact was stopped by a foul in midfield. Also should an opponent play a good ball forward, such as a give and go, France will foul or obstruct the trailing player taking him out of the play, but because the pass was complete and the other player is going forward the ref waves play on every time. I wish the refs could do more to stop this, the rare yellow card is just not enough. Or maybe France could play a cleaner game

I find the rest of the French game to be a very postitive entertaining experience.
You're right.

Many french fouls hindered the game.

Although the game wasn't outright dirty, they did foul a lot.

Seeing as this cup is on Euro soil, I don't expect anything to be done about it.

[PacMan]

Are there any torrents available for this match?

Thanks.

[BenP]

I think some of the people here are being to hard on France. France isn't my number one team, so maybe it allows me some perspective.

Some quick observations/ratings:

Positives:

Sagnol was very good. Man of the Match in my opinion. Malouda was strong too. Nice goal. Ribery was definetly a good spark. Ray D should consider him as a 12th man, if not even as a starter. I thought Wiltord had a nice run out as well. I thought Abidal should quite well, too. Overall, the defense looks solid. Mexico didn't really threaten much - or perhaps I should say, they didn't turn opportunities that looked dangerous into real chances.

On the less positive side. Diharasoo gave the ball away too much, but he wasn't as bad as some here indicate. Cisse was relatively ineffective, but again, I don't think he was as bad as some are saying. Agreed about the two defensive mid combination. Not a good formula. Either Vieria or Makelele but not both. Raw talent and reputation should not necessarily determine your starting 11. In other words, current form and how players fit into a particular formation matters more.

Some other observations. To be sure, Zidane isn't the player he once was, but I still think he is very good. I think he calms down the France side when he is in and gives the team its center. Still don't know about Barthez over Coupet - perhaps someone else could give me some insight on this decision . . .

[lefutur]

so Barthez got booed again (whistles) at the stade de france. no big surprise.
so did Domenech. well that's just funny.
but what did surprise me is that Dhorasoo got booed too...before he even made his first touch. I wonder if it affected his game at all, he seemed out of sorts completely in the beginning and then gradually settled down. but why the boos? i mean he plays for PSG. Ribery got cheered by the Paris crowd!

[Nanbawan]

Three days ago, the French squad was still hiking in the Alps. Many comments don't take in consideration the current context IMO. Surprisingly, I think Ray can be quite satisfied, by the result and by the fact his little 'work out' exercise seemed to have worked with quite an experimental team up front. The team was awkward and even more after changes ; I know we assume Domenech is an idiot, but there, this is actually what he was looking for : putting the French team in adversity. In a way, the outcome of the game would be a little bit more worrying for our sparring partners on the night.

Yet, Dhorasoo's performance was horrid as were the boos in the public. Sorry to say, but a good part of the world just witnessed once again how moronic some of us can be, anyway personally, I'm f uckin' fed up with that spoiled brat behaviour...Seeing Vikash's face, it's safe to say he was perfectly aware of the level of his performance. Dhorasoo is a diesel engine, there's no point entering him to play tiny bits. A whole half or nothing.

I've been reading comments about the french attack and notably Cissé but it's obvious that he wasn't used the way he should be and that pair with Trezeguet was anything but complementary, hence the difficulties. The problem is, when Cissé is not at ease, he over plays it and screws the little football he may have...This is when I regret the versatility of Anelka ; yet as I said earlier, by resting Saha, I almost sure that the whole stuff was premeditated by Ray as a scale 1 exercise.