France v Suisse (WC Group G) - Jun. 13 [R]

[legofish]

poor game

[slugger]

where was the passion......this is the world cup.....not a friendly match.

[franco]

:confused: ...i do not understand why france played on the field the way they did today...

...too many on the middle (5)...

...overdependent on zidane; he tried to step it up but ended up tired by the 60th/70th minute...he cant do it all by himself anymore...

...instead of taking out a midfielder and bringing in trezeget and then putting henry behind him, your dumbass coach brings in other alternatives wich gave nothing to the offense...

...great defending by the opposition...

...it is the first game and i understand this could happen to any team; but you really have to question why trezeget did not come in at all...

...good luck next game; i am sure you will go on to the next round given the other teams show not much experience...:cool:

[AfrcnHrbMan]

I think that Saha gave us a bit of life when he came on, but who knows Trezegoal could have done better....maybe. As for South Korea I was hardly impressed by there performance. Togo was doing more than holding their own against this "powerhouse" South Korean team, until they lost their top centre back and captain to red card. It was a tough break for the Togolese, who still got good chances to score even after being reduced to 10 men. South Korea is more than beatable, as long as les bleus play strong defence, AND PICK UP THE FCUKING PACE!!!!

[BenP]

Several thoughts:

Firstly, Switzerland is a good side and played quite well today. They probably should have nicked the game. Not that they had more play or chances, but it just felt like that kind of game . . . that they sat back, waited for France to tire, and would capitalize when their few chances came. They almost did it. Overall, I'd score there game about a 7 or 8 out of 10.

As to France, well, they defended well. But set pieces are a serious problem! Switzerland got two of their three chances on set pieces.

Attacking wise, I agree with much has been said already. I don't necessarily know what should be done, but I'd make at least one or two personnel changes. Saha, Trez, and Malouda (if healthy) should figure in the mix. Viera should not continue to start - Ray D should have the courage to sit him. Keep him as a defensive sub. Basically, just keep tinkering until you hit on something that creates 5 or 6 dangerous chances a game.

Yet, despite this lacklustre performance, France (and Switzerland) are in a good position. I'm not blown away by SKorea. A come from behind 2 -1 win against a Togo side with 10 men is not exactly impressive. Togo is probably one of the worst teams in the tournament. (although, admittedly, Sweden couldn't do the same against T and T). This said, while Korea is not strong and lacks several of the important advantages they had in '02, they still can be a dangerous side. They are fit, will stay in the game, and should not be taken lightly.

[allezlesbleusno1]

http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/13062006/53/cm-marcos-un-peu-perplexe.html

CM - Marcos : «Un peu perplexe»
mer 14 jui, 01h46

Notre consultant Angel Marcos commente les entrées en lice de la France et du Brésil dans la compétition. S'il se dit impressionné par les Sud-Américains, il est au contraire perplexe quant au jeu proposé par les Bleus.

«En effet, je suis un peu perplexe. On a eu du mieux, la France a bien occupé la largeur du terrain, on a eu le temps de se replacer, de coulisser. Pendant 30 minutes, la Suisse a été gênée. Par contre, si les Bleus ont défendu en bloc, ils n'ont pas attaqué en bloc. Ils n'ont pas pu aller au bout. Etait-ce un problème physique, tactique ? Je crois déjà que l'équipe doute, qu'elle n'a pas confiance en ses moyens. Et il lui manquait visiblement des jambes. Les milieux ne suivaient pas en phase d'attaque. C'est pour cela que Zidane demandait aux autres de monter.

Henry n'a pas gagné un sprint contre Senderos et Müller, qui sont pourtant deux défenseurs très lents. Les Suisses anticipaient dans les intervalles et Henry ne pouvait pas trouver de solution. Il y a un problème dans la longueur, le bloc s'est distendu et après il était obligé de défendre bas. C'est devenu injouable. Et ce n'est pas ici un problème de système mais de mouvement de bloc. Quand n'importe quel joueur a le temps, il est meilleur. Un joueur moyen devient bon s'il a le temps, un bon devient très bon et un très bon devient inarrêtable. Le secret, c'est d'avoir le temps. Et les Bleus ne l'ont pas eu. Ils n'arrivent pas à suivre. Si le problème est physique, ce n'est pas très grave, ils vont monter en puissance. Mais je n'en suis pas convaincu. Je crains qu'il faille trouver la bonne solution. Arsenal ou la République tchèque, qui ont des joueurs rapides et toniques, peuvent jouer comme cela. Peut-être pas les Bleus, qui auraient même pu perdre. Peut-être fallait-il effectuer les changements plus tôt. Les Bleus n'ont pas joué pour gagner, mais pour ne pas perdre. Je reste toutefois confiant. Il y a tellement de bons joueurs qu'ils vont y arriver.

[ilv2]

good article :)

man, i'd love to see what's going on in the camp right now - hmmm are they going to do another edition of 'les yeux dans les bleus' or does the media blackout imposed by domenech automatically rule that out?

[Warbuxx]

This performance is essentially about cowardice.

You can call it "prudence" or "caution" or "pragmatism" or whatever you like, but it's pretty obvious that this is a coach with little faith in his players, a defensive mid (Vieira) who wouldn't know a forward pass if it sat on his head, an attacking mid (Zizou) past his prime.....alas, a missutilized attacking mid (Ribery) and a general air of lack of ambition by all these glorified millionaires.

[ilv2]

This performance is essentially about cowardice.

yes, let's just go ahead and summarize an entire match with one word :rolleyes:

You can call it "prudence" or "caution" or "pragmatism" or whatever you like, but it's pretty obvious that this is a coach with little faith in his players

what? It's more like he has faith in the wrong players and moreover wrong tactics. Domenech selected every one of these players because he believes that they'll go jusqu'au bout, I have no doubt he believes in every one of them, and perhaps that might be a fault.
Now onto the question of caution, it's fairly clear that you don't understand the dilemma of the EDF. a) the previous 4-4-2 variant didn't work because we don't have the players that would fit it perfectly so b) it was between a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-1-3-2 both of which do fit our squad. Why not play the latter formation? Because from the very beginning our emphasis was on maintaining a strong defense that would stay that way for the rest of the tournament. Domenech believed, and many hoped (though a lot of us expressed our doubts), that the four attacking players would be sufficient offensively, and with the talent on the pitch. Nobody's saying that we put on a terrific performance but cowardice? That's a downright ridiculous and insulting conclusion.

Did you troll and post this in the swiss forums as well? If you're going to criticize us for playing with two dm's, you should at least criticize them for going out with the aim to defend. But most likely you didn't, because apparently only it's only France's fault that you didn't enjoy the match. :rolleyes:

a general air of lack of ambition by all these glorified millionaires.

right, so you pretty much missed the countless runs made by sagnol, the performance of a increasingly in form (albeit slow) zidane, and all the hard work put in by makalele, the backline, barthez, and ribery. Seriously, ******** off, learn a little about football, and hopefully little voice in your head doesn't urge you to make another random and uneccessary cameo in our forum.

[astroboy]

Just to lighten the mood:
Did anyone else notice the kid who came out with Ronaldo before the Brazil-Croatia game? He was undeniably fat. I wonder if they did that on purpose...?

oh, and re. South Korea/Togo. I didn't see the entire game and I know Togo are not supposed to be any good. But what I saw suggested that both of those teams can play at a tempo that will make France uncomfortable... and with confidence being what it is (unless the players are totally blind to their performance, which perhaps they are, judging from Vieira's quotes), I wouldn't be shocked to see South Korea in particular stretch us...

This malaise is fascinating. It's lasted 6 years now, roughly, which means that it has to go beyond the individuals involved--France Foot keeps saying there's something wrong with the national team as a structure, and I'm starting to believe it.

[Ballon d'or Identity]

Just to lighten the mood:
Did anyone else notice the kid who came out with Ronaldo before the Brazil-Croatia game? He was undeniably fat. I wonder if they did that on purpose...?

oh, and re. South Korea/Togo. I didn't see the entire game and I know Togo are not supposed to be any good. But what I saw suggested that both of those teams can play at a tempo that will make France uncomfortable... and with confidence being what it is (unless the players are totally blind to their performance, which perhaps they are, judging from Vieira's quotes), I wouldn't be shocked to see South Korea in particular stretch us...

This malaise is fascinating. It's lasted 6 years now, roughly, which means that it has to go beyond the individuals involved--France Foot keeps saying there's something wrong with the national team as a structure, and I'm starting to believe it.

What do youmean by "there's something wrong as a structure" ? What do they say exactly ?

[guignol]

anyone have an idea what gallas and thuram were yelling at Zizou about??zz wanted them to play higher.

[EstebanGranero23]

higher???

[triplesevn]

bonjour dallemagne

im here in germany taking in the matches.

i have to say, from my view, i thought france played well. allot of chances but i have not seen the match by tv yet.

i know one thing, everyone was afraid of barthez and beat his name to a pulp. he was the best player on the pitch. zidane seems like he was the second. i didnt see the swiss in the first half....but the second they awoke. still zidane created chances for his teammates...who let him down to often it seemed.


thats my thoughts from germany. au revoir

[guignol]

i may be living in some kind of fairyland, but i found lots of good in this match.

first of all, a nil against our direct opponents to win the group isn't the end of the world. and switzerland isn't one of the little teams this time, they were solid.

the new alignment was a real improvement. as i've already said, it's a shame it took until now to realize the 4-4-2 wasn't going to work, and its first use would be in our most crucial group match. it needs tuning, but for a first try it was a success. the proof for me was that viera, after a series of excruciatingly bad matches, had a very good one (je persiste et je signe!)
what needs adjustment? what is a 4-2-3-1 exactly? it's either a cute way of not saying 4-5-1, or it's a 4-3-3. yesterday we saw more of a 4-5-0-1! the block needs to move a little higher. everyone's saying there was no mobility, but in fact the mobility was there, it just started too low. imagine the game if sagnol's passes had come from 10 meters farther up the field!

easy to say, but yesterday in stuttgart perhaps not easy to do. here's the best news of all: our matches against korea and togo are at 21h!

ganu criticizes raymond's substitutions. i remind you that it was saha and dhorasoo who came the closest of anyone to winning the match! but i have to agree with this: there were not enough substitutions, considering the heat!

of course it's not easy to enter a game like that. who would you have put in? diarra? silvestre? treze... no, that's just silly. chimbonda! there's the rub! if rvr was on the squad, he replaces sagnol on 60' no question. but chimbonda, errr...

but raymond YOU picked him, you use him! if the idea was just to create a surprise and a subject for estelle, drawing and quartering's too good for you.

anyway, line by line:

barthez - for those of you who wonder why he didn't come off his line, haven't you been watching him the last couple years? he's a walking catastrophe coming out and HE knows it! he did nothing to reassure his defense yesterday, au contraire.

abidal once again the best of the lot. he'll make the all tournament team at this rate if there is one. the charnière of thuram and gallas was solid. sagnol was a disappointment, he needed to bring his game much farther forward. not a real cross all day, and all his passes into the box were off target (for the third time in four matches).

viera and makalelé were finally in position, and able to bring to the sector the kind of work we need.

zidane was good, but it's now clear he'll never be great again. all the more important for the others to carry their weight!

ribéry also good, but as many expected, he brought the same volume of contribution in 70' as he does in 20' as a sub. sure he has pace, but against a team as solidly in place as the swiss that doesn't suffice. naturally with the things he tries you can't expect the 90+% pass success rate viera or zidane had, but he was around 55%. both malouda and govou have done much better. i repeat, he was good. but he's not the saviour many thought he would be.

wiltord was also good, but was continually in a corner with two swiss bodyguards. difficult to shine!

henry was a perhaps a disappointment, and was weak on his best chances. but he was left too alone, and never had much space or help. please note! he doesn't need a second striker with him; what he needs is, each in his turn, in ones and twos, everybody on the team!

a last word: if vikash puts away his shot, (which he did not croque by the way, it was a very good shot), doesn't that put about everything we've all been saying for a month now in a tin pot?

[ribery57]

higher???

in french we say "jouer plus haut"... he wanted the whole team to play higher on the pitch, because the team was split in two

[lefutur]

I think some people are being a little too harsh with Henry. Yes he missed some chances and he should be disappointed but he'd had a few good games in a row during the preparation phase and had really started to look like more of a leader on the pitch for Les Bleus. Don't forget that Henry has disappointing matches with Arsenal every now and then too. I think he will score against S Korea because there will be more space for him to operate within. The Swiss were playing a very defensive style and the few chances that the French got were not always ideal.

[ruudgullit]

Just a bit disappointed with the sleepwalking that the team did through this game. This performance reminded me of the Euro 2004 performances...there was no sense of urgency to score or create and only a few moments of brilliance here and there kept that from being an utter disappointment. I think(at least at this point) Ribery would be best used as a sub to run at tired defenders, he held onto the ball much too long yesterday and tried to do too much, causing several easy giveaways. I really can't take anything good from this game except the fact Switzerland blew some golden opportunities and didn't take all 3 points.

Not that I want to play tactician, but any chance of Malouda suiting up for the next game? Perhaps Viera to the bench, Malouda on the left, Wiltord on the right, with Saha and Henry up front. Ribery as a 60 minute sub if Wiltord isn't performing. Just my thoughts. I don't look at all forward to the next games agains S. Korea and Togo.

[allezlesbleusno1]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=371094&root=worldcup&cc=5901

After the game Domenech preferred to focus on the state of the pitch and some poor refereeing than his own team's shortcomings. 'It doesn't make sense to water the pitch six hours before the game in these hot conditions. The hardness of the surface made it difficult for the players to strike the ball and slowed it down. All 22 players were complaining,' he said.

Frankfurt also played host to England's laboured victory over Paraguay and was even hotter on Tuesday after organisers closed the roof to make the game easier on the eyes of television viewers.

It is true that the Waldstadion's dry surface did not help the ball's movement, but neither did the plethora of sideways passes that made a moderate Swiss defence look as impenetrable as a safe at the European Central Bank, which is based in the city.

Nor was the match helped by an overly fussy performance from the normally excellent referee Valentin Ivanov, but the eight cards he doled out were merely an irritating sideshow to the dreary main event. It was utterly pedestrian stuff throughout. While England ran out of steam, France never had any to begin with.

[astroboy]

What do youmean by "there's something wrong as a structure" ? What do they say exactly ?

I'm far enough away that it's hard for me to know exactly what France Football mean (they've written a couple of editorials about this in the last few months, but they don't always explain clearly what they're thinking--one needs to be more familiar with the recent news in France than I am to understand what they're saying...). Anyway, my impression is that they think that we need to change the decision-making structures that surround the national team--we currently have a system that allows a lot of people to be influential and places responsibility for failure on only a few... I think FF would like a little more transparency and communication--which certainly hasn't been a strength since, what, '94 at least?

We've definitely seen the creation of a bunker mentality, as was evidenced by R.D.'s hissy fit about the press leaking his formation ahead of the Swiss game... ridiculous. As though the Swiss were going to be so overwhelmed by our "surprise" tactics that they were going to roll over for us...