The Indo describes it as 231 caps worth of experience potentially returning!! And what France have hugely missed from what I gathered was leadership when things weren't going their way. The only slight positive is that other then Makelele-arguably- they are all past their best.
This was always going to be a nerve-racking group to get out of, and it's going to get even more jittery. Alright Israel have f****d everyone up with their results, but the other teams haven't done themselves any favours either by burying teams when they had the chance. more noticably than the others Ireland. The attitude in France was great, and their best game in the group, we had a few chances, and didn't take them, J.O'Shea's chance for example, anyone remember that? Against the Israelis away, we took whatever foot we had off the peddle and messed up there, suppose thinking of a nice cool shower with a few minutes to go did the damage there. Fair play to Israel for striking while we were ??? what were we supposed to be doing, oh yeah, defending. Against the Israelis at home, where can you start ???? a disaster, and bad luck. The French must be worried bigtime if they are bringing their big guns out of retirement to get them out of the group, and so they should be, the same way we should be. If we go out believing in ourselves, and the crowd behind us, and play like we did in Paris we'll be grand. On the other hand for the French, if they don't get any kind of a result in Dublin, where will they go from there, Big guns back, no result, not a great confidence booster what??? Oh yeah,, and it will even be more of a head wrecker for them if that happens with Thuram returning too
!!!!!!!! Makelele assist us in opening up the back????????? For the love of St Imelda where have you been?? Makelele worries me much more than Zidane, he is quite possibly the best Defensive Mid in the world the last several years. Watch him for Chelsea, he is a master at breaking down opposition attacks. Doesn't get as much credit because he's position isn't a sexy one and he doesn't get forward much. Also, you'd be suprised how many Chelsea goals resulted from Makelele turning the ball over in midfield and feeding it off. For my money the Swiss are the ones with the trump card right now. They still have a game at home against Isreal, and as such can do wihat Ireland and France should have done and beat them. You know the Isreali luck has got to run out at some point, thye've used up their nine lives. If they beat Isreal then all they have to do is play for draws against Ire and Fra. Puts a lot of pressure on Ireland and France, and look what happened the last time we were under pressure playing against the Swiss in Landsdowne.
jeez guys...a lot of shite wrote on this forum..... for a start...beating faroes 6-0 or whatever might not count for ********..as UEFA disregard the scores against each groups weakest teams or am i wrong here?? remember the last two tournaments france played in....great as zidane is..he was actually a handicap for them im zidane ...im great...pass me the ball every ********ing time can you not remember henry's reaction to him during the greece game!!!!if you have a top coach (and its debatable if we have on!) you can easily neutralise the threat from zidane..he is so predictable now macakele...thats another story...maybe keane will give him an early dig? ireland always make it hard. in qualifying, im sure the boys will do the business...eventually
Never heard of that. He was hurt during the WC2002 (btw we had beaten 3-2 the Koreans 5 days before the competition with Zidane), and imo we wouldn't have passed the first round of the Euro without him (beginning the tournament with a defeat against English). But whatever how bad or good Zidane is, the NT is doing shite since a year now, the qualification campaign lasts 16 months and we've already "burned" 12 months. So if it happens that the NT is doing shite even with Zidane, any regrets would be absurd. If we don't qualify with him, we wouldn't have qualify without him neither, so ...
It's official Pires has been called up to the Les Bleus by Domenbach. Au revoir to the unsettling between the coach and Pires. The results are needed. GK Coupet DR Thuram DL Evra DC Gallas MR Giuly ML Pires MC Zidane DMC Vieira DMC Makalele FC Henry FC Cisse/Trezegeut I want to see the 3-5-2 formation....
I am not sure Corea is a appropriate example. They either got really lucky or some paying off happened during that last WC. I'm betting on the ladder.
yes you're are right, sorry, he was missing for the first 2 games of that tournament but lets be honest its very predictable, aint it? and Pires...thats another joke...he is very overrated...whats he done anyway in football/ and as for the weaker team thing...fifa actually did this before..but i guess you werent paying attention since france usually coast through the qualifiers..... http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/preliminaries.html here you try and read up on it...i cant...im in china!!!!! slow computer...******** computer
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-francezidane&prov=reuters&type=lgns Great stuff, you couldnt make it up. If I were Zidane, I would be wondering why Domenech was wandering around his bedroom late at night. Sounds like a bit of a head case. Roy Keane & co should make mince meat out of him.
As a priest you should know that God works in mysterious ways. But as a Frenchman I believe it was the ghost of Jeanne D'Arc beckoning Zizou to bring glory back to the nation of France.
perhaps it was ala..lol... The algerian can team back up with the boy from senegal and co,,,,,,, ...but they have some tough games away. I think it will end in a dizzzzzmel failure. The two who will probably finish on top will probably be... ireland swiss swiss ireland ireland israel for france I think henry needs to be a huge factor and barthez needs to move and let someone better take over.
Going to make the group tougher but it was always going to be tough for us to qualify so it makes little difference and anyway the players still have to do it on the pitch and right now the french team isn't the most cohesive unit ever seen. So long as we start using the attacking options we have more aggressively it'll be hard for teams to run with us. Up to Kerr now. His Job rests on qualifying.
Zidane said he was convinced to return to the French team by a voice he had a long conversation with in the early hours of one morning.... If he's in such a flakey mental state I'd love to see hm take the pitch at Landsdowne...
He later said the "mysterious voice" was actually that of his brother, but I guess you weren't paying attention at the time.
Will the France game be televised in the US? at least in an Irish Pub. An Irish buddy of mine will be stateside at the time asked me to consult the experts at BS. Thanks.
maybe it was his coach whispering from the window.....that guy spent so much time trying to get this guy back .....perhaps he should of been paying more attention to his team.
Unbelievable how France got back with Zizou's return................. check it out; www.giantsofbrasil.com www.giantsofbrazil.com
where's he gonna be in the states? im going to watch it at Nevada Smith's.....probably the best soccer bar in the whole country. Its in New York and the atmotsphere there is great. too many Irish though
Yeah, Zidane has really lost it.... LOL! Still the best, he's devistating in the middle of the pitch.
Looks like this is what Ireland will be up against. ----------------------Coupet------------------------- --Sagnol--------Thuram-----Boumsong--------Gallas--- --------Vieira--------Makalele---------Malouda--------- ----------------------Zidane--------------------------- -------------Cissé---------------Henry-----------------