true. damn karim should be the leading scorer right now in the tournament. for sure he should have had 4. the last goal should have counted. nice to see that karim is finally playing well for france.
bayern ribery is amazing. france ribery never replicated that form. he sometimes gets a bit selfish too. losing him did hurt though. it is what it is though. this current group has looked good and i'd rather let the future (griezman) play instead of the past.
Deschamps is the glue that holds all of this together. The French, much like the Dutch, have fallen apart before due to selfish individuals and egos. They came together as a team in '98 and ended up winning the cup. In '06 Zidane unified the group and they almost won again. If they can keep their egos in check they can go far. Talent has never been a problem. It's cohesion and unity that has troubled France. I don't know if France can beat Germany. I've learned never to count them out. What does help is that our midfield is strong enough to negate theirs. We have true strikers whereas they don't. Lloris and Neur are both really good. At this point I'd trust our defense a bit more. Mertesacker and Hummels are nothing to laugh at though. Boateng sucks. It would be a good game for sure.
I agree 100% about how you match up against Germany. Could easily wind up as the match of the tournament should it occur. usually its sink or swim with france, and we can tell early on which one it will be. unfortunately in our game, Paulo Bento is a retard and left some of our better midfielders at home. on top of that he didnt play William the only guy who could physically cope with the German midfield.
Hopefully. Portugal will turn it around on Sunday. Too talented not to make it out of the group. Bento really does need to go. I was expecting a France-Portugal clash in the QF, but I guess it won't happen now barring a miracle. Lol damn Germans are so consistent.
i've said it before and i'll say it again. a team really comes together during the tournament. all the top level teams have such talent that form, confidence, cohesion and attitude make a bigger difference than whatever gap there is in the sum of individual talents. the who, what and how of 6 months ago means nothing. check out the remarks on this or other fan boards from 6 months ago: sakho was a stiff who didn't belong on either PSG or les bleus. cabaye was a mediocre hack. lloris a passoire. benzema a has-been who never was. valbuena, debuchy, sissokho, all second-zoners. and that's not even mentioning the evra hatefest. and all these have been good. damned good. paradoxically, france got a big break in losing the first leg to the ukraine. it gave them a shot at that defining cathartic moment that put them on the launching pad. and they've been able to keep that momentum so far. another paradox, though one that doesn't surprise me, i almost expected it, is that ribery being out has actually been a good thing. of course he's a great player. and i don't think he's a bad guy, knysa or no knysa. but he's an individual, who takes up a lot of room both on and off the field. not having him opens up different vistas, again both on and off the field. with him, no griezmann. no making the team turn around cabaye as the pivot. no 4-4-2 with giroud and benzema. even more: with him, karim would never have had this breakthrough. and no clean as a whistle break with the old mentality. to win a world cup you need to be in a state of grace. and that's where france is right now.
Must resist the urge to nitpick... I'll enjoy it as it is Let's see where this team can go ! Probably towards QF but after that the crystal ball gets misty... Anyway, tomorrow is... tomorrow, let's savour the moment !
I have to resist the urge to nitpick too ... We have to hope we're not peaking too early... though I said that after the Jamaica match too
I agree with every word of this but I think its too soon to say that France are in a "state of grace". Yes they've had 2 good games and have scored a lot of goals. Holland have also scored a lot of goals and won 2 games. Are Holland in a state of grace too? I would say that Holland are never in a state of grace because they can fall apart at a moments notice and they usually do. France haven't been tested yet. And by tested I mean, under pressure. Yes, that came back from a poor away leg at Ukraine but that wasn't during the WC, under the microscope.
There's nothing over the World Cup. We didn't have SUCH a party in 1984 and 2000. It was, truly, extraordinary. BTW I don't think we'll win this year. Our team makes me think of 1958 or 1982 rather than 1998. We lack experience especially in defense... and I'm sure we'll miss Ribéry soon or late. We have not "programmed" a victory, on contrary to Spain in 2010 or Brazil this year (yeah I still think, alas...). I have more confidence we'll win "our" Euro 2016 !
oh, they are definitely en etat de grace... but this is always a condition as fragile as a soap bubble. the sign of a great team is not to falter too badly when that bubble bursts. there's one word i forgot to add to that earlier post though. i'm sure it will get a giggle out of you all... nasri.
If anyone is interested, there's a pretty good breakdown of the film here : http://insidethefilmroom.com/france-switzerland-world-cup-2014-benzema/ Really highlights how Matuidi is the unsung hero of this team. Powers forward and wins balls.
Matuidi is so underrated. Would have been his second goal of the tournament had the Honduran goalie not come up huge on his put back from a corner. I wonder if our guy, Schneiderlein, will get some minutes against Ecuador. I kinda wanna see what he offers in place of Cabaye.
matuidi is so crucial to the midfield i just hope he doesnt burn himself out because he works so hard.
That was an awesome performance by les Bleus! In truth, I had expected a tighter match. It seems the Swiss were totally demoralized by conceding two goals in quick succession. More of the same against Ecuador, thank you very much!
I've heard people compare Matuidi with Makelele -- I think he's potentially better than the ex Chelsea midfielder. He runs faster and more, is making his World Cup debut at a younger age, and has a penchant for scoring goals. What more can you ask for? He might not be at PSG for much longer if he keeps this up... Schneiderlin is one player I'd like to see. I LOVE that last name! From what I've seen of him playing for Southampton, his is the archetypal modern midfielder, equally capable in attack and defense.
You are 100% right. Many of us made the assessment when news broke that he wouldn't be with the team in Brazil and so far so good! The team looks fantastic on the field, everyone is in sync and knows their role. Of course, the team has been winning and doing it rather easily so things should be that way. The real test will be when Les Blues go down a goal in the knockout round, hopefully the response will be a positive one!
I think we might lose or tie today. This match isn't very important. Hopefully no one gets injured and we're 100% healthy going into the round of 16.