Here is the 36-man list, people. Ménez, Clichy and Mandanda are nouveaux, Trez may be the conspicuous fellow not to be included. Gardiens de But Grégory COUPET Olympique Lyonnais Sébastien FREY A.C.F. Fiorentina Mickaël LANDREAU Paris-SG Stève MANDANDA Olympique de Marseille nouveau Défenseurs Eric ABIDAL F.C. Barcelone Jean-Alain BOUMSONG Olympique Lyonnais François CLERC Olympique Lyonnais Gaël CLICHY Arsenal nouveau Julien ESCUDE F.C. Séville Patrice EVRA Manchester United William GALLAS Arsenal F.C. Gaël GIVET Olympique Marseille Philippe MEXES AS Roma Bakary SAGNA Arsenal F.C. Willy SAGNOL Bayern Münich Sébastien SQUILLACI Olympique Lyonnais Lilian THURAM F.C. Barcelone Milieux de Terrain Abou DIABY Arsenal F.C. Alou DIARRA F.C.G. Bordeaux Lassana DIARRA FC Portsmouth Mathieu FLAMINI Arsenal F.C. Claude MAKELELE Chelsea FC Samir NASRI Olympique de Marseille Jérôme ROTHEN Paris-SG Jérémy TOULALAN Olympique Lyonnais Patrick VIEIRA Inter de Milan Attaquants Nicolas ANELKA Chelsea FC Hatem BEN-ARFA Olympique Lyonnais Karim BENZEMA Olympique Lyonnais Jimmy BRIAND Stade Rennais Djibril CISSE Olympique de Marseille Sidney GOVOU Olympique Lyonnais Thierry HENRY F.C. Barcelone Florent MALOUDA Chelsea FC Jérémy MENEZ AS Monaco nouveau Franck RIBERY F.C. Bayern Münich
Oh, and Jean Alain Boumsong is back. Wow, all Domenech had to do was ignore the Slovakia B tape and see that Boum is now with esteemed l'OL, didn't he?
for next week's pair of matches (tuesday RD Congo-France; wednesday Spain-France) domenech has convoked 36 players of which 17 play in L1. noteworthy are the first selections of menez and mandanda, and the return of boumsong and coupet. 8 Lyonnais (Coupet, Boumsong, Clerc, Squillaci, Toulalan, Ben Arfa, Benzema, Govou) 4 Marseillais (Mandanda, Givet, Nasri, Cissé) 2 Parisians (Landreau, Rothen) 1 Bordelais (A. Diarra) 1 Rennais (Briand) 1 Monégasque (Menez) the foreign contingent has a surprise and some old names too: clichy gets a first call to arms, flamini and sagna will keep him company, and vieira and sagnol are back. Arsenal's contingent here holds the same place here as OL's on the domestic side. finally, a non surprise, even at 36 the group doesn't seem big enough for trezeguet. Arsenal (5) William Gallas, Bakary Sagna, Abou Diaby, Mathieu Flamini, Gaël Clichy Chelsea (3) Claude Makelele, Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda Man Utd (1) Patrice Evra Portsmouth (1) Lassana Diarra Barça (3) Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, Eric Abidal FC Séville (1) Julien Escudé Bayern (2) Willy Sagnol, Franck Ribéry Inter (1) Patrick Vieira AS Roma (1) Philipe Mexes Fiorentina (1) Sébastien Frey
Here is the Espoirs list. Gardiens de but Geoffrey Jourdren (Montpellier HSC) Hugo Lloris (OGC Nice) Défenseurs Habib Bellaid (RC Strasbourg) Mouhamadou Dabo (AS Saint-Etienne) Younes Kaboul (Tottenham Hotspur FC) Cyriaque Louvion (Le Mans UC) Vincent Muratori (AS Monaco) Charles N'Zogbia (Newcastle United) Milieux de terrain Alexandre Bonnet (CS Sedan) Yohan Cabaye (Lille OSC) Clément Chantôme (Paris SG) Yoann Gourcuff (Milan AC) Sylvain Marveaux (Stade Rennais) Blaise Matuidi (AS Saint-Etienne) Attaquants Issiar Dia (AS Nancy L.) Serge Gakpé (AS Monaco) Yoan Gouffran (SM Caen) Anthony Modeste (OGC Nice) Loïc Rémy (Olympique Lyonnais) No real shocks here, as Ménez was promoted to the senior ranks. Though who is Anthony Modeste?
besides trezeguet but on a smaller scale, the disappointed one must be ramé... frey's and landreau's (and coupet's) blunders weren't enough to get him a convocation, and with mandanda's well-deserved call-up the curtain has certainly rung down on his career in blue. now we have to see who will go to malaga and who to marbella. i personally would rather see the honchos get split up between the two, but the comparative values of the two opponents suggests there will be a distinct A and B. the only value of the "A'", besides getting trezeguet to shoot himself in the foot via the press, seems to whet the appetites of some youngsters and create furious competition for spots 17 to 22 for this june.
I am thinking in the end, out of the up-and-comers (well let's say U-23) the following will make the final cut: Nasri: France's best #10 at the moment, should be a starter. Ben Arfa: It almost appears as if he hasn't played a bad match the entire season, and at his best, he's truly a sight to watch. Benzema: Kinda a duh! choice, but it'd be reckless not to mention the guy. Ménez: Brings more to the squad with his abilities than a Cissé would, also brings versatility. Those who will miss out: Clichy: This is no knock on Gaël except France are in the top 2 at the moment in terms of best left backs. Diaby: Except if he asserts himself as a starter at Arsenal, it'd be hard to see who he'd be able to overtake. Briand: My take is he is in the Saha/Cissé class, which is why Ménez should overtake him among the attackers mentioned. Lassana Diarra: This is more of my opinion than Domenech's, who has a man-crush on him, but he shouldn't be in the team, despite his versatility. Mandanda: It's hard to see him overtaking the veterans above him at the moment, though he is having a terrific season.
I thought I should add here that the selections of Boumsong, Rothen, Givet, Escudé, Flamini (to an extent) and Lassana Diarra are questionable in my book. Then again, it is a huge field of players selected, and it's not as if those guys are totally lacking of international quality.
Why Rothen is lacking of international quality? Rothen is doing a better season than Nasri, Coupet, Boumsong, Govou, Squilacci, Givet, Cisse, Diarra, Briand, Menez...
I didn't say that he was lacking. I actually said none of those guys (Diarra, Flamini, Escudé, Givet, Rothen) are that lacking in terms of international quality, but I don't know if they'd be in my top 36. The main thing I have against Rothen is that he's about to be 30 and his dead ball/crossing ability is about the only thing he would add. Admittedly he is having the best season out of all of the L1 guys whose names don't start with a "B." However, if we went based solely on form, then I'd think Steve Savidan would have been called up at some point. Anyway, only my opinion.
I think we can all agree that PSG should be contributing a lot more players to the national team than just 2. They need to get their act together over there and go into a new direction. 2 players from PSG is just embarassing.
Hey, it's alright, you're not as bad as my cousins who live in Paris who once attempted to convince me that both Edouard Cissé and Ducrocq were worthy of the national team. Then I again I think I often rate too highly the guys in the Monaco academy, only for them to decline (Thomas Mangani, Frédéric Nimani, Steve Pinau and Malaury Martin would be bad examples of that). The good thing about this game is that opinions can be so dynamic, even between supposedly keen observers.
They have a few at U-21 level and lower levels, which does bode well, so I wouldn't be too worried. And really, who thinks Boumsong deserves to be in this list when Digard/Armand/Camara are not?
That would be reason #2 as it's hard to top "Domenech is an idiot" in my book. Then again, I would have to think Boumsong would be #36, but with Domenech, you can not say that's guaranteed.
The squad seems pretty solid as always. Nice to see Clichy get in there. 5 Gooners, and 3-4 former Gooners in the squad as well. No Trezeguet is surprising and too bad if you ask me. Boumsong being in the squad is just shocking. Completely.
I must admit I'm happy with Mandanda over Ramé. Can't understand why Boumsong is there. At least he didn't call Silvestre.
I'll be praying for David to keep his big mouth shut. If he manages that, I'm sure he'll be back before June. Well, I hope.
Flamini is having a terrific season with the Gunners IMO. He's been solid, fast and smart. And he can score. [youtube]9dCWICzC3n4[/youtube]
That is why I added the qualifier "to an extent." I know that Flamini is having an awesome season but the national team is overloaded with defensive mids, so a person like me who hasn't been able to see Mathieu in action can only judge him on what I've actually viewed of him (where he wasn't as impressive as he is now). That goal does help, or adds a dimension to his play in my opinion, anyway.
i like that Diaby is on the team, i just love his style. he nearly had a goal against newcastle also.
Mathieu can also play as a right winger. He has taken that position as a replacement in Arsenal, and when he plays as DM he is always dangerous in wing runs. I suspect Ray is looking at the possibility of using him in that position, since there are too many defensive mids already.
yes; the RDC match was only put together about a week ago i think; it won't even be televised as far as i can see, and it's being played in a little division 3 stadium chosen only because it's about 50km from malagawhere the A team will play. btw, i agree that rothen absolutely deserves a callup... but don't try to tell me he's doing better this year than govou!