I saw France play Colombia with France winning 1-0 in the Confederations Cup last night, so I thought I'd give a quick run-down of how the Arsenal (and potential Arsenal) players performed. Henry - Was great. Started off well, but really started to run the show after he had a bit of a set-to with Ivan Cordoba, the Colombian captain. After being booked in this incident he obviously thought he was wronged in some way and proceeded to play like a man possessed. Scored the winning goal from a penalty and was easily France's best player, causing mayhem in the Colombian defence. Was substituted with about five minutes to go and left the field to a standing ovation. Wiltord (played right midfield)- A peripheral figure. Both he and the left midfielder Kapo were starved of possession in the absence of Vieira and Zidane in the middle. Put in one good cross from which Henry almost scored when he got to the byline, but by and large his touch and passing were sloppy with the possession he did get. Mexes (Auxerre, but hopefully Arsenal next season!) - Played very well at the heart of the defence. Desailly had a pretty poor game next to him, but he shone in this game. His positioning was very good, he was commanding in the air and his distrubution was good. Arsene Wenger was at the game commentating for French TV, he must have been impressed by what he saw. Pires (Second half sub) - Played a few good passes when he came on, one in particular set up a good chance for Cisse, but didn't really get up to the speed of the game. He looked like he was looking forward to his holidays to me. Brazil are playing this evening, if Gilberto is playing, I'll keep an eye on him.
Nice analysis. I'd like to add that Wiltord "earned" Frances' pk when his short cross inside the box struck a Colombian's hand. Also, Mexes earned a very poor yellow card in the first half. He came in late for a challenge and kinda ran into a Colombian's ankles without ever coming near the ball. If Desailly had been one step forward the yellow would've been red as Mexes was inches away from being the last defender. Other than that mistake I would agree that he had a good game. He looked fairly brave, powering a header through a Colombian's attempted bicycle kick without seeming to care if he got kicked in the head. In the opening match, ex-Arsenal merchandise seller Junichi Inamoto looked fairly decent against New Zealand, but I think that a best-11 from this board would've looked fairly decent against NZ because they allowed Japan to look like Brazil.
Very true even though it was a highly dubious penalty decision. He kicked it at the fella's hand from about a yard away. Also another dodgy one in my book. From the replay it looks as if he didn't touch the forward. He knew Desailly was going to clean up the ball and fell down in a heap. I only came home as this one was finishing. The point about being a merchandise seller is well made, I was in Japan last Autumn and wearing an Arsenal shirt instantly got the name of Inamoto into any conversation.
I thought Henry was flying all over the pitch... and talk about a dodgy call on the handball.. NOT EVEN CLOSE... wiltord was largely disappointing and pires really didnt catch up to the speed of the game (IMO).. UMM.. mexes.. i thought he was average to be fair.. wasnt THAT impressed with his man marking skills but not too bad.. Should be really interesting to see if he gets a run against tanaka and the lot from japan.. good atmosphere as well in lyon~ (btw, i hate the talks of barca lookin at TH14) phishy