Well, technically the Czechs defeated France 2-0 in a friendly in the run-up to Euro 2004 (though hey, Jean-Alain Boumsong I believe was in the squad, hence it doesn't count ). Also, Denmark won 2-0 at the World Cup over in Korea. Though of course, Zidane wasn't even at 30% in that one. Nevertheless, if Italy wins, I doubt it'll be by more than 1 goal. Mainly because Jean-Alain Boumsong isn't in the squad. On another note, Gallas is out, though Vieira is now fit. There's actually been a bit of talk about Thuram moving to right back, with Abidal moving inside with Mexès, and Evra at left back. I, for one, would actually favor this in the interest of defense and experience. The other heavily discussed topic it appears is whether Vieira should be starting because he's not fully fit, while Toulalan has definitely shone this season. Other than that, the lineup is pretty much set.
Yea i was refering to competitive matches. World Cup in Korea?! I don't remember a world cup in Korea????
yeah I hope it will be because we are missing schneider and lahm, who was going to play in midfield, as well on top of ALL the absentees for the england match. Only klose and schweinsteiger are back of any real use who would start. Maybe the crowd will be distracted by the upcoming rugby game and won't turn up to create a hostile atmosphere so what I will have to do is to record the france game using sopcast or something as ESPN are showing the england and germany games live one after the other.
This may be a bit off-topic, though what German lineup are you expecting, squidward, with all the injuries?
well the team I personally would want would be like this so klose can drop deep a lot as he is very creative. We'll need that without schneider. Lahm is honestly also a huge loss. There is a good chance of this being the lineup I think. Gomez is also doubtful with a fever.yay! At least there's enough strikers around for this one. If you want to keep up with info just go over to the germany NT forum as I don't want to clog up this thread with more of this. lehmann jansen mertesacker metzelder friedrich hitzelsperger schweinsteiger (he will get a chance to show off what he has learnt from ribery so far...he's been much more consistent this season. The two combine very very well) rolfes klose kuranyi podolski
Alright cool, back to France then, I'll drop by the German forum if I can think of any comments to make on that. I wonder what lineup Italy will put out, though there are some guys that one obviously has to expect in there. Buffon, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Pirlo, Gattuso and Toni would be definite starters, I think. De Rossi according to friends of mine who support Roma is coming off a very good season, so he could start too. In any event, both teams have overwhelming quality in a bunch of positions, so hopefully that comes through tomorrow.
Grosso according to what I have read didn't have a very good season at Inter, and hasn't been at his best at Lyon either. Don't know if he'll start tomorrow.
it doesnt matter he's already done his services to italian football and 1) deserves more respect 2) can walk away today
Here's hoping Raymond sees the light and gives Trezeguet some playing time. The Italians are scared sh**less of him and he can defintely outplay their mediocre central defense. I'm not foolish enough to think Trezeguet might start, but when it's still 0-0 after an hour's play and Henry is on his knees, David will be our man. So here is it: Raymond (somewhat) redeems himself from his horrendous coaching performance in the WC final, lets Trez have a go at it with 20 minutes to go, Trez scores on 83 min., we win 1-0, all is well.
He'll need to make that decision prior to the game, considering substitutions because he can't give plays or commands from the stands.
Well said, ForeverRed. Those big games are often not as spectacular as one tends to expect in the run-up, but I also hope our friends de l'autre côté du Rhin will gather momentum tonight. Bonne chance!
Good point, but yes you have to think that he *will* make decisions on subs before the game. He'll probably go over possible scenarios with Mankowski and give him precise instructions on what to do if say, Ribéry gets injured on 75 min with France ahead or... if Henry gets tired on 70 min with the game tied.
The game appears to be televised on GOLTV here in Canada, so it may also be shown on it in the States...(Not sure if TV5 or RAI are available everywhere in the US and what the costs are to subscribe) This is going to be good!
êtes-vous nerveux? Parce que moi je le suis pas mal... Ça fait longtemps que je n'ai pas senti autant d'anticipation avant un match.
Off to the pub to watch it. C'mon guys!!! We're the better team on paper, now let's go prove it on the pitch. ALLEZ LES BLEUS!
It's halftime for Germany so I turned on this game, and I was again appalled by just how unapologetically dirty those I-talians play. Come ON. World Champions or not, they make Portugal look like Spain.
the diving is just disgusting...you'de think they'de try to avoid the stereotypes but the just keep flopping over all over the place
It must be one of the worst matches ever played. I find it more exiting watching paint dry. Quite sad.
Well the game could have been played better on our part. Italy looked more likely to score but i think we had an equal amount of quality scoring ops. The problem was getting a real creative ball from the midfield to either Henry or Anelka. That, and Henry being generally ineffective for most of the game. That hurts. We should have seen Govou come in there, maybe in a withdrawn posistion, and try to feed Anelka up front. The passing was not particularlly good, with our best movement coming early in the game, around the 9th minute. I can't believe Abidal was beat to that ball that Cannavaro tried to put in, on his ass. So unlike him, and probably Italy's best chance in the first half. The team played a good game phyiscal and defensive, with no major mistakes. I think Make played amazing today. Thuram and Escude had solid games as well. I wasn't surprised to see Escude in there as opposed to Mexes. It is well known that Domenech isnt real high on him, and he had a bad game against Slovakia, his dress rehersal essentially. Malouda and Abidal played ok games. Mostly I think the Italians did a good job of shutting them down today, the reason they didnt really shine. Ribery had a nice game, but i feel he is holding on to the ball just tad longer than he should. Anelka needed some more distribution to really make an impact on this game. I had a feeling of it finishing a draw in the second half, and that was confirmed with the introduction of Toulalan. Get out of there with 1 point, which is a-ok with me. A highly hyped game with an anticlimatic finish.