Videos of late 70's - early 80's France NT (full games)

Thank you very much. France is one of my most favourite footballing nations. Very sad to see that French football has become more physical over the past 10 years.

 

Wow babaorum, so am I no longer the master of old vintage games?

 

Unable to rep as I rep'd you before for a Zidane/Platini comparison analysis reference I think and 'need to spread it around' so 5-starred instead.

Just for information - I've discovered commentary does commence for the second half of the France-Holland game (and both goals will be in the second half).

 

Where made he that analysis?

 

Greatest X of all-time discussion thread (about comme's top 100 player lists).
It's a pretty long thread so as I have a vague idea I'll find the page number for you in a few minutes. It was a description of an analysis done by French TV or a French newspaper or something from what I remember.

 

From page 108:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22285309&postcount=1078
It was a France Football article he was referring to, which actually would be interesting to see I'm sure, but babaorum's description gave a nice overview of the analysis.

 

Nice to read indeed and confirms the ideas I had about Platini.

That is also why I'm rate him so highly. Given the difficulties in judging a player because the sport is a team game (playing with other good players helps a lot), I think that the role someone has in a team is the only 'objective' indicator to rate someone. If that role is quite extensive, and he does well, then it says a lot about the qualities of a player I think. While with a rather limited role the problem of separating the individual from the collective is somewhat bigger (i.e. some have said that Garrincha would not flourish in the current game because of his specialistic nature).

 

Yes I know what you mean. I think Platini was a standard/normal footballer in some ways in terms of his style of play (more conventional than Zidane, less adventurous than Cruyff) but he just had exceptional quality which made him stand out and be very effective. His touch was of course much better than average as was his invention and vision but I think it was the accuracy of his passing and shooting both in terms of regularity and the very best he was capable of that made him the player he was. I've noticed he also was able to put in slide tackles etc to win possession for his team at times, and I do think his dribbling over short distances was very good at times and probably moreso his ability to work himself or team-mates space with his control and/or feints.

As for Garrincha you could be right although I think he would always be able to evade challenges, go past players etc. Perhaps if put into Barcelona's current system he'd be too individualistic to excel as Messi does (although he'd be playing the right wing-forward role not as false 9) but on the other hand he might find it easier to find his best in a World Cup as he dribbled in a more off-the-cuff manner and probably with less interaction with his team-mates. That's all speculation though I suppose.

 

Garrincha relied in 1958 and 1962 on players who covered for his obvious weaknesses. He had a quite specific role to some extent and it was up to others to compensate for it. In some way that is also the case with Messi.

But if you start such a reasoning like 'Garrincha could flourish because Didi covered his back', then the separation between the individual and collective becomes very difficult if you know what I mean. And maybe Garrincha would not fit in any 'modern' system (or even does not get a chance).

Therefore, versatility and/or the extensiveness of the role might not be undervalued too much, maybe. Platini did indeed also his defensive work. I think that a player like Platini is timeless it seems.

I hope you understand me.

 

Thanks, and that's a good clip - it was an impressively precise touch around the defender and it showcased his imagination too. In terms of dribbling, despite the fact he'd have been carrying a bit of an injury one of his best dribbles may have been in the France-Northern Ireland game in the '82 World Cup for a Giresse goal but as you said he'd have been selecting it as the best option until he could pick out Giresse.

 

Yes, I also really like the first-time cross by Tigana for the last goal.

It's interesting watching the differences between France playing the 4-3-3 as vs Holland in 1981 compared to the 4-4-2 with the Magic Square as in the Northern Ireland game, the West Germany semi-final (2 examples from '82) and most/all games through the Euros in 84 and the 86 World Cup. My impression is Rocheteau benefits as he gets more freedom playing in the 4-4-2 than playing from a starting position on the right side of attack as he gets to move all over the width of the pitch regularly.

I might use that video on one of my threads about entertaining World Cup teams as I had posted an English-commentary version which was taken down from Youtube. It had a nice disallowed goal for Northern Ireland from Martin O'Neill , but your video includes all the French goals and they were the team I was offering as one of the most entertaining of World Cup history. The English commentator was enthusiastic about Platini after the assist for Giresse that I was talking about.

 

Having watched all of the France-Holland game now I can say that the second goal comes about from a nice assist by Rocheteau, after Platini has picked up a knock and Tigana comes on for the last minutes to replace him. Interesting that Platini's great free-kick goal was from a re-taken kick and he'd tried to curl it over the wall into the other side with his first effort.

I'm downloading/watching France vs Uruguay now, so a few different players like Le Roux and Toure will be in that one and 90 minutes of Francescoli for Uruguay of course.

 

Great pass by Platini for Rocheteau to score after 5 minutes! Giresse finds Platini in space and he lofts it into space ahead of Rocheteau who rounds the goalie.

I noticed Roger Piantoni is co-commentator although obviously I can't follow what he's saying very well, mais tres bien but .

 

In modern football it seems the other way around: players are fresher in the first few months of the season. See also, for example, Manchester City of this season.

 

I liked to watch French football in the 90s until the turn of the millennium. Sadly, the emphasis is now too much on the physical side imo