Did the support you have for Aresnal changed your regard on France NT ? Beside following specific France players, players who play for Arsenal (Henry, Vieira, Pires, Wiltord), are you more interested in France team as a whole ?
Nope, I for once love Arsenal, but can't stand the French NT. I lost no sleep over the fact they failed so miserably at the WC last year and fully support the US Nat'l team
What wrong with French national team? I love watching them play. Along with Brazil, France play by far the best football on the planet. Poetry in motion. Don't know why you can't stand them purely on a football basis.
I am more interested in watching France becuase of the Arsenal players for sure, plus they have some pretty good non-Arsenal players and they play a very entertaining game to watch. Do I cheer for them to win trophies...no, just enjoy watching them and hope the Arsenal stars do well. Not concernd about the result either way.
I agree. I would like to see all Arsenal players do well, whether they are playing for England, France, Holland, etc. However, I do not really care for those teams and certainly not France (I was really disappointed when they came back against underdog Italy in Euro2k). I tend to watch international tournaments with disinterest. The US NT is the closest I come to supporting a national team, but I am not nearly as passionate about them as I am about the Arsenal.
My main interest concerning the French National Team is hoping that key members (i.e., Gunners) do not sustain injuries. That said, and as a true neutral, I find I prefer watching France to most other European National Teams. They have more players who really understand the "beautiful" in "the beautiful game." (And they mostly play for us! )
I guess that's how I really feel. I mean sure I like it when our boys do good for the national team, but really I don't try to watch every match of theirs with huge interest. Not sure why really, I mean by all rights I should like them almost as much as our boys sincce most of them are on the starting 11 of the french squad, but for whatever reason I don't.
Before the World Cup began, I hoped that either France or England would win it all. I had read somewhere on BigSoccer that there were talks being held with FIFA to have the World Cup winners take on the USMNT at Giants Stadium in some sort of post-9/11 charity event. My thinking was that those two teams had the highest number of Arsenal players on them, and seeing Arsenal players in person was my priority.
I definitely enjoy watching the French national team play. In addition to rooting for all the Gunner players to do well (and not get injured), I'll watch any match where Zidane is playing. He makes everything look so simple and fluid, it's fun to watch.
Interesting. This last WC is the 1st WC were I actually knew the players and were cheering for certain countries. I love Arsenal and their French players, but was not cheering for their country (was stunned that they got dumped so early). I cheered for USA, Ireland, England, and Poland (where my ancestors all hail from as far as I know). I saw many games of the WC when the US hosted it, but I didn't understand what was going on, just thought it was cool that we were hosting. The French play beautiful football and by far are one of THE best countries in the world, too bad I missed their 98 WC victory. Seeing them celebrate in Paris after hosting would have been incredible. Plus, I love Zindane, one of my favorite players in the world and represents bald men everywhere.....HEY, we need heroes too! LOL. My wife is 1/2 French and is reluctant to let people know that she is such....BUT she does jump up and down with pride for her other 1/2...IRISH!
I absolutely support Les Bleus mainly cuz i spent 8 years in the town of Rennes, Brittany~ ive managed to follow the team from total mediocrity to the high profile excitement they have shown since winning WC98~ not qualifying for WC94 still stings a bit... its certianly cool to have so many of the FFF team play for me gunners as well~~~ allez les bleus~ phishy
Interestingly on the other way round, many people here in France do now support Arsenal in the EPL and in the CL mainly because the french clubs are not on par anymore with the best in Europe. Almost all Arsenal games are shown live on Canal+/Sport+ and there are a big hit.
Well, that seems logical .I wouldn't say that I have a particular favorite club,and I also follow (or try to) most European leagues.Seeing little "pockets" of our national team is a treat. So, yes, I want to see Arsenal do well because I figure it can only be good for the NT. I also enjoy enjoy watching Zidane at Real, Trezeget/Thuram at Juve, etc. Arsenal is a bit different for me, though: as stupid as it sounds, the name itself, "Arsenal", just sounded too "cool" to me, when I was a kid. Yeah, I know....