Instead, I’d like to discuss more practical matters. With the amount of talent France has, there is no fathomable reason that they should be completely outclassed by a weaker Irish side, and yet it did happen. Twice. And it’s not just the Irish – so many times this year, France have looked lost at sea against opponents that aren’t anywhere in their league.

Domenech carries much of the blame, but the problem is more significant than that. His sense of tactical strategy may be on par with his sense of tact, but even bad game plans ought to carried out with enthusiasm by the players. While the Irish were playing like they actually cared, France didn’t give a shit. If I hadn’t known better, I’d think I was watching the 65+ Sunday league. It might be Domenech’s duty to come up with working tactics and to motivate his players (though one would think that international players would be motivated enough on their own), but once the boys are on the pitch, it’s out of Domemech’s hands. So what gives? Why couldn’t France even match 10% of Ireland’s passion?

Another thing is – and please tell me if I’m imagining it – have the players gotten worse? Each game seems to bring France to a new low. It’s been pointed out that 20 of the 24 players on France’s squad are playing in this year’s Champions League. And yet the skills and abilities they showed on the pitch wouldn’t be acceptable in the French third division. The players couldn’t maintain possession, couldn’t string two passes together, couldn’t take decent corners or freekicks, couldn’t aim, couldn’t win aerial balls, couldn’t tackle properly, weren’t able to communicate with their teammates, and had no sense of on-the-pitch strategy.

You can’t blame Domenech for the half-assery we saw from the players last Wednesday. After all, these are good players. We’ve seen them play in the past, both for club and country. We know their actual capabilities. And for the most part, Domenech is picking the squad we more or less want. Perhaps his substitutions were suspect, but if players like Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Patrice Evra, Andre-Pierre Gignac, and Yoann Gourcuff couldn’t break through the Irish defense after 90 minutes, how much of a difference would Karim Benzema have made? No, France had more than enough quality to take care of an upstart Irish team, yet the players totally botched it.

So while I do think that Domemech bears part of the blame, I’m also extremely angry with the players. It’s sad that over two games, only Hugo Lloris and Nicolas Anelka looked like they deserved to be there. Everyone else was an embarrassment. I guess there is definitely something to be said for not having a wallet that is so fat that you lose the hunger you had to get you there.

Unfortunately, just like we’re stuck with Domenech as our coach until the WC, we’re also forced to contend with these players. Both parties must take responsibility for the weight of expectations they agreed to bear in order to represent France. I don’t want to watch Les Bleus go to South Africa and go through another humiliating group stage exit.

So we need to start thinking about the feasible changes that need to be made. Maybe it’s time to drop Gignac. I for one think that Evra isn’t the answer to our left back woes. Perhaps Henry and Anelka need to stop being played on the wings.

Though the most important question is…just who is the best partner for Gallas?

The Match

France humiliated themselves with a pathetic performance, arguably the worst of the Domenech era, which is saying something.

Ireland played very well, but blew multiple goal-scoring chances that would have booked their spot in the World Cup.

France’s captain Thierry Henry played an outrageous handball to set up the decisive goal to send France to the World Cup, denying Ireland a chance to take the penalty kicks that they had famously been practicing.

The Aftermath

The aftermath has been sickening. I read that some eighty percent of French citizens would support a replay. The French citizens with whom I’ve spoken support the idea. Henry himself has come out in support of it. We’re embarrassed and a little sick about the ugliness of advancing to the World Cup in those circumstances.

The Irish are devastated by the injustice of not getting their penalty shoot-out, and no one can blame them, except for a select group of anti-establishment Irishmen who oppose whinging as a rule (see Roy Keane or the Arseblogger).

There’s a widespread campaign to demonize Henry and castigate him as “a cheat.” That’s a term I find too reductive and simplistic, but Henry can stir up emotions like few others in world football.

Henry has been a player who has rarely had to resort to rule-breaking to be successful in football. As recently as 5 years ago, he was among the two or three best players in the world. He was an artist, and fair play was part of his art.

But when the stakes are high, and when things aren’t going his way, Henry has shown that he will exaggerate contact (see the Spain match in the 2006 World Cup) or play an outrageous handball. It looks especially bad coming from Henry because he has been such an icon for the sport; and as a proponent of fair play, it’s awkwardly hypocritical when he does resort to rule-breaking; it’s jarring.

Take the Ireland match in question: a couple handballs from Robbie Keane (admittedly both spotted) – no outcry; one from Henry (admittedly epic), and it felt like football itself was in jeopardy.

On the one hand, we acknowledge that players will do whatever they can to win a match, and in that light, Henry’s post-match comments sound about right: “I’m not the referee.”

That would be the end of the story in most cases, but given the circumstances (a disgraceful France performance up to that point, and the outrageous degree of the rules infraction by an icon of the game, that was somehow, shockingly not called), Henry’s later comments sound about right: “A replay would be the fairest solution.”

But the French Football Federation (FFF), the same people who kept Domenech on the job after the Euro 2008 debacle, and FIFA have rejected calls for a replay.

And today, something happened that has caused seemingly irreparable damage to the lobbying effort for a replay – club football.

Eventually she realizes the sobbing isn’t working, so she asks me if I’m going to do anything for her. I say no, because it was her behavior that caused all of this to begin with.

So she sobs, “But…but…but I’m SAD!!!!”

That’s kind of how I feel right now. I realize, as a France fan, that I have no right to feel a need to be comforted. But…but…but I’m SAD!!!!

This isn’t the way I wanted qualifying to end. If we’d won legitimately, I could be legitimately celebrating and it would be wonderful. If we’d lost, I could be legitimately commiserating, which I think would actually feel better. If we’d even outplayed Ireland on Wednesday, it might feel like a karmic victory and be acceptable. As it is, though, we’re left with a kind of sad limbo. To paraphrase Bixente Lizarazu, I’m happy they qualified, but don’t feel like I can party.

Not sure where the road back is. Eventually I’m sure we’ll all come to accept this, and to be grateful France is in WC 2010.

Or we’ll be grateful until, under the tutelage of Domenech, they again go out in the group stage.

For now, though? For now, I’m just sad.

As a first step back, if you’re looking to remind yourself that France does have some legit talent, please watch this video of all France’s goals in qualifying, made by our very own commenter Jean-François. (This video has gotten over 40,000 pageviews since the game and become something of a lightning rod for everybody’s feelings about the game and the goal. Feel free to leave your own comments.)

And by special request: The photo I originally posted. Which depicts your mood better?

Good performances: Sagna, Evra, Gallas, Lloris, Anelka
Poor: Henry, A. Diarra
Woeful: Gignac, Gourcuff
Shocking: Squillaci, L. Diarra, Domenech

Govou and Malouda had decent runs as substitutes. Govou was definitely an improvement over Gignac who he replaced.

I could almost make a category below shocking for L. Diarra, diabolical maybe, but he did win back the ball once in a while. The number of times he gave it away, and so casually, and so close to the France goal, and the woeful passing, and the countless cynical fouls – it was a meltdown.

Squillaci replaced Escude early on after Escude was injured. He took an elbow in the nose from Evra when they both went for a header, and Escude was losing too much blood to come back on. This incident wasn’t even close to one of France’s low points.

Squillaci looked low on confidence, and during his time on the pitch in the first half especially, he looked extremely vulnerable.

It was a long match, 120 minutes, and it was full of incidents, far too many to recount. We talked after the last match about Abidal nearly gifting Ireland a goal. Of course we were incensed, but it was a minor infraction compared to some of the midfield play tonight.

France are through to the World Cup, but someone needs to get a hold of a drawing board. They can’t “go back” to the drawing board, because they clearly hadn’t used one.

Gourcuff has a nice touch on the ball, and exciting movement in possession, but his passing was terrible.

France were very lucky to survive. I said I would be very surprised if Ireland outplayed France. I was surprised how poor France were. And Ireland deserved to win. But Ireland also have themselves to blame for not converting more of the many chances offered to them by France’s midfield. The goal they did score was a peach – carving France open. Even at that point, it was bad, France had a terrible start, but there was worse to come.

Henry looked like a spent force. The match was hugely frustrating, and it must be gut-wrenching for Henry to be losing his athleticism so quickly, so it wasn’t surprising that he would resort to a deliberate handball in the box, but it was a surprise that the referees didn’t notice.

Henry kept a freekick from going out for a goalkick with his hand, and we all know how much motor control we have with those digits, and that wonderful opposable thumb – it was no wonder that he was able to place the ball perfectly on his right boot to cross to Gallas who nodded in the goal.

That was very lucky for France. They might have gone through anyway, on penalties.

For such a bizzare match, the referee did impressively well for most of it. Obviously he and his assistants screwed Ireland over by not calling Henry’s handball, and for not giving L. Diarra a couple yellow cards for countless cheap fouls; and Malouda didn’t deserve his yellow; but they got so many things right, like ignoring dives; but that handball was a big miss.

It was such a mixed night, because performance-wise, I think it was a new low for the Domenech era, but at the same time, obviously, it’s the night that France secured passage to the World Cup.

I’m so glad France will be going to South Africa.

I hope they never play that poorly again.

And if you have a working illicit stream, please leave that in the comments as well. It looks like there will be multiple options. Myp2p.eu is a good starting point.

I am every bit as nervous as the rest of you. I’m fairly certain France can do this, but… Nothing’s ever certain till it’s certain, is it?

Expected lineup is the same as Saturday, with the exception of Julien Escude stepping in for the injure Eric Abidal in central defense. Which makes me a little nervous. (No own-goals today, okay, Julien?)

Lloris; Sagna, Gallas, Escude, Evra; A. Diarra, L. Diarra; Anelka, Gourcuff, Henry; Gignac

Okay, gents. You can do this.

Allez les bleus!

I’m getting a little tired of reading that this France side aren’t “a spot” on the 1998-2000 side. Time for the lads to debunk that nasty sentiment; and a masterclass today would be a good start.

Join Laurie on this site later today (she’s never missed a match before, and I wouldn’t expect her to start now) for a bit of pre -, during -, and post-match banter (and ranting and raving).

I really enjoy the discussions in the comments, so thank you very much to everyone who joins in. There’s been a lot of good discussion about the performance in the first leg, but now that the second leg is upon us, I find that the memory of the performance is quickly fading, leaving only one solitary memory: we won away from home 1-0!

Sarah, who blogs about Olympique de Marseille on the Offside, talked to us about helping out with this site. I immediately responded that we could use the help, and only later realized that a substantial portion of my brain prematurely assumes France will advance. My stomach lurched, and I had to take deep long breaths, and remind myself that we could be in for a huge disappointment.

France were the better team, but they weren’t firing on all cylinders, so they’ll now need to get a result in the second leg in Paris.

The formation didn’t always hold it’s shape, but it was something like this:

Gignac
Henry Gourcuff Anelka
A. Diarra L. Diarra
Evra Abidal Gallas Sagna
Lloris

The Bordeaux players, A. Diarra and Gourcuff, were both fairly quiet. Gourcuff definitely had a few promising touches, but for the most part he was crowded out of the match, and striker Nicolas Anelka took over the midfield playmaking duties.

Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra was heavily involved, but his involvement, especially early in the match, mostly involved failed pass attempts. At one point, I think he turned the ball over in four consecutive sequences.

Anelka is in a new phase of his career. He seems to be integral to England league leaders Chelsea, and overnight he’s become a roaming creator for club and country, instead of the forward trying to break the offside trap. I don’t quite know what’s going on with him and his position at the moment, but he was probably France’s best player against Ireland.

Barcelona’s Thierry Henry, France’s captain, is still one of France’s best players, but the 2003 Thierry Henry is a fading memory. I thought he was in good scoring positions a couple times against Ireland when he didn’t even try to score. Back when he was scoring 20 to 30 league goals per season, he could exploit little gaps to great effect, and score, assist, or draw a penalty. Now it looks like he doesn’t even try to take on players who he would have beaten easily a few years ago. Still, he’s good on the ball, was providing a good outlet wide left yesterday, and he looked dangerous at times.

Anelka got the goal during the second half. It took a wicked deflection off an Ireland player and sneaked inside the post. That opened the floodgates a bit, and it looked like Gignac might add one or two, but the other goals never came, and in the end, France were lucky to not to concede, so it’s a good result, if not quite representative of how much better France were.

No big complaints with the defense, and A. Diarra might have been quietly effective at helping with that effort. France, including Lloris, had to make a few stops, so overall, it was a great result to keep a clean sheet, and to get the away win. (Reading the comments from the previous post, I was reminded of an Abidal giveaway that could have been costly, but overall I’m not personally that worried by Abidal. He almost cost us a goal yesterday, and he’s had his share of clangers, but he’s also been gaining experience for France and Barcelona, and there’s no clear-cut case that someone else would be a better option.)

Any betting neutral would probably be comfortable putting money on France to advance to the World Cup in South Africa, but Ireland obviously still have a chance to progress with some good luck in Paris. I’d be very surprised if Ireland outplayed France, so I’m mostly worried about costly France mistakes in the second leg. And while my worries do tend to creep out first, especially when I’m writing, and trying to be measured in my France fandom, I do think that France will probably control the second leg, and get another victory.

We’ll know soon enough because the match is on Wednesday.

So President Nicolas Sarkozy went on Facebook to wish les Bleus good luck.

Pretty sure that will be all it takes to push them over the top.

GFC over at The Beantown Frog is cautiously optimistic about this leg of the match, predicting a 1-0 win. I’m hoping he’s right. But everybody also recognizes that Ireland is the kind of team that gives France fits: defensive, strong on counters, good on set pieces, and with excellent goalkeeping.

And let’s not forget that our top two goalkeepers gave up ten goals between them last weekend. That can’t be good for the ol’ self-confidence.

L’Equipe is referring to this match as “L’heure des deux Diarra,” given that Toulalan is injured and it’s looking like Alou and Lassana Diarra will be our DM pair.

Predicted lineup:

Lloris – Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra – A. Diarra, L. Diarra – Anelka, Gourcuff, Henry – Gignac.

In the US, TV5Monde is playing the match live. Setanta will be broadcasting it delayed. If you have a working stream, please leave the link in the comments.

And be sure to stop by here and leave your thoughts as the game progresses.

Ireland defender Richard Dunne said, “You can see the reaction of the people at the tennis (Paris Masters), when they put his (Domenech) face on the big screen. The whole place just booed him and his own players laughed at him.”

Extraordinary.

There’s Domenech trying to enjoy tennis when a stadium full of people start booing him; and even his own players start laughing at him.

Did Dunne see this all on the telly or was he there? Did they show the players laughing at Domenech on the big screen?

Few people could elicit boos by having their face put on the big screen at a tennis match. Dunne’s description of events is compelling, and if true, I can’t help but want to hear more about this extraordinary ostracizing of Domenech. Is there YouTube footage of this event? Poor Domenech. It sounds like things went all wrong for him.

The subtext to Dunne’s quotes is that he himself doesn’t hold Domenech in high regard, and considers his participation in the World Cup playoff as a bonus for Ireland.

With everyone counting him out, will Doms be the comeback kid, and prove them all wrong?

You know. The ones who get all the press.

Too bad you can’t play a match on paper.

Gardiens de but
Shay Given (Manchester City, Ang)
Keiren Westwood (Conventry City, Ang)
Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe United, Ang)

Défenseurs
John O’Shea (Manchester United, Ang)
Richard Dunne (Aston Villa, Ang)
Stephen Kelly (Fulham, Ang)
Kevin Kilbane (Hull City, Ang)
Eddie Nolan (Preston North End, Ang)
Sean St. Ledger (Middlesbrough, Ang)
Paul McShane (Hull City, Ang)
Darren O’Dea (Reading, Ang)

Milieux de terrain
Aiden McGeady (Celtic Glasgow, Eco)
Damien Duff (Fulham, Ang)
Darron Gibson (Manchester United, Ang)
Glenn Whelan (Stoke City, Ang)
Keith Andrews (Blackburn Rovers, Ang)
Liam Miller (Hibernian, Eco)
Stephen Hunt (Hull City, Ang)
Andy Keogh (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Liam Lawrence (Stoke City, Ang)

Attaquants
Kevin Doyle (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspurs, Ang)
Shane Long (Reading, Ang)
Leon Best (Coventry Cirty, Ang)
Anthony Stokes (Hibernian, Eco)