Unsurprisingly, there aren’t any big surprises in the squad. Aly “The Teeth” Cissokho gets his first call-up, but it was somewhat expected in light of Gaël Clichy’s injury. Loïc Remy gets the nod in favor of Bafetimbi Gomis, but again, that’s not really surprising because Les Bleus are currently short on wide players. Yoann Gourcuff and Sidney Govou return after missing out on the last qualifiers due to injury.

More notable are the absences. The biggest one is Patrick Vieira, who hasn’t been playing regularly at his club and has also been struggling on and off with injuries. Though his recent performances were positive, Domenech didn’t think it was enough to justify his inclusion in the squad (Vieira is not happy about that, btw). Franck Ribery is still out due to a knee injury, and despite Samir Nasri recently making his comeback for Arsenal after a long injury layoff, he was left out as well.

Totally unrelated, but here is an interesting fact I discovered the other day: Sidney Govou has scored 10 goals for France in 42 appearances. Compare that to Nicolas Anelka, who’s scored 13 goals in 61 appearances. Three less goals with 20 less appearances – and I’m sure Anelka has had more starts as well. It’s weird to think about Govou in a productive light, isn’t it?

Full list after the jump.

Gardiens de But
Cédric Carrasso (Bordeaux)
Hugo Lloris (Lyon)
Stève Mandanda (Marseille)

Défenseurs
Eric Abidal (Barcelona)
Aly Cissokho (Lyon)
Julien Escude (Sevilla)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
Rod Fanni (Rennes)
William Gallas (Arsenal)
Bakary Sagna (Arsenal)
Sébastien Squillaci (Sevilla)

Milieux de terrain
Abou Diaby (Arsenal)
Alou Diarra (Bordeaux)
Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid)
Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)
Moussa Sissoko (Toulouse)
Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon)

Attaquants
Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
André-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse)
Sidney Govou (Lyon)
Thierry Henry (Barcelona)
Loïc Remy (Nice)

Franck Ribéry has been named UEFA’s Player of the Week for his standout performance in the Champions League in Bayern Munich’s 5-0 victory over Sporting. (And now poor Sporting has to go to Munich for the second leg. Ouch.)

Our Franck got two goals (one a penalty) and two assists in the game. Congrats, Franck!

France had a whole bunch of players in both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup this week, and for the most part they played well. More on that later though. This post is all about Franck.

Congratulations, M. Ribéry. Now bring it to the WC qualifiers.

The only bright side? Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka both scored for Chelsea.

First it was Malouda in the 82nd minute with this superb delivery of a Frank Lampard flick-on:

And ten minutes later, Anelka finally put one away after threatening the entire game:

And this is me, loving Big Phil Scolari for finally knowing how to bring the best performances out of our French boys.

In all honestly, I knew this was bound to happen, but it still makes me sad when a player hangs up his international boots, especially when they are forced into it.

While I freely admit that I don’t think Trezeguet has a place on the team anymore (even without Domenech’s help), nothing will ever erase his years of devotion to the NT. He’s France’s third highest goalscorer, a record that doesn’t look to be overtaken anytime soon.

But with the FFF throwing their weight behind Raymond Domenech, Trezeguet’s career was already unofficially over, and now it’s official. He announced his decision today during pre-season training at Juventus, making it clear that his decision mostly has to do with Domenech’s retention as manager of Les Bleus.

“The awful Euro and the confirmation of the coach led me to this irreversible decision…At the moment, more political decisions are being taken than football ones and they don’t respect public opinion, which favours me.”

This doesn’t mean that this is a permanent deal, however. Players have been known to come out of retirement, and perhaps Trezeguet is simply waiting to do the same if another coach comes in who wants his services. But at least right now, he can avoid the inevitable humiliation of not being selected by Domenech when the start of World Cup qualifiers comes around.

That’s how many days it’s been since France kicked off their 2006 World Cup campaign with an unimpressive draw against Switzerland. We all remember – quite painfully – how that tournament turned out. And we know now that being in second place is not enough. Les Bleus cheated themselves out of a World Cup victory, so they must make amends this summer. And to do so, they have to win against Romania. Nothing less will be sufficient in this year’s group of death.

But a lot of things have changed in those 726 days. There is no longer a Zizou to save the day, many of the “old crew” have retired, and most especially, there is a whole host of new and exciting talent on the squad. France, who were the oldest team two years ago, are now one of the youngest, and though this team hasn’t been together as long as the old one, they are potentially capable of much more.

Others might have written us off, but it’s our tournament to lose.

June 9, 2008
Letzigrund Stadion, Zurich
18:00 CET (12 PM Eastern, 9 AM Pacific, 17:00 GMT)

About the enemy:

Compared to France, Italy, and the Netherlands, it’s obvious that Romania lack the depth and talent of their fellow group members. But Romania (who aren’t anything to sneeze at either) have never been about having a dream team lineup, and more importantly, they aren’t concerning themselves with counting another team’s superstars.

Romania will be hoping that they can depend on their overall team play and style to get through (with a healthy dose of magic from Adrian Mutu – you may have heard of him). Tomorrow, they’ll be facing a France lineup that is far superior to anything they could conjure up, but only a fool would underestimate them – because over 90 minutes, it’s a team that wins, not just individuals. And on their day, Romania’s team can be just as good as anyone else’s.

Romania blogger Ian wrote a great profile on the Tricolorii, their recent results, and their key players, so definitely check it out here.

France info:

On the surface, things are looking pretty bleak because Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira are suffering from injuries. Henry’s isn’t that serious, and he’ll probably be on the bench tomorrow. But Vieira’s is potentially worse – he pulled a thigh muscle last week, and like all muscle injuries, they can be either nothing or very serious. He obviously won’t be playing against Romania, and if the doctor doesn’t give him the all clear tomorrow afternoon, Domenech will have to drop him from the squad and replace him with Mathieu Flamini. I have nothing against Flamini, but he’s no Vieira, who is our captain and our midfield general. He’s also a huge source of leadership and inspiration for the team, so his absence will affect us in more places than just on the pitch.

Good news is that Franck Ribery’s ankle pain from the Columbia game turned out to be just a niggle. So he’s good to go.

Still, all things considered, France are far from the most affected in terms of injuries, and like all group stage games, this is more a test of depth, something that I feel France has a lot of.

Tactics:

The widespread assumption is that Domenech will go with his trusty 4-4-2, a predictable lineup with predictable players. Whether that’s bad or good is another matter entirely, though I think there are more positives than negatives. While I would love to see a 4-3-1-2 with Samir Nasri as a playmaker, I don’t know if this is the time to start a new experiment. Then again, Domenech has had two years to experiment but hasn’t, so…

It’s obvious that all teams – not just France – will defend first and attack second. In these kind of tournaments that feature such very good teams (and Austria), goals are rare, and groups are often decided on goal difference. So keeping a clean sheet is the first priority.

Still, no one can argue that Domenech’s team is an overly defensive one, not when you have such attacking talent in the starting lineup. At the end of the day, it’s up to the players to make things happen on the pitch (and that includes staying composed in the final third, putting away their chances, and not aiming for the crossbar).

Coupet
Sagnol – Thuram – Gallas – Abidal
Ribery – Makelele – Toulalan – Malouda
Anelka – Benzema

Thierry Henry is not expected to start, so Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema will be paired together up front. I’m not sure how I feel about that since I’m undecided on the complicity the two have between them, but both played well against Columbia, and both are very dangerous players individually. Let’s hope the package is equally as potent. Our only other option, Bafetimbi Gomis, is way too raw to be anything but a joker at the moment. Not that I wouldn’t love to see him, but giving him his first start for Les Bleus in the all important must win game for France is not how I’d want it.

In midfield, with Patrick Vieira out, Jeremy Toulalan looks to be the most obvious choice to replace him. While he is a different player than Vieira (Toulalan is less offensive than Pat but far more mobile on the pitch), he’s just as compatible with Claude Makelele. Toulalan’s form has been no less than stellar this year, and when he’s on the pitch, everyone around him plays better. Of course, this is his first big international tournament, so it’s up to him to prove that he deserves a place in that XI. If not, Lassana Diarra and Matthieu Flamini, two other terrific midfielders, are waiting in the wings.

In the back, the only position that seems to be up in the air is that of Willy Sagnol’s, who hasn’t looked that great in the recent friendlies. While it’s still likely that Domenech will trust in him anyway, Francois Clerc has looked really good lately and may just surprise us by starting.

Viewing options:

The GREAT news is that this game will be on ESPN2. Live. I just about keeled over from the shock myself. But if you don’t have access to cable television, you can check out this website which is sure to have tons of links posted before kickoff. If you don’t know how to watch games online, visit the Worldcupblog’s guide to mastering the art of internet streaming.

Laurie will be liveblogging this game, so definitely head over there to hang out, angst, and cheer on France as we embark on what is sure to be a victorious campaign for Les Bleus (we’re going to win, in case you didn’t get the memo).

Joking aside; I’d put down even money on Benzema to become the story of the tournament, leading all scorers and nicking the winner in the final. I’d really like to have heated discussions on this forum about whether Ribery or Benzema was France’s best player in their Euro 2008 triumph.

And as I was typing this (with the Newcastle-Chelsea game playing on Setanta in the background), Florent Malouda goes and makes a liar out of me with this goal.

Go, Florent! Let this be one of many in the next few months.

And send some of that spark to Nicolas Anelka while you’re at it.

I’m not even going to pretend it’s about the play. It’s all about the pretty.

(Not that I, myself, notice these things. But you might enjoy them.)

Most of the recent news showing up in my mailbox say that Escudé’s been injured, so I’m not sure Raymond will take a chance on him for Euros. Too bad, because his play has always interested me. He’s one of those I wish had been given more of a chance. (See also: Mexès, Philippe.)

But who knows? He still might be.

Enjoy the video.

Interesting career retrospective of one of our resident old guys, Claude Makélélé, over on the FIFA.com site. How can you not love a footballing article that begins:

As Pierre Corneille put it: “In souls nobly born, valour does not depend upon age.”

I’ll bet this writer has boxes and boxes of poetry stashed in the back of his closet. Not that this is a bad thing. The world needs more poets.

(I personally find that limericks stretch me to the limit. So I respect poets. And now that I have somehow managed to link “limerick” and “Makélélé” in my brain, I’m feeling a need to write a limerick dedicated to our Claude. Stay tuned. This is one of many services we’ll offer in the run-up to Euros.)

But I digress. Makélélé. (If you’re English, you take away the accent marks and kind of rhyme it with “Ukelele.”) The article has a lot of good quotes, but this is my favorite:

“Precision is the most important thing for the position I play in,” explains the man himself. “You have to be physical, quick and have good technique. If you lose the ball, it can have irreversible consequences. You have to be very precise in your positioning. There are no more No10s – the defensive midfielder has to know how to do everything.”

Pretty much sums up the man behind the Makélélé role, doesn’t it? Based on our Claude’s recent performances (seriously, the man pretty much defines the word “consistent”), I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more of him this summer.

Not bad for an old guy.

Well, technically, it was probably yesterday. But before that it was a long time.

So here’s a Willy Sagnol video. Normally I don’t have the attention span for these kinds of slideshow videos, especially set to the tunes of Andrea Bocelli, but I found this one incredibly sweet.

What is it about Sagnol that brings this out in us?

(Uh-oh. Does this make me a Sagnolette? I’m too damn old to be a Sagnolette.)

Thanks, Doumé!