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Alou Diarra was one of the 11 World Cup players to make Blanc’s first Euro qualification squad.  Will Blanc trust him to captain the national team like he trusted him to lead Bordeaux?

Blanc chose a squad of 21 players to face Belarus and Bosnia in France’s first qualification matches for Euro 2012.  In the lead-up to the announcement, he made a few interesting comments that gives us a few hints on his thoughts and potential starting XI.

Blanc’s Bleus

Players who were present at the 2010 World Cup are italicized.

Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Cedric Carrasso (Bordeaux)

DEFENDERS: Bacary Sagna (Arsenal / ENG), Adil Rami (Lille), Philippe Mexes (AS Roma / ITA), Sakho (Paris-SG), Benedict Trémoulinas (Bordeaux), Gael Clichy (Arsenal / ENG)

MEDIA: Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille), Jeremy Menez (AS Rome / ITA), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid / ESP), Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Yann M’Vila (Rennes), Florent Malouda (Chelsea / ENG), Abu Diaby (Arsenal / ENG)

FORWARDS: Kevin Gameiro (Lorient), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid / ESP), Loïc Remy (Marseille), Louis Saha (Everton / ENG), Guillaume Hoarau (Paris SG).

Make sure to check-out Jean-François’s post yesterday on the Bosnia and Belarus squads we will be facing!

I’m not even sure crawling on your knees will get you out of this one hot-shot…

Well, I hope you didn’t think that hiring Blanc and celebrating his first selection yesterday meant the fall-out of the World Cup was over.  In fact, its just heating up in the land of the FFF.  Houllier is still fighting with former Bleu turned TV consultant, Christophe Dugarry (for more on that pissing contest – please see my post yesterday from the World Cup Blog front page).  And today, the FFF announced that based on the conclusions from their investigation, they will call five players to be seen by the disciplinary committee.  Which five are being sent to the corner?  Click below to find out…

UPDATE!  Lillian Thuram has provided some additional insight on why these 5 were singled out for their behavior…

If you remember the comments made by players in the aftermath, there was a united front (at least publicly) on the events that transpired.  ”Everyone agreed,” “No one spoke against,” “Anyone could have left the bus if they wanted to…”  Now, I don’t want to give too much credit to the team of boneheads who thought boycotting practice before an important game at the WORLD CUP- but this looked to be a pretty smart strategy because it placed the FFF in a tricky position.

Since the FFF promised to dole out harsh punishments and restore the “honor of France” – this put them in quite a predicament.  Punish the whole team and they risk hurting France’s chances in the Euro 2012 qualification campaign.  France is spoiled in most positions – not having the option to call on Lloris, Malouda, Gourcuff, Clichy or Sagna could lead to even more embarrassing results…but not punishing anyone completely discredits the FFF and leaves the door open for another player fiasco.

So certain prominent members of the FFF (ahem…Lillian Thuram, Frederic Thiriez and Jean-Pierre Escalettes) have successfully pushed for a more discrete, targeted punishment of select players that the FFF found (through its investigation) to be the primary culprits.  Basically, despite the fact that all the players are guilty of inappropriate behavior, a few players will be held liable for the actions of the team because their action or inaction caused the damage (otherwise known as strict liability).  The official FFF justification is (as translated from L’Equipe)…

The Federal Council has relied on an objective criteria…in the interest of the team of France and based on an objective criteria, we made the choice [to punish] certain players.

From what I understand, Blanc was also consulted over the FFF’s decision and requested that the council not find the whole team liable.  It is unclear what (if any) choices were provided to Blanc for his opinion.  I’m not sure if Blanc could have requested that no one be given additional punishment other than being ineligible to play in France friendly vs Norway or if he was only given an option of targeted or universal (all players) punishment.

So which five players will be facing the disciplinary committee and why were they chosen?

Patrice Evra as captain of the team.

Frank Ribery as vice-captain of the team.

Nicolas Anelka for insulting France coach, Raymond Domenech.

Eric Abidal for refusing to play in France’s final group game vs South Africa.

Jeremy Toulalan for writing the press release read by Domenech explaining the team’s decision to boycott practice at the World Cup.

I should note that all these players were voted to face the committee with unanimous votes.  Not really any shocking twists or juicy, new details.  Just the same guys we all suspected to have played a key role in creating this disaster.  No mean, manipulative streak of Hugo Lloris or Bacary Sagna uncovered here.

UPDATE:  Lillian Thuram, who I mentioned was taking a lead in both the investigation and the discussion about how to best approach disciplining the group has provided some additional insight on why these five players were chosen.  According to Thuram, the others in the group were manipulated by the five who concealed that Anelka had been given the opportunity but refused to apologize for his comments to Raymond Domenech.

“They should have spread the words to others.  Because if the other players had known that Nicolas Anelka had refused to apologize, I think that there never would have been a problem on the bus.”

MY REACTION

I’m not sure what to make of this.  I find myself feeling conflicted.  On one hand, I think the behavior of the players was unacceptable.  More than wanting someone to pay for the embarrassment, I want it to be clear that this type of behavior won’t be tolerated.  But, is dragging out this saga really the right way to handle this?  Is it really worth it to drag out this disciplinary hearing of Nicolas Anelka who likely is too old to matter for the national team in 2012?  I couldn’t care less what happens to Anelka, Evra or Abidal- so expel them, ban them, put them in the corner for all I care – just to quickly!

In my eyes, the only two players on this shortlist that have a (possible) future with the team are Ribery and Toulalan.  This makes their cases (and punishment) more complicated…

Ribery in Paris to respond to accusations by a minor alleging he paid her for sex…

Ribery – wow, I knew strict liability would eventually find a way to bite you in the ass.  You are just lucky it found you in the court of the FFF rather than the court of law (in the US, sex with a minor – paying or not- is determined based on a strict liability standard).  I always thought I would be happy when you were finally exposed for the manipulative, lying sychophant that you are.  But I’m not.  I can’t imagine what its like to risk throwing away your career for the silly decisions you’ve made – and I think the complete lack of intelligence or regard for how your decisions affect your team should be reason enough to deal you a stiff punishment.  Until you find some way to redeem yourself – you will not be included in my list of 23.  Ever.  But at least I’m giving you a smidgen of hope.  Don’t fuck it up.

Toulalan being…Toulalan.  Frank and honest.  We need more of it on this team.

Toulalan – In my eyes, you are the only one in this group that has taken some responsibility for your actions.  Publicly admitting that you wrote the press release was brave – especially because you had nothing to gain and everything to lose.  Before you said that, no one had even pointed a finger at you (at least publicly).  I applaud that.  You did something wrong.  You admitted it.  And you are now taking responsibility for it.  Get this man back on the team ASAP!

The 87 generation is back on top…can they rediscover their winning ways?

Well, we’ve wondered, debated and made a million recommendations of which 23 players should be included in this very important selection.  I say “very important” because being Blanc’s first selection it will set the tone for his reign.  it is imperative that this group of players demonstrate their ability to provide competition to the 23 players left out of the squad (and thus place a much needed fire under their ass) AND because the world will be watching how we can recover from that whole World Cup mess.

And after all that debating, rumors and partial lists – the day has finally come!  Here is Blanc’s first selection for Les Bleus!

KEEPERS: Stephane Ruffier (Monaco), Nicolas Douchez (Rennes)

DEFENDERS: Rod Fanni (Rennes), Adil Rami (Lille), Philippe Mexes (AS Roma), Sakho (Paris SG), Benedict Trémoulinas (Bordeaux), Aly Cissokho (Lyon), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille).

MIDFIELD: Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid), Moussa Sissoko (Toulouse), Yann M’Vila (Rennes), Samir Nasri (Arsenal ), Yohan Cabaye (Lille), Charles N’Zogbia (Wigan), Blaise Matuidi (Saint Etienne).

STRIKERS: Hatem Ben Arfa (Marseille), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Loïc Remy (Nice), Jimmy Briand (Lyon), Jeremy Menez (AS Rome), Guillaume Hoarau (Paris SG).

INITIAL THOUGHTS
I don’t want to give away too much yet since i’ll be discussing this (with Dave Trotter and Martin Michelot) on Ligue 1 Talk’s podcast tomorrow.  But, I will say its amazing to see the 87 generation back on top (hope they don’t screw it up!), Blanc clearly wasn’t ready to give any favors to his old Bordeaux players and the pro-Frey/Pro-Trezeguet lobby will (I’m sure) have a lot to say…

Its a sad day we all knew was coming.  France’s all-time record goal scorer, Thierry Henry has officially hung up his boots for France.  His retirement was confirmed when he was unveiled as a Red Bulls player in New York.  He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying  this is “the end for me on the national team.”  While its sad that its “official,” the chance of him being called-up again for France were probably little to none anyways.

My biggest sadness about this situation is not necessarily that he retired, but the way he went out.  For such a competitor to go out whimpering, licking his wounds was such a sorry sight.  For a player who had accomplished so much to feel like no one respected him or wanted him to lead them was even worse.

I’m not sure what the future holds for Henry in New York (as a New Yorker, I’m hoping it includes trophies)- but I hope he is able to end his club career on a higher note than his international career.  Best of Luck Henry!

Dave from The Offside-Red Bulls will be at the Thierry Henry press conference today in New York.  I suggest visiting the Red Bulls Blog or following him on twitter for live updates!

PS- Im working on a top 10 Henry moments for the National Team post.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The match against South Africa will probably go down as the lowest moment in the history of Les Bleus. Though France have had worse games and even worse tournaments, as tragedies go, yesterday takes the cake. No wonder I can hear Scottish funeral dirges playing in the background.

I don’t know this man.

I’m going to skip over the events leading up to yesterday’s match, as I think both Sarah and Jeff covered it pretty well. I’m not even going to bring up France’s performance in the games because they were all shitty, so there isn’t much to analyze. Nor am I going to talk much about Domenech because there’s nothing new to say about him, but at least he’s gone forever.

However, I am going to rant about the players. I blame them more than Domenech, which I didn’t think was actually possible. And right now, I’m hating Nicolas Anelka. A lot.

Though it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly turned Les Bleus into a production of Mean Girls, Domenech’s tenure has never yielded good results, and his relationship with the players has never been stable. His tactics are from the stone ages, and from the day he was hired until the day he was sort of fired, he never figured out how to best utilize his players. He never should have been kept on after Euro 2008, and the fact that he lasted through World Cup qualifying makes me wonder just what drugs the FFF were taking. But most importantly for me, even though it seems otherwise, what with his strange tactical choices and his reliance on two DMs, Domenech has never been able to fully control his players.

Oh, and the best part of yesterday’s match? Domenech’s refusal to shake the hand of South Africa’s coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira. It was an unclassy moment to cap off an unclassy performance by an unclassy team. Because in all honesty, France’s performance all the way through qualifying and then in the group stages only confirms what we all knew deep inside our hearts – that France never deserved to go through to the next round. Maybe they even shouldn’t have had a place in the World Cup to begin with. It’s a harsh assessment, but any team that disrespects its country and its fans the way France did doesn’t deserve anything less.

Yeah, you better hide.

But all the Domenech hatred in the world cannot explain away the temper tantrums thrown by the spoiled divas chosen to represent France. What troubles me is that it’s the same group of players that are causing the problems. We all know who they are.

Of course I don’t know the whole story that lead to the implosion within the squad, at least I won’t until Patrice Evra does his big reveal, but Nicolas Anelka’s behavior this World Cup has proven that he has no future in blue. Maybe he never did. From the way he treated Yoann Gourcuff to his insults to Domenech (no matter how France did or what the tactics were, no player should EVER speak to his coach like that. It’s inexcusable), he’s failed to act like a professional. Anelka refused to apologize for his outburst, and in typical fashion, he was more upset that his behavior became public than the fact that France’s poor performance against Mexico was as much the fault of him and his teammates as it was Domenech’s. And let’s face it, he’s not even that good of a player to even somewhat justify his diva behavior. At least Zidane knew what he was doing when he pushed Domenech around four years ago. Anelka’s contributions have been moderate at best, and I remain convinced that there are far better options up front.

I’m also really disappointed in Franck Ribery. He was more humble guy during the last WC, but in the following years, his ego has inflated to massive proportions, and he’s become a jerk. His collusion with Anelka and William Gallas over Gourcuff’s ostracism, his role in planning the training boycott, and his selfish behavior on the pitch – yesterday he made Cristiano Ronaldo look like one of the Sisters of Mercy – makes me wish he could be axed from the squad as well.

Gallas, well, he’s always been a petulant diva, so I can’t say I’m surprised at his antics. If he is never called up for France again, it’ll be the best news ever. Same goes for Patrice Evra, whose behavior as captain has been downright shameful. The fact that his obsession with finding the “traitor” that leaked Anelka’s tirade to the press took priority over his displaying leadership and uniting his team so that France could still have a shot at making it to the next round says it all. His post match comments on how he now regrets the boycott merely makes it worse – just what did he think would happen?

Some captain Evra turned out to be.

Objectively, all this is downright hilarious when you consider that Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri were dropped because they cause drama.

I’m troubled when I think of what Laurent Blanc has waiting for him. It would be hard for anyone to pick up the pieces of the mess that is Les Bleus, but he’ll also have several petulant players on his hands, all of whom demand special treatment. Domenech was never able to impose his will on his players, and I am not sure if Blanc’s personality is strong enough to manage it either.

Even though Les Bleus are literally in the middle of a melt down (see the full timeline of events, which I’ve continued to update as reports surface), we still have one more game in the group stage which will determine our fate.  France is currently sitting 3rd in the group having only collected 1 point in the competition thus far.  South Africa are also sitting on a single point, but France has a better goal difference at -2 (compared to the Bafana’s -3).  Both Uruguay and Mexico have 4 points and have accumulated a +3 and +2 goal difference respectively.  Unfortunately, that means our fate is no longer in our own hands.  But we do have a chance- and miracle do happen, right?  As described by Ian on the World Cup Blog front page a few days ago, in order to qualify for the knock out stages, France qualifies if…

* If Mexico and Uruguay draw, then France is eliminated.
* If France draws or loses to South Africa, they are eliminated.
* If France beats South Africa, and there is a winner between Uruguay and Mexico, then it will come to goal difference between France and the loser of that match for second place in the group.

In the lead up to this final game, there has been tremendous speculation on the possibility that Mexico and Uruguay will both “fix the match” so that they are both assured of qualifying.  However, I don’t think either of these teams want to be second in this group and face the possibility of playing Argentina in the round of 16.  I expect this to be a competitive match with both groups battling for first place in the group.  And hey, we know firsthand how well Uruguay can defend…and now if only Forlan can continue his goal scoring streak- then the Bleus have a chance.  But, facing the Bafana will not be an easy task.  In fact, this will probably be the hardest game we’ve played in the group yet.  Afterall, our players are still emotionally raw from the events that transpired over the weekend and the home crowd will be loud and aggressive in their support of South Africa.  So, if the players thought the horns were disruptive in game 1 against Uruaguay, just imagine….let’s just say, I hope they have practiced under the appropriate conditions.  Better yet, lets just hope they practice. Period.

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THE OPPOSITION:  SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa are clinging onto the same hope as France and while their team doesn’t appear to be exploding from the inside out, the team is under tremendous pressure to not be the first host team to not qualify for the knock-out stages of the World Cup.  This could either work for or against Les Bleus depending upon how they respond to the pressure.  South Africa impressed everyone in game 1 (particularly after the first 15 minutes) when they managed to not only withstand the pressure from Mexico but also managed to score first.  Their dream start came to an abrupt end when they lost 3-0 to Uruguay in game 2.  Even if the margin is slim, South Africa appears eager to take on the wounded France and claim an “easy” scalp to ensure they don’t leave the tournament without a win.

_________________________________________

TEAM UPDATES:  LES BLEUS

I’m not going to rehash the events of the preceding dates- for details on that, see the timeline I referenced in the first paragraph.  But, I will throw out some cold hard facts that should have any football fan confused when looking at a roster that includes (or did include) Anelka, Ribery, Gignac, Malouda, Cisse and Henry.  Though Gignac, Henry and Cisse have played comparatively less minutes (if at all)

So, clearly we need to score.  The question is, will the players have the energy and mental strength to do what needs to be done?  Truthfully, I don’t know.  Even Domenech admits he still isn’t sure about a lot of things.  In his press conference on Monday, he admitted the players were drained after the dramatic turn of events the last few days.  But, Domenech also said he saw more determination and grit in the players than he had seen in a while.  Of course, in the same breath he acknowledged that he couldn’t be certain the players would even consent to playing- but I think (or hope) that I detected a thin veil of sarcasm regarding that last comment.

Given that we’ve only had one practice session since the implosion, its difficult to predict the line-up for the game against South Africa.  And as reminder, we are only two games in and we are already down to 21 players with both Anelka (dropped) and Carrasso (injury) both sent home.  But, Le Parisian reports that Evra and Malouda appear to have lost their place in the starting XI.  Instead, they suggest Gourcuff will return to the lineup and Clichy will earn his 5th cap for France.  Cisse will most likely replace Anelka and get the starting spot in lieu of Gignac.  The suspended Toulalan will be replaced by Alou Diarra, who will also wear the captain’s armband as both Evra and Henry are relegated to the bench.  Govou looks set to return as Domenech feels that he is a player he can trust to remain loyal.  Another uncertainty is if the player who remain on the bench are being punished or being granted a request (to not play).

Predicted Starting XI: Lloris; Sagna, Abidal, Gallas, Clichy; Diarra, Diaby, Gourcuff; Govou, Cisse, Ribery

With the events over the past few days, its easy to feel like the Bleus have turned their back on the fans

*Post written to the tune of Everybody Hurts by REM…audio at bottom of post (below the jump)*

Please note: The timeline of events has been updated thanks to additions and clarifications made in the comments section of the post. Credit to Justin, Sandrahn and Jennifer!

I’ve been a fan of the Bleus since 1998, ever since the team’s glorious World Cup win in Paris – I became a passionate fan of the Bleus after their infamous first round exit in the 2002 World Cup.  But, the feeling of losing so miserably after such joyous feelings and high expectations upset me, and formed my desire to follow the team until the day they would avenge the past and win the World Cup again.  With each year I’ve become more enthralled with the Bleus- and though I joined the France-mania in 1998, I’m hardly a fair weather fan who jumped on the bandwagon.  Since 2002,I can count the number of games I’ve missed on one hand.  At times, it’s even mysterious to me how I have developed such a strong connection with Les Bleus.   There have been a lot of times when I could have abandoned the team because the Bleus are not always an easy team to love.  Growing up in Texas (the founder of freedom fries), it was hardly a passion that was encouraged and I’m pretty sure I was the only one on the France bandwagon.  Even outside of those cultural issues, both the French Football Federation’s as well as the team’s performances and behavior the past decade have alienated even their most ardent supporters.  In 2006, France fans were given a brief reprieve when they managed to string together 3 magnificent performances in a row (Spain, Brazil, Portugal) to make it to the finals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.  For reasons we all know, we did not win that Cup.  And it is clear that without a miracle, we will not win it this year either.  And it breaks my heart.  Really.

There are differences in fans’ dedication levels. Bandwagon or fair-weather fans will get excited and follow teams only when they’re playing well or during big competitions such as the World Cup.  But hardcore fans get very connected emotionally and dedicate themselves to the team every year, despite its record. These people experience powerful emotions from watching the team and support them through the ecstasy of winning and the agony of defeat.  These are the types of fans which seemingly live and die with their favorite teams and athletes.  In any match, scenes of one fan throwing back their head in desperation are juxtaposed against the opposition’s supporters jumping up and down in jubilation.  While the Mexican fans broke our their sombreros and tequila (before you accuse me of breaking out an ethnic stereotype, some of them actually did that), France fans experienced a barrage of emotions:  sadness that their team was most likely going home in the first round, anger that the players didn’t seem to care, confusion over why a team of talented players could create neither a credible offense or defense and frustration that had the FFF made changes in 2008, this could have been avoided.

That bond is a two-edged sword. A win by your favorite team can pick you up, but a loss is demoralizing (to say the least). Beyond losses, fans can feel a personal connection to players, which is why when even “off the field” scandals like Frank Ribery’s occur, fans can feel betrayed.  There’s a lot in my relationship with the Bleus that I’m not proud of. I’ve cancelled lunches and dates at the movies because a game was on. My temper has snapped like a twig more than a few times and I’ve yelled at everyone in the room when the pundit misrepresented or distorted game or a player, or when one of my friends had the audacity to chat during a game.  Of course if we won, it’s shots for everybody…

As a France fan, I’ve experienced many great and unforgettable moments. But as Bleus supporters know too well, there have been too many moments when they find a way to break your heart.  When I saw Fabio Cannavaro and the rest of the Italian team raise the Cup  in 2006 and heard the celebration from the Spanish fans in 2008, it was gut-wrenching.  But neither of those can compare to what I have felt since the game against Mexico on Friday.

Since then, the shit has really hit the fan and I have felt more like I was watching a soap opera unfold rather than a team of world-class professionals participate in one of the biggest events in their career.  While it was clear going into this tournament that all was not well, I never would have imagined that things would spiral out of of control this quickly.  We all knew Domenech was not the right man to lead the Bleus for this tournament – that was abundantly clear in 2008.  But, for reasons they have yet to explain, the FFF declared he was the appropriate man for South Africa.  Since then, the atmosphere surrounding a team has resembled a country about to break into civil war.  The FFF were pitted against both the public and the their famous alumni who repeatedly (every chance they got) denounced the FFF and Domenech.  For most of the two years, Domenech has taken a majority of the hits and criticism.  And while he is certainly not blameless by any means, surely we can all agree that there is enough blame to go around.  But the lack of transparency and the team’s insistence of shrouding everything in secrecy has made it difficult to determine how to assign the blame.  Instead, we are left to put the pieces together by a dramatic press corps who seem more interested in selling papers than writing the truth, a team of players whose oversized egos result in them constantly deflecting and blaming everyone else, Domenech who is clearly clueless and has no clue what is going on and how to fix it as well as the Federation who appear willing to do almost anything to salvage their reputation.  And yet none of these people appear willing to take any responsibility for the position we are in now.  And what position is that, you ask?  Let’s just summarize the events of the last few days…