I realized that I asked everybody else for your starting XI but never wrote out my own. So here they are. Some are purely rational, others just because I like them. My first choice is listed first, second choice in parentheses. Like I said before, I went with 4-4-2 because I [...]

I guess it’s that time of year, isn’t it? The time to look back at where we’ve been. Or, for our purposes, where the team (and consequently the blog) have been. So here are a few of my favorite moments and blog posts from 2007.
Favorite moments:
In theory I should probably list the [...]

It’s the Christmas break and off-season for European NTs, so I’ll be giving you things other than standard news this month.
If you don’t read the always creative and informed Lyon Offside, (and if you don’t, you should) you may not have seen this. And you need to.
For the others, click [...]

What can we say about this game? It was one half of very pretty football and one half of “please let us survive this with a draw.” Fortunately we got the draw.
After the first half, I was hopeful. We were up 2-1, Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry look promising together up [...]

L’Equipe lists two possiblities for the start of the Ukraine-France game on Wednesday:
The first is:
4-2-1-2-1 with François Clerc, Lilian Thuram, William Gallas and Eric Abidal on defense, Lassana Diarra and Claude Makelele in front of them, Mathieu Flamini one of three midfielders, in the center supporting Sidney Govou (on the right) et Franck [...]

To cap off a great weekend, Willy Sagnol finished his first full ninety-minute game with the Bayern Munich reserves this weekend since his knee injury last season.
The 30-year-old, who has 51 caps for his country and played in last year’s World Cup final, injured his right knee in a Champions League match with [...]

I think France coach Raymond Domenech speaks for a lot of us in his thoughts on the Scotland-Italy game today:
“I am divided between satisfaction and disappointment to not have a match in Ukraine [that will have] intensity, pressure and true risk. To build a generation, it is necessary that we [experience] difficulty. “
That about sums [...]

Three thoughts after watching this video:
1) This really was a brilliant, high-energy game that would have been lovely to watch if I were a neutral. Too bad I’m not a neutral.
2) This defensive lineup might work with Coupet. It doesn’t work with Landreau. Where, oh where is Philippe [...]

Lord, what a frustrating game. Watching it was like driving a Porsche that’s in desperate need of a tuneup. You know what it CAN do, but making it do it is another story.
We should have expected this, though. Domenech fielded a relatively young and inexperienced team that hasn’t played much [...]

L’Equipe is saying that Jérémy Toulalan may play tomorrow. Oy. Look at this picture from the fff site. Does this look like a healthy player?
In good news, our Barcelona boys have arrived at Clairefontaine and all seem to be healthy and uninjured. Thierry Henry played the match on [...]