500 days until the World Cup – Enough time for France to get ready?

January 26th, 2009 | by: jeff |

According to FIFA, there are 500 days until the 2010 World Cup begins in South Africa. Will our beloved L’Equipe de France be ready for the big show? Will they even make it?

Here are the Group 7 standings.

France have played 3 of their 10 matches.

September 6, 2008 – France lost 3-1 away to Austria (Mexes had a howler, Govou got the 61st minute goal)

September 10, 2008 – France won at home 2-1 against Serbia (Fantastic full debut for Gourcuff, brilliant goals from Henry (53′) and Anelka (63′), France let in a late header from a corner)

October 11, 2008 – France had a 2-2 draw away to Romania (Eric Abidal and Jean-Alain Boumsong in central defense, France down 2-0 after 17 minutes, goals from Ribery (36′) and Gourcuff (68′) – Gourcuff had the assist on the first goal, and the goal he scored was an absolute screamer, credited by some with having saved Domenech’s job)

Each of the 9 Group winners qualifies for the World Cup. Eight of the nine runner-ups will compete for the last 4 European spots (some poor team is going to finish second in its the group, and not even have a chance to participate in a 2-match playoff).

In the last couple official France matches, the offense has shown some firepower, which is a great turnaround from the feeble performances we’d gotten used to (one goal at Euro 2008). The offense is coming from Ribery, Gourcuff, Toulalan, Henry, and Anelka.

The defense has been a shambles, and looking around club football, I haven’t noticed a French center-back pairing emerging that would put this concern to rest.

The next couple matches are still a couple months away – both against Lithuania: away on March 28, 2009 and in France on April 1, 2009.

That should be 6 points.

After that, there’s a break until August, then two games in September and two games in October.

How are the France players doing for their clubs?

I’ve been watching the Arsenal with obsessive attention to detail, and there’s not too much good news to report. Gallas has been stripped of the captaincy, and hasn’t always been starting recently. Clichy’s had a dip in form this season, although that’s probably temporary. Sagna’s mostly been playing well, but he can get caught out playing against especially fast wingers. Silvestre hasn’t been overly convincing, although he hasn’t been terrible. Diaby looks great in short patches, but more often he looks average. The bright spot from Arsenal has been the offense from Nasri, but I’m not sure where he would fit into the current France team.

Gourcuff’s been having a great season, from what I’ve seen, at Bordeaux, and will probably carry on as a starter for France, along with Ribery, keeping Nasri out of the side. I would say that I’d rather see Nasri play than Govou, although Govou can produce nice moments of skill to get goals, so France could do worse.

As we draw closer to the Lithuania games, we’ll have some more posts on France players playing for their clubs, hopefully to build some optimism.

It feels like this long break in official matches could have a cleansing effect. Hopefully we can put the defensive frailty and frustration with Domenech behind us, and start climbing that Group 7 table.

Tags: Euro 2008

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Comments

By Sam | January 26th, 2009 at 7:01 pm

Won’t be seeing Govou this year – he’s out for the season. Up front Henry and Benzema seem like our best two players, although we’ll have to see if Anelka can get back into the Chelsea side and continue on from his great start to the season – he’s still top scorer with 14 goals

Posted from United Kingdom

By Ed The Sports Fan | January 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

The back 4 for France has always been a problem. It would be interesting to see if Nasri could be an additional sparkplug to an already loaded offense. Arsenal needs him to continue playing big, maybe he can do it for France.

Go GOONERS!

-Ed.
http://www.edthesportsfan.com

Posted from United States

By Julien G. | January 26th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

Bye, Bye, Sagnol…a phenomenal player…

By Julien G. | January 26th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

Trezeguet, I still were you shirt…

By jeanpierre | January 27th, 2009 at 10:24 am

cool, that refreshed my mind loads. I agree with the Nasri re-placez Govou part.

I hope the friendly match over 2 weeks against Argentine with Maradona won’t ruin all optimism left.

ps; yes, bye sagnol, hope to see him back as something coach-like or see his kids back as backline

Posted from Netherlands

By Guy Courtin | January 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am

I think qualification will be hard fought. The two matches against Lithuania will be much more challenging than we once thought. Lithuania has already won at Romania 3-0, home against Austria 2-0, so they cannot be taken lightly at all. Let us not forget that during the Euro qualifiers France struggled away to beat Lithuania, scoring late in the game. And struggled in the return leg at Nantes, yes they won 2-0, could have been 3-0 but the goals came late in the game. I think the entire campaign will hinge on these two matches, France will need to at least come out with 4 points, anything less will make qualifying incredibly challenging.

I do agree that France needs to shape up their back 4. Les Bleus need to put Mexes-Gallas in the middle of the defense. Allow Evra or Clichy on the left and have Sagna or Fanni on the right. The real issue will be does Domenech play with two holding midfielders or one? I would offer staying with two in front of the back 4 – Toulalan and LDiarra should provide the cover for the defense. Offensively, I totally agree – Nasri and Ribery on the wings with Gourcuff in the middle. Benzema up front. The other option would be to have Henry slide wide left, he has demonstrated an ability to play that role and he has always loved running at defenses from the left flank. I think other attacking players that might be given a bite of the apple – Menez, Savidan, Sinama-Pongolle.

Les Bleus will have a difficult mountain to climb, the drubbing they took at Austria will haunt them, Domenech, while he should not be running the team anymore, has at least figured out that Gourcuff needs to pull the strings in the midfield. Now he needs to figure out what to do for the back line.

http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/

Posted from United States

By Eric Escander | January 27th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

I’d rather see clerc than fanni on the right when it comes to defense. Though things are still a bit shakey in the back I think things are settling in place. Also having lloris play as keeper should help a lot. I hope we are convincing against Argentina. Any idea on when the squad list will be released?

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier(Slider) | January 27th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

@ guy
also gignac and hoarau

@ eric
what about chalme, his having a great season with bordeaux

what i like to see is this
———lloris———
chalme-mexes-gallas-abidal
—-diarra—toulalan—–
ribery—-gourcuff—-nasri
———-henry———

Posted from United States

By jeff | January 27th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Great comments. Henry has to be in the side, either up front or wide left. I like the 4-2-3-1. Then, either Benzema, if he has his mojo back, up front, or Nasri wide left.

That’s what I’d like to see. Of course if Henry’s injured, then France still have the players to create some offense.

By Eric Escander | January 28th, 2009 at 12:35 am

Well if anyone wants to know who we’re up against the list for Argentina has been released and is posted on the Argentina blog. As expected they’re comming with their best minus riquelme. Michel I don’t get to watch a lot of ligue 1 games but it would be interesting to see how Chalme plays. Abidal on the left I feel would be a mistake, I would stick with Evra or Clichy. I would take out Diarra(assuming your talking about Lassana)for Flamini. That midfield would be full of talent. For the lone striker jury’s still out for me because Henry, Benzema, and Anelka seem to be on and off for France as of late.

Posted from United States

By Julien G. | January 28th, 2009 at 8:59 am

I would be reluctant to go with Chamle. Imho, he’s not natural team material, there nothing really special about him. He’s been solid for Bordeaux all season but he’s one of those players that seem to rigid on the ball and he lacks the natural fluidity of a full back. All though very solid(he very frustrating for opposing wingers/wide midfielders), he can’t get up and down the wing (overlaping runs into the box) and play in some well driven cross. He doesn’t have the and of the forward play of a fullback.

Clerc would be my first choice RB, Sagna I don’t think is ready and Clerc has a fair bit more experience.

My biggest concern is that France haven’t been developing defenders, there aren’t any clear cut replacement of our aging CB ex., Mexes and Gallas. Mamadou Sakho has been the only CB we have recently produced…

By jeanpierre | January 28th, 2009 at 10:16 am

I wud like to see clerc too, checking fff site daily (new ritual about 10 o clock evening during tooth brushing) but still no news

@michelle olivier; I like the midfield its nice, and im struggling with the choice (if i wud be domenech) between a midfield like that or benzema and henry up front

Posted from Netherlands

By Sam | January 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

Clerc is still injured, and has been since the start of the season – so we won’t be seeing him for a while I shouldn’t think. I think Sagna is a good player, who always impresses me when I watch him. At LB I would certainly pick Evra who is a much better player than Clichy IMO who’s had a bad season and is extremely error prone

Posted from United Kingdom

By Guy Courtin | January 29th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

I am not convinced of Hoarau, and I am a huge PSG fan. I think he is just a taller version of Trezegol. And we all know how highly Domenech values the franco-argentine. Hoarau is a decent option if you play two strikers, and leverage one (Hoarau) as a pivot, allow him to sit on top of the 18 and flick on crosses, or crash the penalty spot inwards and look to win the game in the air, but that is not how Domenech sees his team or his strikers. Otherwise I think Trezeguet would still be prominent in this team.

As for Chalme, not convinced of him. He has not even been called up for any of the national youth sides. Granted he is playing well for Bordeaux. Sagna to me remains France’s best option at right back. Clerc, when healthy, is a decent option but I am not convinced that he is the clear #1, he has not been the clear #1 for his club!

Another player to keep an eye on is Feghouli who plays for Grenoble. I recently watched him against Lyon and he was clearly the most creative player for both sides, he was on the initial list from Domenech last round of internationals so I would not be surprised to see him make an appearance very soon.

We shall see, Argentina will be a huge test…I fear that we will see the same we did the last time these nations met in a friendly when France was dealing with defensive questions – an Argentina victory….ugh.

By Jeff | January 30th, 2009 at 11:27 am

Sagna is a reliable defender. If he’s in there, right back won’t be a position that we’re overly worried about, especially with the uncertainty at holding midfield, central defense, and goalkeeper.

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