Domenech’s conversation with Benzema

I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how the conversatino went.

Ouch.. Ribery & Abidal off, Nasri humiliated, 1-0 down..

I want France to go through now!

What a complete implosion by Domenech. Abidal at CB? And he choses to make that switch in this game? This isn’t the Faroe Islands.

The FFF better get their f—ing act together and fire this guy’s ass right now. One of the most talented group of players on the planet in his hands and he leads them thru a crap qualifying round and now this.

Ha ha, France has once again felt the spanking of Italy on its Burgundy butts! I laugh at the loser Domenech, please tell us more of your witticisms! Italy 2 France NOTHING… Forz’Italia baby!

Italy still World Champions! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Yes it is so true! And Henry is still the queen of all divers!

Congrats to the Italians, I was on another message board only a brief moment ago and many of them are displaying sportsmanship, as well as concern in terms of Ribéry, though I see it is different here. All I’ll say they were a bit better than us today, and as this door closes, another opens, likely for the Mexès, Trezeguet, etc. to return.

The game was over after the 8th minute, when ribery was out.

this is sadly a shakeup that will get domenech and the “old guard” out
no more thuram, sagnol, make, viera, (maybe malouda, henry, abidal)
our future team is based around our young players already in the team and
flamini, sagna, clichy, ben arfa, and soooooooooooooooooo many more

it breaks my heart to say this, but italy deserved it, but still, screw you divers and beautiful women.

I feel terrible for Ribery. Tough breaks for France. Abidal was not strong enough back there.

As an Azzurri supporter, I feel for France. I’m sure they’ll be back. In fairness though, even if they were at full strength France simply looked disjointed at Euro 2008.

They were done in by a fool: Domenech.

Anyone could see Benzema should have been given more chances.

I don’t think anyone shamelessly dove – there were some hard tackles. Henry is no angel by the way.

Nice comments, squiggy. Abidal’s not a center back, which really makes one question why Mexès wasn’t on the squad, though with a different manager, we won’t have to worry about that anymore. As I have a bit of Italian blood in me, all the best against Spain, and I appreciate your being a good sportsman.

yup, france certainly could have done better with guys like mexes, flamini and trez on the squad. in a way, french supporters should find the silver lining from this euro – no more of that twat, domenech. i see mexes play every week and absolutely love him (my favorite non-roman-born player at roma). he is an f-ing stud of a defender. how you choose boumsong over mexes is a question only that knob domenech could answer…but likely not rationally.

as for ribery, it’s a shame about his injury. he is by far the most gifted player on the squad and a joy to watch.

seb, nice to see some class from this blog.

The similarities between Domenech and Donadoni are frightning. Both get the formation wrong, both called up too many old farts from previous glory, and both love their former teams like none other.

I watched France the entire tournament. Mexes+Trezeguet+Flamini were badly needed, maybe even Sagna. Boumsong sucks (as a Juventino I know) and Trezeguet is amazing. I don’t know how he could fuck that up, but ironically it was those two positions that got ripped open.

Laurie, you really think this is Henry’s last game?

Speaking of team selections, is there any player more overrated in the world than Anelka? He’s flopped at 3+ big clubs now, he has no real talent, he’s like Nicola Amoruso, someone born to lead relegation-candiate teams. Maybe mid-table if we’re generous.

Watching him in Moscow was painful. This guy is awful, and Grant and Domenech are insane to even bother putting him on their bench.

I’m not Laurie, but I don’t believe this is the end for Henry. He, as well as Vieira, have something to prove, and Henry should help tutor all the strikers we have now who look up to him. As for Anelka, he has good skills but absolutely zero consistency, though yes, he should have been our 4th striker at this tournament, behind Henry, Trezeguet, Benzema.

Alessio, I said that in the heat of the moment. After reflection, no, I don’t think it is.

What I’m hoping will happen, though, is that whoever comes in will see that he’s not a 90-minute player anymore, and when he tries to go the distance he’s ineffective for most of those ninety.

He still has the potential to teach the young players and to make a difference as a supersub, though. I’m hoping he’ll have the class to recognize that as his skill now that he’s over thirty, and also hoping that the next coach will be able to use him the right way.

Laurie, Henry has officially announced he isn’t retiring. As expected Makélélé, Thuram and Sagnol (that one wasn’t as expected) have retired.

@ Seb
henry wants to play with trez again.
vieira, coupet and gallas should retired because the new coach will not select them in the near future.

Oh, definitely, I actually wrote that Henry has that to look forward to on another forum. I agree on Coupet, don’t know about Vieira and Gallas as Gallas had a good first half of the season, though a poor second, while it was the inverse with Vieira. I think they have something to prove, and I hope the stay, actually. Their leadership is required as I don’t think Henry as captain is as terrific an idea.

I am so disappointed with the score…
I hope for one crucial thing – Domenech should retire as this should be the consequence of all these things he has done to this team;/ Do you have any news about it??

I’m more disappointed with the performance overall in the tournament as opposed to the scores, as we were woeful considering the guys we have (Evra didn’t exactly have a poor season, did he?). As for M. Dumbenech, he isn’t stepping down, though I think the FFF will sack him. Didi Deschamps apparently is already being whispered about as being the coach after this.

Seb,

The French teams of the 80s will always have a place in my heart. Rocheteau and Altobelli were among my childhood favorites. Heck, I probably liked France more than the French themselves.

When I saw Abidal at center-back I knew that it was going to be a feast for Toni – he’s near impossible to contain.

Deschamps = class.

Juve fans will forever grateful to him for guiding them out of Serie B. Too bad he couldn’t stick around.

Well I know that the team didn’t play well especially with Romania. Yesterday when I saw what happened with Ribery then this red card… This was the end – only miracle could save them, but still I think they performed better than in first match. I hope that Domenech will not be the coach… anyone but not him. I am disappointed because usually France needed more time to play well… Now it has been more difficult as they faced great teams at the very beginning.

“My world was blue and it turned to black today”

Specially with all the pre-tournament hype and ofcourse the eternal
optimism of diehards like myself.
No one can tell me that this is the “beautiful” game anymore.
What bitter taste after an undeserved sent-off would lead you to believe
that the beauty you once thought is actually hideous scars covered by esthetics. An important match with such magnitude calls for extra scrutiny
by the officials, not getting caught up in the moment.
I’ve seen the replay and I did not see anything flagrant about Abidals conduct.

Despite it all Les Bleus deserve all the accolades as they battled hard
with 10 men and actually had they been more accurate, such as numerous chances by Benzema(OVERRATED) there would’ve been a minimal chance of
achieving the impossible.

How could Domenech make such horrible substitution, and make a total mockery of the young Nasri?

Truly this demonstrates how much of an impact Zidane had on this squad!
Now we all could conclude that this player selection process was absolutely
abismal and Domenech should gracefully step aside.

Benzema was given many chances to show that he’s for real, but could produce only one superb shot which Buffon saved. I don’t think that Sir Alex is going to break the bank to acquire him anytime soon.

I thought that Coupet had a fair game and made up for the past gaffs.
Farewell to all those great older players who filled our hearts with much joy, now it’s time to rebuild, and I think the 2014
in Brazil is a much more realistic target.
Allez Les Bleus We LOVE you!

Let’s not be too hard on Benzema. In the games he was involved in, I feel he was the better attacker between the two (not that that’s saying much) strikers we had. And on the bright side, as “bad” as he’s been, he’s had a better tournament than Mario Gómez to this point.

Yep @ Mario Gomez. Foreverzidane, even Zizou himself had a rough Euro in ‘96 and WC in 2002. He was able to redeem himself and we should accord the same opportunity to young Benzema in his first major international competition.
In regards to the Abidal situation:
#1-He was played out of position
#2-He was marking Italy’s goal machine
#3-He tackled from behind
#4-The refs wanted to establish a tone and maintain order in what was billed as “the game of the Euro”.
Yes it was a bit harsh on the send off and had he not been, the face of the game formation wise and attacking wise would have been more in our favor.
Nasri had to be removed (or Govou, but I don’t think Domenech wanted this as Govou was coming off a decent game against the Dutch and proved to be useful)from the game because of the loss of a defender (Abidal). Domenech had no choice and it was the right move if France were going to have any shot to stop the bleeding and maybe equalize at least.
Overall I think Domenech deserved a better last game as coach of Les Bleus. Things happened vs. Italy that he couldn’t prevent. My last words on the liveblog after the penalty were “Mexes” before I completely emmersed myself back into the match.

ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Goodbye France!

Hey Miguel: Boa Noite to you too, very soon!!!

Hey Miguel Santos where are you man?