France Beats Faroe Islands 6-0

October 13th, 2007 | by: Laurie | View Comments

I overslept this morning and tuned into the game in the fourteenth minute and discovered I’d missed the first two goals. (Nicolas Anelka and Thierry Henry.) And then pretty much nothing happened for the rest of the first half. Hate when that happens.

Les Bleus scored those two right off the bat, then they sleep-walked through the rest of the first half. And then Karim Benzema was subbed in for Anelka second half and things picked up quite a bit. Two second half goals for Benzema, and one off a beautiful, Beckham-esque curling free kick for Jérôme Rothen, and one final exclamation point in the 93rd minute for Hatem Ben Arfa in his senior team debut.

Offensively things are looking up a bit. I’m incredibly hopeful. (And I’m trying to figure out here how much was the Faroe Islands being a minnow and how much was France being a shark.)

First off, Henry got his next goal and tied Platini’s record. One more and it belongs to him.

Second was the pairing of Henry and Benzema. For the first time in ages I feel like I’m seeing two attackers who work well together for France. (I’ll look for a video of that second Benzema goal, which was set up by beautiful work from Patrice Evra and then Thierry Henry.) I don’t think Anelka and Henry are a good pairing — their styles are so much alike that sometimes I can’t even tell which one of them has the ball. But I really think that Benzema could function well with either. (Have I mentioned recently that I adore this kid?)

What really made me happy was to see Henry so thrilled by both Benzema’s and Ben Arfa’s goals. (Yes, he actually smiled!) It’s been good seeing Anelka nurture the younger ones, and it’s equally good to see Henry do the same thing. I feel better about Thierry Henry than I have in awhile, even though he still doesn’t seem to be playing at 100%.

Sadly, I think David Trezeguet may have played his last game in Bleu. (And yes, this still breaks my heart, even if I am a little annoyed with him for the things he’s said this week.) In my eyes Benzema offers what Trezeguet offers — the ability to finish — but is a much more complete player, even at nineteen.

Ben Arfa got about thirty minutes on the field and had a pretty good debut. Not spectacular, but definitely enough to show promise and to get his first goal. Which, if I’m remembering correctly, was off a Benzema assist. I think we’ll be seeing much more of this pairing in the future, but probably not against Lithuania unless it’s with a late substitution.

I’m still undecided about whether Rothen or Florent Malouda has more to offer the team on the field at left midfield, but just based on that free kick alone Rothen has something France needs. It curled so beautifully into the upper corner of the net that I don’t think any goalkeeper could have stopped it, and that’s what we desperately need.

Defense was a little worrisome and lax. They can get away without tight marking against the Faroes, but Lithuania and Ukraine will punish them for it. I really, really prefer Julien Escudé or Philippe Mexès over Eric Abidal on central defense, particularly when paired with Lilian Thuram. And Bakary Sagna seemed to struggle a bit at rightback. (I think, like Lassana Diarra, he has potential, but isn’t there yet.) And as much as I adore Patrice Evra and his beautiful overlapping runs, he’s not always in position when it comes to playing defensively. Who do you prefer at leftback? Abidal or Evra?

And that’s all that really stood out this game for me. I’m hoping to see Benzema start on Wednesday, and some tweaks to defense, but other than that this may be a workable starting lineup. What do you think?