France, Meet Argentina, OR: The New List! Same as the Old List! (Almost)

February 5th, 2009 | by: Laurie |

There are two items of news regarding the list for the Argentina friendly.

1) The FFF has redesigned their site so that the formatting carries over when I hit “copy”! So no more having to insert spaces and line breaks! Yay!
2) Other than a new goalkeeper, Cédric Carrasso from Toulouse, there is nothing new to report. Seriously. Nothing. No shocks or surprises that I could see.

Except is Patrice Evra injured? Gael Clichy and Eric Abidal are both there, but no Evra. And Julien Escudé is back, which makes me happy. I’ve always like Escude.

Also, only three defensive midfielders? Is this a tactics shift? Think Raymond might be about to get creative with his formation? Or do we really only have three DMs good enough for the national team?

And again, even though we know that Raymond is going to use Gourcuff as a playmaker, the list is heavy on strikers and light on wingers. (No Florent Malouda or Hatem ben Arfa.) Because that worked so well, scoring-wise, in the game against Uruguay. (Not that I’m saying either should have been called up. I’m just sayin’ don’t we have any more wingers available than Nasri and Ribery?)

Do you see any major omissions?

Gardiens de But

Cédric CARRASSO FC Toulouse nouveau
Hugo LLORIS Olympique Lyonnais
Stève MANDANDA Olympique de Marseille

Défenseurs

Eric ABIDAL FC Barcelone
Gaël CLICHY Arsenal F.C.
Julien ESCUDE FC Seville
Rod FANNI Stade Rennais F.C.
William GALLAS Arsenal F.C.
Philippe MEXES AS Rome
Bakary SAGNA Arsenal F.C.
Sébastien SQUILLACI FC Séville

Milieux de terrain

Alou DIARRA Girondins de Bordeaux
Lassana DIARRA Real Madrid
Jérémy TOULALAN Olympique Lyonnais

Attaquants

Nicolas ANELKA Chelsea F.C.
Karim BENZEMA Olympique Lyonnais
Jimmy BRIAND Stade Rennais
Yoann GOURCUFF Girondins de Bordeaux
Thierry HENRY FC Barcelone
Samir NASRI Arsenal F.C.
Franck RIBERY Bayern Munich

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jeff

According to Reuters, Vieira’s left out struggling with injuries, and Boumsong has been dropped even though they say he’s playing well for Lyon.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKL579042120090205?sp=true
jeff

Any Stade Rennais fans out there? Rod Fanni and Jimmy Briand look like they’re cementing places in the French National Team. I’d like to see more of them. Any thoughts on these two?
jeff

Evra has had an ankle injury. He recovered, and played well against Chelsea, and reinjured it. He should be back for United soon, maybe this weekend.
Julien G.

Where is Menez, he should have called him up… He’s injured right now but he would have returned on time. Anelka has been poor in the past few weeks. I would have called up Hoarau instead, he would have been a nice addition; He would have brought something different from the other forwards.

Fanni, I think he’s good (…) a good squad player but once Clerc gets back and regains his form, I expect him to make a return. Well see what happens once Clerc comes back.

What happened to Pele, is he injured?

He’d better play with two centre half backs, Mexes and Gallas or even Squillaci. I’m getting sick of watching Abidal or Boumsong playing in the center.
Julien G.

It’s about time they updated there site…

Fanni–Mexes–Gallas–Abidal
– Lassana—Toulalan —
- Ribery–Gourcuff–Nasri -
—–Henry/Coco—–
John

Haven’t seen Briand play this year. Is he playing better than Hoarau? And there seem to be to many strikers at first glance, but Ray will probably go with the lone striker and he can always use Henry, Ribery, or Benzema on the wings. Although he is light on rightwingers.
jeanpierre

not a bad list, i dont miss 10 people like usually with domenech.
jeanpierre

@ julilen G: who is Coco?
lefutur

Coco must be Nicolas Anelka. I think I would prefer Henry and Benzema together though since its a friendly and Benzema needs more time to build up his confidence with Les Bleus
Julien G.

Haha, Coco is Benzema! Abidal calls him that.
http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/ Guy Courtin

Evra is hurt, but will be playing this weekend for Manchester United.
Pele is not hurt but Domenech seems to use the #3 keeper spot to try out some of the keepers from Ligue 1.

I think the squad is well balanced overall. I agree, I better see Gallas – Mexes in the middle of the defense.

http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/2009/02/domenech-announces-his-list-for.html
Jean-Michel

The absence of Boumsong is comforting but I’ll bet he’s on the short list of defensive alternates should someone suffer from a last minute injury.
jeanpierre

haha now i think i get it, coco from coconut since benz looks like a coconut

i agree with that line-up of julienG but i would take out L.Diarra and instead put some keeper called lloris in ;p
Aditya

For the first time ever I have no pressing complains against Domenech’s team selection. I always felt that Squallaci was overlooked and I am happy that he is in the squad this time around.
princedesparcs

My only bitch is the omission of Flamini. But that’s mostly the player’s fault, and you saw this coming when he left Arsenal for Milan, just as he was gaining a foothold on the nat’l side.

My preferred, and experiential, onze de depart:

Mandanda
Sagna Gallas Mexes Abidal
Toulalan
Nasri
Ribery Gourcuff
Henry
Anelka

A tad more offense with Nasri rather that, say, Lassana, but Samir runs, convers, tackles and passes well. He can also score from distance. While I’d like to see Evra at l/b, Abidal is by all accounts doing well at club level and seems intent on proving worthy of his Bleus’ place, while Clichy has been a little shaky for Arsenal of late. I like Henry at left mid because of his vision, his ability to link with both Abidal and Anelka, and his goal-scoring instinct this year. And Anelka because how can you argue against playing the EPL top scorer? Subs: Clichy for Abidal, Briand for Henry (and switching with Ribery) and Benzema for Anelka, and that’s it: Treat it like a full international. If they keep the ball moving, tackle well in midfield, stay organized at the back (!), and keep Messi from mesmerizing too much, Les Bleus, 2-1.
ahmad

domenech said he wont call up new players except for the keeper who wont see a minute thats why hoarau isnt on the list