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France News: Abidal, Clichy, Gourcuff Starting?!?!? (Leave Game-Time Comments Here)

September 10th, 2008 | By: Laurie | 106 Comments »

L’Equipe is saying that Philippe Mexès, Patrice Evra and Samir Nasri are out, to be replaced by Eric Abidal, Gaël Clichy, and Yoann Gourcuff.

Yeah, I know. Me too.

On the plus side, it looks like Eric Abidal may get the opportunity to redeem himself as a central defender! On the minus… In the name of all that is holy, is this the best we can do?!?

On the plus side, our Cap Clichy movement worked!! On the minus, do we really want to be starting an uncapped player in a must-win qualifier? Especially when he is by inclination an attacking player and we conceded three goals on Saturday? But…well…go Gaël ! Love ya! Do us proud!

On the plus side for that third change…

Um…

WTF. Are we reallly starting Gourcuff over Nasri? I don’t get that one at all. Gourcuff didn’t impress me that much on Saturday, starting with the free kick that hit the wall at about knee level. But I will be the first to admit that by that point I was watching the game with with my head down and my hands over my eyes, so maybe I’m not the best judge. On the plus side, he’s 6′1″, (1.85m). I’m guessing this has something to do with the decision, since Raymond saw firsthand how a lack of height hurts us on set pieces. Except that when he delivers the set pieces himself because nobody else can do it, it kind of negates that height benefit, doesn’t it?

Seriously, I don’t get it. I’m seeing Gourcuff as a learning sub, not as a starter.

On a related note, You can bet that the boys spent the entire week practicing set piece after set piece after set piece. Too bad we don’t have anybody who can deliver them accurately to make this feel real. (Guys out there who want to make the National Team? Practice, practice, practice those set pieces! Why do you think Beckham’s still playing for England at 32? And don’t say because England sucks, because that’s only part of the answer.)

Game is available on time-delay on Setanta, at 3:45 Pacific, 6:45 Eastern? Am I reading that right? When the actual game is at 12:00 Pacific? If you can’t wait that long, and I don’t think I can, there’s one other legit, for-pay option that I’m finding in the US: JumpTV. It’s 4.99 Euros to watch the match, which isn’t cheap, but at least the exchange rate is a little better than it has been recently. Here’s the link. You’ll need to register, log in and pay, so don’t leave it till the last minute.

And, as always, post working pirate links in the comments as game time approaches. With luck there will be be more reliable options than on Saturday.

Allez les bleus!

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 106 comments.

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By Ronald | September 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

scratch that, game over, flamini will have to wait to actually PLAY

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | September 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

the only reason france won was because gourcuff was having a good game

Posted from United States

By Pierre | September 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Yeah i would say finally points on the board abd i cant believe Lithuania won again!

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Michel-Olivier, knock it off with your bitchy sour grapes crap. What a load of bullshit. France played well, Gourcoff wasn’t the ONLY good player out there. You’re so full of hate for this team that you can’t ever comment intelligently about them. Try watching a France game with some objectivity for once.

Gourcoff does look very promising.

Posted from United States

By Jamie | September 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

haha michel-olivier you can’t say anything bad now, can you? We know set-pieces are our weakness, but apart from that all you can say is that gourcuff played well. That’s a positive, i’ll remind you. Imagine if gourcuff, benzema, henry, ribery and nasri all played well. Maybe i’ll dream that tonight, and wake up pretty damn excited

Posted from United Kingdom

By Doumé | September 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

OK, we’ll take it. 3 points.
Re: Lithuania leader, that sounds good for us I think.
Romania 1-0 with Feroe, hmmm.

By Doumé | September 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

…and the only reason that France beat Brazil in 98 and 06 was that Zidane was having a good game.

By Nikola | September 10th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

France didn’t play very well but did what all great teams do - won the match. Gourcuff played excellent, and so did Toulalan - the match was definetely won in a midfield battle. This group is still open, though, with Lithuania defeating Austria we’re back to square one with France, Serbia, Austria and Romania all having 3 points, while Lithuania tops the group with 6. Can’t wait the next round of matches, Serbia needs a morale boost!

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

“and the only reason that France beat Brazil in 98 and 06 was that Zidane was having a good game” — LOL, Doume! As a Brazilian who watched that game with such pain in my heart but–schizophrenically–was also totally seduced by that beautiful engine of a French team, I salute you.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

Hey Nikola, good luck, your guys gave France a tough fight.

Posted from United States

By Doumé | September 10th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Sandrahn,
I understand Brazil is doing good these days, like 3-0 against Chile I think? Good then, we’ll meet again for a rematch!

By Pierre | September 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

Hey i got an idea to improve the set players bring LeBouf back LOL:)

By gaston | September 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

everyone played well, henry and anelka were very effective offensively today, they kept on pushing harder and harder (its what they are meant to do). the defense was good as well, except that poor defending from abidal which cost us a goal. the midfield was well organized, not perfect but extremely good, it took second half to realize for france how to use its midfield effectively

domenech should base his strategy on the strength of his players. gourcuff is an example of player who was given his role and played well in turn making the strikers play well as well

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Doumé, it ain’t gonna happen. We haven’t beaten you guys since 1958!!!! Not in any friendly or competitive game. You’re our bogey team. Doesn’t matter if zidane is playing or not, we can’t beat you. The best we can do is draw. The only way is if Pele and Garrincha are suddenly reincarnated.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

As for the Chile game….yeah, it was good but nothing to write home about. France and Brazil are both burdened with the wrong managers.

Posted from United States

By Doumé | September 10th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

Sure, Pele and Garrincha, OK, but that gives us the right to bring Platini and Zidane (and Fontaine) back also!
Well anyway you know what they say about curses, like for Spain…

By sandrahn | September 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

Doumé, just the image of all those players on the same pitch gets my heart going!!!

Posted from United States

By Benjamin | September 10th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Speaking of Zizou, doesnt gourcuff remind you of him! lol i know everything says that about every attacking midfielder in france, but seriously. he played really well of a REAL first game, and of such importance!

By Nikola | September 10th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

Thanks, sandrahn. I actually do like French football and the France NT, so I really hope both of these teams are going to qualify in the end. And of course, Serbia as the group winner and France as the runner-up…

By Dan | September 10th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Good game……..so the real question now…what happens with our manager? I don’t know if I want to wait in limbo seeing if things continue. How long does he plan on being in control of this team?

By Laurie | September 10th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

Benjamin, I was thinking the same thing about Gourcuff. He was everywhere today, making things happen.

Obviously a 22-year-old isn’t going to have a lot of consistency, so he’s bound to have some bad games, but I sure liked what I saw today.

Posted from United States

By Benjamin | September 10th, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Now we need to think of a way to incorporate ben arfa, ribery, benzema, nasri, and gourcuff into one team…

how do you think the cap clichy movement went?

By Laurie | September 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

I think Clichy needs new boots. I saw him face plant (or at least go down on at least one knee or hand) at last three times when he needed to be defending.

Other than that, I thought he did pretty well. Not sure if I’d prefer him or Evra, though, although I’m tempted to say don’t mess with anything from today!

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | September 10th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

@ Ben
——–defense——–
——–toulalan——
ribery–gourcuff–nasri
—benarfa–benzema—–

Posted from United States

By Jean-Michel | September 10th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Close Michel-Olivier. I think its Henry & someone else. I’m not going to jump on the Anelka bandwagon just yet. He has a tendency of being streaky. Not knowing Gourcuff well, I was stunned by what I saw today. Took his responsibilities in mid-field and pushed forward just about everytime, coming very close on a few occasions. He’s already taking all of the set pieces…what an honor it must be for him. Looks like a starter to me. Move over everyone else and yes Benjamin, he reminded me of Zizou. Looked more like a #10 than Benzema (not sure why he is wearing that #). Speaking of which, is it me or has Benzema been invisible since the Euro? How about a bench BOTH Diarra’s movement? They both looked clumsy today. Overall I definitely noticed more shots on goal and the team pressing forward with more urgency. The link from midfield to the attack once again seemed to be an issue but Gourcuff is definitely part of the solution.

Posted from United States

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