France Winning Euro 2008 is Essential

Call me apathetic, though I was only disappointed in the 2002 and 2004 performances. To get to the final of the World Cup and lose on penalties didn’t evoke the happiest of emotions, though I was able to wear my (now a collector’s item) edF jersey the day after with dignity. Same can’t be said after the 2002 debacle or the 2004 bathos. Hence it is my feeling that as long as we don’t disappoint in terms of how we play, then I will be able to deal the whatever result we get with aplomb.

However, if we do as badly as 2002 (which led to trashing my parents’ “A Little Less Conversation” Elvis single as I identified that song with the Nike commercials in that World Cup – hey, I had only started high school then) or show the dearth of inventiveness as we did in 2004 (which led to my mutilation of Mickaël Silvestre’s photo on my MU wallpaper), then I may not be this calm.

In the end, though, I do expect that we’ll do well, with the only team that I am somewhat wary of being Spain, whom we may meet in either the QF or SF, where hopefully our mastery over them in the past decade will give a bit of an edge to us. Though that’s a topic for another day.

Anyway, cheers, and looking forward to reading your articles!

Funny — I was over on the Soccerblogs.net aggregator and saw the title and thought, “Who besides me cares about France.” Then I saw the blog name and thought, “Oh! Right!”

Welcome, Jeff!

A bit of property damage, huh? Not bad. Maybe not as extreme as having to assure a group of concerned citizens that you respect animal rights, but an obvious sign of passion.

With just a few clicks on i-tunes, you can replace that Elvis single.

Jeff,
I saw France- West Germany 82 and to this day it is for me an amazing memory. These 2 overtime goals one after the other were an amazing moment of delirium around me, and that amazing positive emotion is for me what’s left from that game rather than the answering 2 goals for Germany and the ensuing kick session and the enormous disappointment. It made us believe that we were not so bad, that we could go to the “next level”.
86 was a confimation of the magic: beating Italy, then Brazil -yes, Brazil, our “other favorite” we had, because when you’re out of the competition, you still want to pick somebody.
Then came the whole of 90-94, where things couldn’t look bleaker, Platini and the guys gone, only a system was in place that would soon bring a constant stream of fantastic players.
And then came 98, and 00 and we were for real, not just the interesting guys who fall in the end.
86 for me was so telling, when (at least in the US) comentators were talking about a dying breed, Zidane going, the last possible chance of getting somewhere, empty years ahead – but new faces showing up, gelling perfectly with the old ones. Losing to Italy, well, was tough because the last 20 minutes were ours, and then even down one man. But I think culturally it was harder to lose to Germany in 82 and 86. It was like some sort of ugly historical slap in the face, some ghost from the past who wouldn’t leave us alone.

Frnace might be able to do something, my goals is to get out of that group in 2nd position – that would be sweet. That’s when the real team starts taking off, like in 2006. I’d be happy with that, and not have a sad exit like in 2002.

sorry for the over-use of the word “amazing”

2002 was an “amazing” implosion; from tournament favorites to an unceremonious exit without scoring a single goal! I hate it when that happens.

You guys feel disappointment and pain? That’s nothing, try being an Argentine fan.

Had to laugh at AJ’s comment, so true!

I have the ‘82 games on dvd and every time I’ve watched the W. Germany game, I want to cry. It’s just so fundamentally wrong wrong wrong.

I was gutted by the wc ‘06 final for quite literally months — because of both the defeat AND the way zizou left the game for good. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch that game again.

I have to be honest and say that I don’t have high hopes for France at the Euros. All I hope for is that they give a good account of themselves, better than the qualifying games, most of which were not impressive. I also desperately hope for Benzema to arrive on the world stage with a blistering performance.

There is no lack of world class quality players on the France squad, it’s not that. I just have serious doubts about the manager.

And I don’t think Spain is anything to fear, their campaign was not impressive at all. They won that recent friendly against France playing very poorly. It’s Germany that looks the best team going into the tourament. Pundits are saying they’re the ones who look strongest to win the trophy. And then there’s Italy — in the last few games of their qualifying campaign, Italy performed superbly well under a manager whom the Italian press and fans had had no faith in.

Domenech persists with aging, worn out players like Vieira, Thuram and Makelele as the team’s spine. I want to be wrong but I just don’t have high hopes.

I agree that Germany looks the best entering the tournament, but when has the “form” team actually won the title? I think Italy are a threat, but their central defense is poor in comparison with the World Cup squad as Cannavaro’s been in decline, while I believe that the over/under on He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (hint: he got sent off a fortnight ago) getting sent off has to be 15 minutes.

Though I agree with everyone who believes Domenech is the anchor that is holding this team back. Yet I’m hoping that he exceeds expectations again, and if that’s the case, a victory isn’t unlikely.

I am wary of Spain only due to my bias, as I’m a follower of Espoirs/U-19/U-18/U-17 football, and they’ve knocked us out of every tournament in the season before. Then again, we can claim that we’ve beaten them when it truly counts, and they’ve got a bit of internal strife of their own.

In any event, I’m hoping for a good tournament, but as long as our guys perform well (with the corollary that if we do get knocked out, Domenech is gone), I’ll be content.

What a great discussion. I don’t know if it’s too much to expect for the side as it stands right now to go all the way at the Euros—you have the anciens on one hand, whose physical conditions are a worry, and on the other you have the kids, who are still trying to assert themselves in the lineup. Not to say that the mix has been unsuccessful so far, but it’s clearly still a work in progress. Yeah, I wish Domenech would surprise us once in a while with his choice of starters and substitutions, too.

For my part, I’ll be satisfied to see two things this summer:
1) The outline (makeup and formation) of the team that will go to South Africa become clarified by the end of the tournament;
2) We beat Italy like a rented mule in every encounter.

Jeff,
Thanks for the link to the 98 cup highlights. I watched all of them again yesterday and what stood out to me was the attacking mind set just about all the players had. The ones that remain today were obviously much younger and their convergence on the scene roughly around the same time is kinda like what we are seeing presently minus a working scheme and system. 2002 left a bad taste in my mouth but not quite like 2006. After a shaky start against Switzerland and Korea, France put together a string of solid matches and generated a buzz. Despite being written off by the press due to age and their poor showing in ‘02, they made believers out of everyone. I had to work the day after the final but managed to keep my conversations with others down to a series of grunts. I turned my cell off for two days and avoided any/all contact with the public. Through it all I managed to forgive Zizou and Trezeguet but instead, now, resort to blaming le selectionneur for all of our recent shortcomings.

I have watched the 82′ game maybe three times. Everytime I watch that game I get so depressed and so mad its just not worth watching the game. To add to the frustration we were beat again in 86′. The only thing that calms me down is watching the 3rd place match in 58′ where we beat germany 6-3 and watching the other friendly matches on youtube where we beat germany. I remember the 98′ team and the world cup win. It was amazing. Finally we were number 1 and there was no refuting it. Sometimes I wonder where those years have gone. I worry sometimes if we could repeat our past glory. We have the talent… don’t we? I mean our guys can do it…right? What am I saying of course we can. If we could get to the finals in 2006 we could do it again in 2008. Sure the past couple of friendlies were horrible but we can pull it off. We may not be the favorites but out of any other team we have the best survival track in recent years. Who came back to tie Italy in 2000 in the very last seconds of the game? Who scored 2 goals in the last 4 minutes to overcome England in 2004? France thats who. You say Germany is the favorites I say they need to prove it to us. Our revenge has been long overdue and believe me we shall have it!

From Eric’s keyboard to the ears of the football gods!

I like the fact that Italy have not beaten France in open play since 1978. I hope to see that record continue in the summer.

An ominous sign…
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2008/20080304_174423Dev.html
Raymond is beyond mad at having club games (like the French Cup final, European cometitions etc) right before the Euro. He explains that it will be a similar calender to 2002 (gasp), having to name a list of 23 players, some of whom will have to still play as much as 5 games where they can be hurt.
And then he goes on with this pearl:
“For a worse preparation, there’s nothing better”

…er…then guess there’s always worse.

He definitely has a reason to be upset. Not being able to make an informed decision on a player’s health until that close to the start of a competition is scary.

I don’t know what to think of Domenech. I know a lot of fans don’t like him. Sometimes he sounds like a madman but he has gotten pretty good results. I think he foucuses on defense a bit too much but he was a defender. I like the experience we have on the field but we need more new faces. We need to test our youngsters. I hope we beat England impressively in this upcomming friendly. That would be a good sign.

I don’t know about you guys, but anything less than France bringing the trophy home is not good enough. Maybe I’m biased, but I just don’t see a better team out there, not just in terms of potential but also experience. Maybe our coaching is our weakness, but Domenech has a really good record – something like only seven losses in all games (including friendlies) since he took over for France. I think he can get the job done this summer. What can I say, I’m fond of the guy, in a really strange sort of way.

I like Domenech more than Lemerre and Santini, but I’m getting a real apprehension-vibe from this crowd, like no one will be surprised at all if Domenech bottles it.

Despite my constantly treating Domenech as Domenech would an Italian, I actually like the guy more than Santini or Lemerre as well. If the guy could keep his prejudices to himself and not let it affect his selections, then I, as well as other supporters of Les Bleus, I believe, would have fewer issues with him.

I’m not one of those knee-jerk Domenech-bashers, at least not in the way so many in the media, Italy fans, and others are. He’s routinely villified and dismissed, which I don’t think he deserves. I actually find many of his comments funny and witty. I still laugh at his joke questioning in mock seriousness whether or not there was something physically unstable with Materazzi because he goes down on the ground so much (he said this after Materazzi was headbutted again by an Italian player last season). Also, the resident analyst on the Fox Soccer Channel (Bobby McMahon) makes the point that, like Mourinho, Domenech deliberately draws public criticism towards him and away from his players.

He’s a pretty intelligent guy and doesn’t get enuf credit for what he has achieved with the national team. But I think some of his decisions and omissions of certain players on ridiculous personal grounds (Giuly, Pires) are indefensible. I’m just skeptical that he what it takes to win the Euro championship. He certainly has the players to do it, tho.

I feel Domenech’s fear regarding the affect of the hectic calender may be worth thinking about. In 2002, I think France could have produced one of the best teams ever in a World Cup if things wouldn’t have gone so horribly wrong. Pires was in unbelievable form that season but got injured. Zidane produced one of the best goals ever in a Champions League Final but got injured. Finally, and here where the effect of hectic calender factored in, France had the leading scorers of three leagues (Seria A, Ligue 1 and EPL) but could not score a single goal !! On the other hand, Brazil was struggling at one stage even to qualify for the World Cup. Brazilian stars weren’t actually spectacular. Ronaldo, the star of the 2002 WC, was injured for most of the season but fully fit and rested when the WC begun. Anyway, I am reminiscing so much because I was really very hopeful about that WC and still the “what-if”s haunt me .

I feel that we are in a transitional period when the old guards are fading and the new stars emerging. The past few friendlies have not been good because the old and new mix is not yet balanced. There is no doubt that there is an embarrassment of riches in talent but Domenech hasn’t been able to find the perfect blend. I am not high about this year but France will be the ones to watch in 2010.