France’s Starting Lineup (and Leave Comments if You’re Watching)

flop

If you use windows, you should download TVAnts.
If you use a MacBook like me, your best bet is to struggle with the buffering.
What I usually do is check the liveblog at football 365 instead of watching the game. Le sigh.
Here’s the link for today’s game:
http://live.football365.fr/?id_ensemble=8435&id_match=69846

P.S. I only got into soccer this summer, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I love this blog! Good job you guys! I would actually make an account so my name becomes blue like everyone else’s, but I don’t know how to do that. I’m pretty technologically challenged. Anyways, enjoy the game!

http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_live.r8713.swf?channel=nenechannel

My internet connection sucks, but it’s at least the right game, as opposed to all the other links I tried. Hope it works for somebody!!

1:0, Sweden.
Henrik Larsson at the 5th minute.
Thanks for the link Laurie!
That’s actually one of the few links that’s working on my computer!

Our boys are gettin’ schooled. Eek.

Sagna’s looking promising, though. He just had a sweet little steal and run up the right. Sagnol-like.

Oh, sweet, sweet goal!!!!!! Sagna sent in a perfect cross to Benzema. Beautiful!!!!!!

BENZEMAAAAAAAAA

Aside from that goal, we’re spending way too much time in our own half.

Inara, are you watching? Kongo Kim’s playing. Mixed emotions for you, huh?

BENZEMAA SAGNA!!!!!!!!!!!! Ty for the Link!

are you cchatting as well mi chat name is LesBleus xD

Jean Pierre, I’m a technophobe. I learn just enough to do what I want. Where are you chatting?

Oh Laurie, you have no idea. I want Kallstrom to score because he’s been treated really shoddily by Lagerback and is even considering retiring from international football (though he’s only 25). But I don’t want France to concede…ugh.

I’m pleased that Benzema scored. I really hope we see different players in the second half, especially Lloris in goal and Gourcuff in midfield.

Whoa. That was close. Argh. Our defense is scaring me.

Inara, yes to both Lloris and Gourcuff. I’d like to see Clichy as well.

And that most recent Mandanda bat-away had way to much Barthez to it for my liking.

chatting at the link u send, justin tv

Omg Go france

Nice save mandanda

That looks greeat benzema and sagna

Come on sweden is playing better!!!!11

France has just never been good at dealing with seven players in the box.

It’ll be interesting how this defense does. People are always complaining that Sagna, Evra, and Mexes would be better than what Domemech usually fields, so if they suck today, that would be pretty bad.

ye

they are not doing fantastic at the moment

not much action from captain henry

I’d like to see Anelka in at the half, to see if his resurgence at Chelsea will carry over.

We also need a better free kick taker.

Yeah, France for some reason doesn’t have a really good fk taker. Henry is okay, so is Malouda, Ribery, Nasri, Ben Arfa, and Benzema. Not sure who else can take them, but there isn’t anyone good enough to be the automatic fk taker.

BREAK

Half time BREAK

half game played!

France has to play way lot better in second half

If I were a youngster looking for a spot on the team, I’d be spending every spare second working on my fk’s.

yea

im pleased about benzema and sagna though

but the defence, uh?

I was watching a replay of Benzema’s goal, and it’s amazing how many people in the home crowd cheered him. That’s pretty impressive considering they’re playing in Sweden.

ye

Go Benzemaaa

Too bad Trez Nasri and ribery are not here

who is riberys brother?

Inara, I was thinking the same thing. And Jean Pierre, yes about Benzema and Sagna. I’m thinking Sagna could be the answer to our post-Sagnol woes. (Poor Clerc.)

Is anybody else watching on SopCast? I kept getting an error message whenever I tried to open it. Wondering if it’s me, or if there’s a problem with the system today. I was glad to find the JustinTV link.

Henryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

who i liked for years

EWWW. What is with the huge blue spot on the back of the white shorts?

I’m liking the new jerseys, though. This is the first time since my White #10 Zidane World Cup jersey that I’ve even considered buying one.

Ye ty for sharing the JustinTV link Laurie! Its super ty for being so social

btw is clerc injured for 6 months?

Just watched the replay of the Sweden goal. Ugh. Who was supposed to be marking that guy? There was nobody even close.

Second half is about to start, looks like there have been no changes. Too bad.

Anelka, Boumsong, Gourcuff warming up. Hmm to Boumsong.

Here we go again…

Go france

I think I could learn to like Mexes, but this defense as a whole is feeling really shaky.

Sometimes I understand why Domenech prefers two DMs. Because no matter what backline he puts out there, our defense is always shaky, so that extra DM really helps out.

Off topic, but Italy and Austria are tied 2-2, except both of Italy’s goals are Austrian own goals. And the Italians are at home too (Lippi’s “debut” match).

That’s just awesome.

Okay, that free kick from Henry was better. Malouda’s earlier one sucked.

ok, so I like the jerseys, but the blue circle on the back of the shorts is really distracting. It’s like a big “kick me” sign.

Govou!!

The player everyone loves to hate.

Inara. Heehee.

Holy crap. I was just typing that it was time to sub out Govou. He always makes me eat my words. That was nice. I couldn’t see — who was it who sent the ball in to Sid?

Malouda

wait until qualifies france is going to flop

Thanks, Clara. That was a sweet delivery and a sweet finish.

It was Malouda, who in turn got the ball from a magnificent setup from Toulalan (who also set up for Sagna’s cross to Benz on the first goal).

Toulalan is so ♥♥♥

You’re welcome
I know! I love Toulalan!
Secretly… I scribble our names together.
Oops, did I say that out loud? =X

Oh geez, Gallas. Are you trying to give away a penalty?

All of our defenders have had some really sweet last-second save-our-bacon tackles, but the ball shouldn’t be getting that far.

Clara, OMG, you’re my new best friend. I just love his gray hairs

Our defenders are just failing at their job today. That Swedish player was all alone in the box!

Inara! Yes! I love his salt and pepper hair!
And this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oNEOsfpwuA&feature=related

Jém graces us with his sweet moves

Clara, have you visited Inara’s Lyon page? http://lyon.theoffside.com. You two sound like kindred spirits.

A. Diarra for Malouda. Huh..wha…? Guess Domenech doesn’t trust his defense either.

No, Laurie, I did not.
Like I said, I only got into soccer a month ago, and have been following L1 through the frenchleague site. Thanks so much for telling me, Laurie!!

ESPECIALLY BECAUSE LYON ARE MY FAVE FAVE TEAM!
(And Arsenal, but shh…)

Definitely stop by the Lyon blog, Clara. I think I talk about Toulalan once a day on there, and there are some other crazies like us who do the same.

Also, Diarra for Malouda? I thought for sure that Gourcuff would be the one going on. So that’s three DMs on the pitch. That’s like Domenech saying “F*ck you” to the media.

I never watched Gourcuff play.
Anyways, Inara, I’m not a fan of that blue markings either, but who am I to complain if they accentuate the players’ tushes?

I’ll definitely visit the blog after the game.
Thanks!

This defense is making me cringe. I’ll consider it a miracle if France can survive this game without conceding a penalty.

Govou just scored another goal. Wow, he’s on a tear.

3-1

A brace for Govou. I have died and awakened in an alternate universe.

And that backheel from Thierry Henry really deserves the “cheeky backheel” description that everyone always attaches to the act.

I’m sorry, I don’t know that much about Govou. What’s wrong with him?

Time for subs, Raymond. Let’s give out some first caps, starting with Clichy.

I like him, and he is one of the most frustratingly inconsistent players in the universe. But Domenech loves him.

seriously, Govou either cant find the net at all or he’s like a scoring machine…like against Italy.

I don’t get it. We’ve got a two-goal margin. Why isn’t Raymond trying out new players?

Argh, the frustration. I’m following the game on the radio bdcast from L’Equipe/RTL and they’re talking about all these beautiful gestures. I hope somebody will upload stuff on Youtube or something.
I want to see these jerseys too. Your comments on that are hilarious. I gotta see that!
uh-oh penalty.

Oh, okay, thanks.
I rarely watch the Lyon games because the streaming sites are so frustrating.
I’m starting to grow really fond of the new jersey.
Maybe I’ll buy one of those… Haha.

…AND, there’s the penalty!

france shaky defense paid for it

Crap. Penalty. We all knew that was coming eventually.

Govou is…well, he’s one of the most consistently inconsistent players out there. He’ll be completely invisible for weeks and then suddenly he’ll be on a good playing streak. He also has this amazing ability to miss absolute sitters, but then he’ll come up big by scoring crucial goals. So he’s a really frustrating player for fans.

As Laurie said, Domenech loves him, and in fact, so have all his coaches at Lyon (Lacombe, Santini, Le Guen, Houllier, Perrin, now Puel), so he must have something going for him. But most fans don’t like him because he’s just not reliable or even dangerous like Ribery is. Govou just has a lot of good luck for some reason.

HAH! I KNEW that would happen!

It was Kallstrom who was fouled. He also took the penalty. So at least he got his goal. I’m happy now.

the defense needs some working, (i think its because the players unfamiliar with each other)

I can’t believe that Domenech isn’t giving Gourcuff time on the pitch. That’s outrageous.

If my French professor knew what I was up to this summer… (watching French soccer).
Oh, she’d be so proud.

Thanks, Laurie and Inara!

I was looking forward to watching Hatem and Karim play together. It’s a shame that didn’t happen, but there’s always next time So far, I think we’re playing a lot better than we did during the first half. We’re still on our side of the field far too much, though.

I’m not sure about Mandanda. Like just then, he gets a backpass, he’s got two wide-open French players on the right, and he sends it into a crush of both teams on the left and Sweden gets it back. Why would he do that?

Yea! Cap for Gourcuff! Now let’s see one for Clichy!

gourcuff finally in at the 93 minute, how stupid of domench

Why is Gourcuff coming in NOW?

Okay, we won. Jean-Pierre, I just now discovered the chat you were talking about! I was actually watching on a different channel. Funny.

He got to play for less than 20 seconds. But at least he got his cap.

I don’t get why Domenech never uses all his subs. Even in a competitive game, sometimes he’ll only use one or two. So weird.

Clara, it was nothing but time-wasting, plus a way to get Gourcuff his first cap.

I’m sorry.
Another stupid question.
What’s a “cap”?
I thought you got that even when you don’t play.

Another brilliantly coached game by Domenech. Bringing on Gourcuff at the 93 minute was a stroke of genius! Not that we should be surprised: anybody remember his 88 min substitution of Trezeguet in the world cup? I’m so glad the FFF decided to keep him…

despite france winning, under domenench it doesn’t look convincing for some reason.

A cap is when a player makes an official appearance for his country in either a friendly or a competitive match. So Thuram has like 130 caps (appearances). To get a cap, you have to actually play. Just being called up or even sitting on the bench isn’t enough.

Wish I could’ve seen this game!! Very frustrating! How long did Sagna and Clichy play? How was Henry and Flamini? Did Flamini play?

Clichy and Flamini did not play.
Sagna played the entire game.

Thank you, Inara!

Clara – A cap is an appearance. Legendary France defender Lilian Thuram who just retired had an outrageous number like 142. Getting 100 is a huge accomplishment.

Inara was way ahead of me.

Clara – Were you watching an online stream?

Thanks Clara. How was Sagna then? (I support Arsenal and want to know how our young French players who’ve never played for the NT do now that Domenech has decided to pay them some attention).

Aww, but thank you, Jeff/433!!

Soccer is still very new to me, so I’m still trying to figure everything out.
I mean figuring out that there were different leagues in soccer took me the entire day to figure out! Haha.

sandrahn – what Arsenal sites do you follow?

the worst team beat the second worst team of euro08. sweeden with no zlatan suck. france is not going to qualify for WC10 under ray.

Clara – When I first started following club soccer after the 1998 World Cup, I could not get my head around the fact that teams are in up to 4 competitions simultaneously.

Anybody know what formation France was playing in when they had 3 DMs? Did L. Diarra move to the wing?

BTW, Romania was the worst team of Euro 2008 (or possibly Austria).

Rather than wait for the end of the regular season to have a tournament (i.e., the palyoffs) there are 3 tournaments (i.e., cup competitions) held concurrent with the season: league games on the weekend and cup games during the week. It’s great stuff, really.

Sandra, Sagna looked VERY good offensively — he had the assist on Benzema’s goal. Defensively everybody was shaky, including Gallas and Mexes and Evra. I was heartbroken that Clichy didn’t even get a Gourcuff-style time-wasting ninety-third minute cap.

I think Clichy has a lot of caps in his future. We don’t him injured.

Have you all seen the news that Silvestre signed for Arsenal?

Thanks Laurie. That’s our Bakary! Amazing player! Wish we could clone him.

Jeff, if you’re asking which Arsenal blogs I regularly read….there are a few:

arseblog.com
http://aculturedleftfoot.wordpress.com
arsenalinsider.co.uk
http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk
gunnerblog.com
http://www.arsepod.co.uk/wordpress1 (goodplaya)
goonerholic.com
http://youngguns.wordpress.com/

yes, jeff, I’ve been reeling from that news all day long. Couldn’t believe it was true until I saw the official announcement on arsenal.com. I’m still shocked. I honestly don’t know what to say, I can’t be coherent about it. Here’s a good summary of the pros and cons:

http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=509193

A 31 yr old MANC who used to trash Arsenal and headbutted Freddie! (Tho you could argue Freddie deserved it).

Ben, I was trying to figure out formation as well, but my pirate stream was so fuzzy I was having a hard time identifying who was where. I’m hoping somebody who had French HD TV will clue us in.

@ ben
are you stupid
France = 1 point and 1 goal, that was france entire tourney.
france suck when makelele was playing and still suck under domenech.

Sandrahn – that’s pretty thorough.

Everyone – I could have told you (and Raymond) that Sagna and Benzema on the pitch at the same time would work!

Michel-Olivier – That’s a loaded question. Don’t listen Ben.

I hope Silvestre will work out. He was a Man-Utd ever present for several seasons, and did well enough. A France recall would be shocking!

Michel-Olivier, you are such a class act! If I were “Michel-Olivier smart” I would insult you as well, even though I’ve never met you, but alas I haven’t been blessed with your intelligence.

Thanks for trolling.

Don’t feed the trolls. (michel-olivier)

fasts are facts
france was the worst team with 1 point and 1 goal.
how many trophies did makelele won with france?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

@ lefutur
le realite et toi, vous ne vous entendez pas, nest-ce pas?

C’mon, gents. This is a great site because our commenters limit the personal attacks. Let’s keep it that way.

though france won, i doubt it was the attacking football domenech promised. and the coach is always hasitante to introduce new players. domenech should be experimenting with players, not putting the same old players again and again. gallas, govou, etc. flamini, gourcuff should be the ones introduce to get feel of interantional experience

Thanks for the comments, Laurie, Inara, Jeff, Clara et al … I missed the game, but “followed” it here through your comments the next morning.