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La Liste for Nigeria and Turkey

   

Two friendlies coming up — Nigeria on June 2 and Turkey on June 5. Here’s the list of players. What do you think?

The big surprise is that Florent Malouda got the call, perhaps showing that Raymond Domenech can look past personal feuds to actual current form? Not a bad thing, but I’m not sure that Malouda clicks well with the rest of the guys these days.

The other big surprise for me was that Patrick Vieira is called up again. I keep thinking it’s over, and then here he is again. I’m not even remembering seeing him play for Inter much this year, so what’s up?

Samir Nasri’s injured and not called up. Ditto William Gallas. The Gallas injury gives us Philippe Mexes, Sébastien Squillaci, Julien Escudé and Jean-Alain Boumsong at centerback, which should be interesting. Glad these are just friendlies — it would be interesting to iron some things out in this back line to see what works without Gallas.

André-Pierre Gignac’s performance last time got him a recall. Loïc Remy is also back again. Ditto Sidney Govou (surprise, surprise.)

Here’s the list. What do you think?

Gardiens de But

Cédric CARRASSO F.C. Toulouse
Hugo LLORIS Olympique Lyonnais
Stève MANDANDA Olympique de Marseille

Défenseurs

Eric ABIDAL F.C. Barcelone
Jean-Alain BOUMSONG Olympique Lyonnais
Julien ESCUDE F.C. Seville
Patrice EVRA Manchester United
Rod FANNI Stade Rennais F.C.
Philippe MEXES A.S. Rome
Bakary SAGNA Arsenal F.C.
Sébastien SQUILLACI F.C. Séville

Milieux de terrain

Abou DIABY Arsenal F.C.
Alou DIARRA Girondins de Bordeaux
Lassana DIARRA Real Madrid
Yoann GOURCUFF Girondins de Bordeaux
Florent MALOUDA Chelsea F.C.
Jérémy TOULALAN Olympique Lyonnais
Patrick VIEIRA Inter de Milan

Attaquants

Nicolas ANELKA Chelsea F.C.
Karim BENZEMA Olympique Lyonnais
André-Pierre GIGNAC Toulouse F.C.
Sidney GOVOU Olympique Lyonnais
Thierry HENRY F.C. Barcelone
Loïc REMY OGC Nice
Franck RIBERY Bayern Munich


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  • Michel-Olivier

    out: lass, diaby, vieira, fanni, govou, and boumsong
    in: hoarau, clerc, cheyrou, zubar, flamini, and capoue

  • Aditya

    The only surprise for me in the list was no Flamini yet again. Menez could have been included ahead of Remy IMO. Vieira was called not for his gameplay but for his leadership. In the current French setup I don’t see anyone who can lead. Henry is perhaps the choice but he is not exactly the best choice. Gallas has shown at Arsenal that he cannot be trusted to lead. Many of players are still young at the international stage they need a player they can look up to. Vieira has that personality. He can make the group come closer and play as a team.

  • Michel-Olivier

    @ aditya
    euro 08 did vieira get selected because of his leadership?
    no, ze reason why he got selected for euro et aujourd’hui is because his sign astrologique is cancer.

  • gaston

    viera isn’t he the one who fought with patrice evra at euro, how can they put leadership in his hands

  • http://france.worldcupblog.org/euro-2008/la-liste-for-nigeria-and-turkey.html philip

    Allez les blues
    Jeremy Menez i think will be big like Gourcuff but France already have alot of good midfielders. Maybe when Thierry Henry leaves he can take his spot.
    Hope they put in Hugo Lloris. They saw who the better goalkeeper was in the Lyon vs Marseille game.

  • Martha

    Paddy’s been hurt a LOT this season (as usual). But, FWIW, he actually went the full 90 (in his inimitable, very slow style) in the mostly second-choice team Inter sent out at Cagliari last weekend. So at least he’s fit — perfect for Domenech to break him again!

  • Kyle

    I’d say I’m almost OK with the entire list. After a whole lot of Ligue 1 this year, I never did and still don’t understand why ‘BOUM!!’ is allowed to play foot. He is atrocious. Though not a giant fan of Malouda on the national team, he has been doing naughty things for Chelsea, so I’m excited to see what he can do as long as he gets a haircut. I’m also hoping Nico and his golden boot in the EPL will result in some fancy shit that we haven’t seen in the attacking side. Gignac gets a well deserved call, he is a serious beast, he just knows where the net is and how to stuff it in there.

    More than the list I am excited that the games are in St. Etienne and Lyon, which allows me to possibly go to both of them from Aurillac.

    biz à tout, le cantalous

  • http://france.worldcupblog.org laurie

    Gaston, in Vieira’s defense, I think the Patrick-Patrice thing was misconstrued because the video cameras caught only part of it. What I read was that Vieira actually had issues with Netherlands’ Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Evra just happened to be there as it happened.

    Here’s the video, where if you listen you can hear Vieira saying, “Ta gueule, homme du match.” Since France had just gotten clobbered by Netherlands, to me this seems like the more likely explanation.

    http://ballhype.com/video/bagarre_entre_vieira_evra_euro_2008/

  • terry

    Aside for Mandanda I like the team, I feel mandanda is a decent goalie for ligue 1, has anyone see frey’s great performances lately? that sucks france has a awsome numero 1 WIYH HIM IF NOT I AM GAME WITH ANYONE OTHE RTHAN MANDANDA he just never come out of his line wayyyyyyyyy 2 dangerous 4 me

    LLIORIS

    SAGNA SQUILACHI ESCUDE EVRA

    DIARRA TOULALAN

    RIBERY GORCUF

    HENRY GIGNAC

    CAN’T SPELL 4 SHIT LOL

  • Michel-Olivier

    if mech had his way the team would of look like this

    ———-mandanda——–
    sagna–rami–boumsong–evra
    ——vieira—–diarra——
    benarfa—–govou—–nasri
    ——–benzema———

  • Jao

    Same old, same old. I will say this though. Everyone called up deserves the call up, excluding Vieira. But this is a squad for FRIENDLIES, which are usually matches where you actually give NEW players a go and there are alot of players that deserves a chance. It’s safe to say that Domenech only cares about retaining his job and not improving French football. For example, why not let Patrice Evra, Eric Abidal, and Henry rest since their respective teams are in the CL final and call up Mathieu, Gameiro, and Cabaye. This would be the perfect time to fire him (though there have been alot of perfect times) since when we come back from the summer break, we have the Faroe Islands in WCQ play.

  • lefutur

    as a lyon supporter i would have to say that Boumsong was probably OL’s best defender this season. he’s been really solid and i don’t remember him putting in a bad performance for France lately either. i think his chuckle bros days are behind him.

    as for Remy, i don’t think he deserves a call-up over Hourau. but then again Hourau has that fox-in-the-box profile that Domenech hates so much apparently (i.e. Trez).

    I’d like to see Menez be given a chance and these friendlies are a good opportunity for that but I think Domenech is trying to create some cohesion within the team and the experimentation is over for the most part. He’s not going to do too many surprise call-ups IMO.

  • Jao

    Hoarau is not fully fit atm. PSG aren’t taking any chances and as a result have lost out on the CL.

  • Tomek

    Thierry Henry finally won the Champions League, congratulations!

  • Steven

    Tomek, in the words of Smokey Robinson, “I second that emotion!”

    For the game I wore my red France away jersey with Henry on the back to a pub full ManU and Barca fans …

  • Kyle

    Really…Boum as Lyon’s best defender with good performances for France? Are we watching the same games? I think everyone in Lyon would say Cris was by far their most solid defender this year, and that they certainly would prefer Bodmer when healthy. I seem to recall Boum getting completely tooled on by Jemaa in the Tunisia game last October…

    He’s good for a laugh when he’s on Lyon for me, but I feel immense shame when he dons a France maillot, il est plutôt fait pour le XV de France à mon avis.

  • jeanpierre

    Malouda?
    Vieira?
    Govou?
    Boumsong?

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! DOMENECH WHAT DID U DO TO LES BLEUS

  • John

    Kyle: You’re right about Boumsong getting turned inside-out by Jemaa, but then again, alot of our cbs would have had their heads spun-off by that move.
    You are however, wrong about Boumsong not being the best defender for Lyon this year. Boumsong was head and shoulders above the rest: Cris has been atrocious this year- I’ll cut him some slack because he’s coming back from injury and he has the heart of a champion, but he seems to not be improving. Mensah either spent most of his time injured or getting red-carded, so we couldn’t tell; he was also played out position the few times he was healthy and put-in great performances at RB though. And Bodmer was pretty solid, but he can’t hold his own against world class fowards, it’s just not his position.
    If you wan’t to watch how the position of CB should be played, watch the first leg of Lyon-Barca at Gerland. Boumsong played out-of-this-world and put the lid on Messi.
    If you guys know of any other CB you’d include over Jean, please feel free to share. I can’t believe Boumer gets all this crap and no one complains about Mexes! I mean, I don’t watch Mexes that often, but it seems that every time I do, he’s giving-up a goal on a setpiece, or commiting a foul in the box that leads to a score. I also recall Abidal screwing-up in that Tunisia match and getting sent off vs. Italy, but no one says anything. I think of the most people who dislike him, do so due to his prior reputation and haven’t followed him during the season. I’d much rather have him than Mexes.

  • Alex T

    Gourcuff, Gignac, and Toulalan

    I can breath now

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