Netherlands-France Liveblog on the Main Page

I still believe. what i dont believe in however, is playing Gomis anymore. He’s clearly not ready. Govou Henry Ribery and Malouda worked well together so I think that should stay.

Coupet was pretty useless in net. Granted alot of the goals were unstoppable, but i didnt see any emotion in him at all during the game.

Defense was a little shaky, but there’s noone I would sub out.

Gotta hand it to the Dutch – that was just another class.

Allez les bleus, c’est pas fini encore! je crois….

Coupet was terrible out there today. Out of position all day long and on the few occasions he was in position he refused to dive or lift his arms. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd goals could have been avoided by inspired goalie play. The 4th was an amazing strike. Poor poor play by Coupet tonight and it cost us dearly. I’d sit him purely out of spite from here on out.

I’m Italian, but I come in peace. Tough break for France, as they should have clearly gotten a penalty kick for Ooijer’s blatant handball in the box. It’s always sad to see referees dictating the flow of a game, as France seemed visibly put out after that piece of poor judgment. You guys looked much better than you did against Romania, though, so kudos for that.

How are you feeling about facing Italy?

I can’t believe what i saw today!!! Coupet was TERRIBLE!!!!! Also,…Gomis does not belong in the game,…he brought zero energy and looks lost when he has the ball. Mekelele is just too old, he needs to retire. And I thought Benzema should have been subed in for either Mekelele or Sagnol.

But ther is only 1 person that lost the game for us,….COUPET!!!!!!!!!

i dont even know what to say about this game.
hollande just beat us in the end.
we played well at end of 1st/begining of 2nd. we dominated
but just couldnt score.

basically our defense is shit, and make is too old, and i personally think
malouda played well, but nasri should have started.
this whole game is thuram and coupet’s fault imo.
the only positive is that this result is going to lead to domdom’s firing.

i still believe in les bleus, and i want to see
nasri, benzema, govou, ribery, henry playing on tuesday

whatever happens, we have to win against italy

If you trust a guy who believes in astrology to manage a football team, you are not very likely to be successful.
Keep on dreaming looking at the stars !

Sofar in this tournament, the style that made ravages is the counterattack. Once a team (who falls behind like France or Italy against the NL) HAS to attack, you can put a bunch of guys in the area and then when you get the ball you can feast on the huges spaces left open and in 2 passes go the length of the field and have a one-on-one with the GK, then run up the score (which doesn’t reflect the course of the game really). Portugal did that to the Czechs, Croatia to Germany, Spain to Russia, and of course the Netherlands are the best at it, it seems. I think that’s what Domenech wanted to avoid (justly) against Romania, by staying very cautious with the defense, in order to avoid a repeat of the Scotland games.
So it has been a very prevalent style for many years, but in a more modern way, it is definitely what will win this Euro, and will lead the European style for years. Brazil hasn’t joined the EC yet

So France has many good players, but when you try to attack a wall, after a while you get less and less accurate in shots, your legs are heavier and heavier trying to come back to defend through the huge spaces. Tactically, something has to be done: either do the same thing, or have such a great attack that you score first, and, in that case, find the next Zizou fast.

Hey daddy,…I don’t know who your team is,…but for all his faults Domenech still managed to get the team to the world cup finals,….anyway I think short of Barthez coming back to replace Coupet,,,.there is nothing we could have done today to stave off a loss today. Also,…lets not take anything away from the Dutch,…they’re lucky bastards but they’re also good. When you’re good and you’re lucky,….you can embarass the 2 teams that made it to the world cup finals 2006.

just watching the names on paper before the match says enough . van der sar ( champions leauge) nistelrooij , robben , sneijder ( real spanisch champion) kuijt ( liverpool) van persie( arsenal) what do i say more? there just is an big gape between the quality of the netherlands and teams as italy or france… all the good luck to become the best of the rest…

I think when you hit a low, the best thing to do is to be reminded of how good the highs for this team were, and well, despite the worst performance I have seen as a supporter of this team, I remain as committed to them as I was during the good days, as I know they are not bad at this game, they have had a bad week, a dubious manager and encountered a team hitting its apex in terms of ability. I congratulate the Dutch, they played well, with style, and regardless of what lineup they throw out against Romania, I hope they do well in the knockout stages of the tournament. Even though I wouldn’t mind if they decided to start two of those players who began today on the bench. The #11 and the #7, precisely.

As for our team, regardless of what happens against Italy, the light of the end of the tunnel is that this will be a learning experience for all involved, even Benzema and Nasri who, though not directly involved today, very likely are enduring the abominable emotions that we are. And they know when they (hopefully) will hear La Marseillaise at World Cup 2010 that as good as some of their reputations will be by then, they have to prove it on the field. I am very much thinking about that, as I know we have very high quality footballers, although today, some of them, such as Thuram, were definitely past it, whereas the Dutch had everyone in top gear. Or, as I’m about to get over this with some PES, they all had their red up arrow.

Not all is lost. We have quality coming through at all levels, and I am certain many of them would like to take wear the Bleu jersey that Maké and Thuram will hand to them, while they now have the added knowledge that to avoid losing embarrassingly, one has bring it come match day.

The Dutch did, they deserve their applause. We didn’t today, but we will again, Les Bleus may be closing a door on some, though another one will be opening soon.

holland, remember, you didnt mention one person on your back line. that could be the end of us

Holland,

You should try winning with some class,….instead of taunting other teams. I think France is every bit as talented as Holland. Just not as young. Makelele and Thuram look their age all of a sudden. For what its worth,….if France doesn’t advance,…then I hope the Dutch win it all.

the dutch give domenech les bleus.
the french wish they had zizou, togo, korea and switzerland.

The third goal was stoppable and was a consequence of poor positioning by Coupet and Thuram. The other 3 would have taken some unbelievable reactions and luck and no keeper in the world would have kept out all 3 in one game. Please don’t scapegoat Coupet. Granted he wasn’t great, but the main problem was that the defence was left exposed when France started pressing, and was open to the precise and fluid counter-attacking of the Dutch. Around the box the French lacked creativity and finesse, although they had a couple of chances. They didn’t deserve to win, they weren’t clinical and they weren’t as potent in attack as the Dutch. These failings in attack were indirectly responsible for the fact that the defense was exposed in the 2nd half. That, and some poor individual performances by defenders. At least one for each goal. There were plenty of problems and having Buffon instead of Coupet certainly wouldn’t remedy all of them.

Mustafa is totally deluded, and looking for an easy solution.

My grand mother could of stopped the third goal. The Dutchman had to put it in a shoe box and even then any attempt by Coupet to raise his arms would have seen the ball roll off into insignificance.

Well, we just need to win vs. Italy now, a tie won’t do any good (Italy would move on) all assuming that Romania loses. The good news is that if we beat Italy, then we just need Romania to get 1 point or 0 points vs. the Netherlands team. I thought that what really changed the game was the ref, and Henry missing an unbelievably easy goal… The handball should have been called, and assuming we would have made it, would have tied the game and made it more interesting. Same goes to Henry’s goal. After that, we were done. The last two goals that the Netherlands made were the kind of goals that go in when your team is on fire, and that dont go in when your in a rough stretch. I mean common, those shots will go in 1 time out of 10. Defensively, I’d like to see Abidal back, I didn’t see Evra being noticeably better, and Abidal is not new to the defense and has experience. In the midfield, we could have used Viera(again) or Nasri. I really liked the offensive strategy, although I would have liked to see Benzema play, and Gomis has been very disappointing.

Eoin,

Please name ONE thing I said that was “deluded”???? Otherwise,…shut the f*ck up! Where is England,…oh thats right,,.,..didn’t qualify!!!!

It had little to do with raising his arms Paul or about actually making a save, due to the force of the shot it was very hard to react; the flaw was really in his positioning. No keeper should get beaten at their near-post, and Thuram should never have let him get the shot away. Thuram is totally off-pace; drop him for the next game and bring in…ehm, Boumsong (no idea how he keeps making the team at expense of Mexes, it’s testament to the insanity of Domenech).

It’s not all Coupet’s fault, and though it’s wrong, I’m going to take a very small swipe at the Lyonnais who were always proclaiming how superior he was to a Barthez who was always tremendous in big matches (vs. England). The team lost, it is as simple as that, they had their absolute worst performance that I’ve seen, and the blame should be on all of them, including, if not especially, one who’s known as Raymond Domenech.

I’m not English Mustafa, there are 4 countries in the United Kingdom so get your facts straight before you start ranting. I could be any one of the 4. Anyway, I just wrote a paragraph on why you are deluded. You think Barthex would solve all of France’s flaws?!?! Get real, you don’t draw 0-0 and then lose 4-1 just because of a bad goalkeeper, there are intrinsic falings in France’s game plan and execution all over the pitch.

Eoin,

Did Scotland qualify? Did Wales qualify? Did N. Ireland qualify? Thats 0 for 4 douchebag.

By the way,…I was being facetious when I said Barthez would have changed things. I also pointed out a whole host of other problems you ignored,….the age issue,…the ineffectiveness of Gomis as a sub. The failure of Domenech to put in Nasri or Benzema for one of the old defenders in the last 15 minutes. I understand it was a total breakdown,….you only concentrated on my Barthez comment.

Eoin,

Let me take back the cursing,…i’m just pissed at the game.

To be fair, it doesn’t matter if Northern Ireland didnt’ qualify, the fact is we exceeded all expectations in our qualification campaign, it was pretty heroic. France is like 20 times the size of us, and is World Cup finalists. Plus, I’m critiquing France, don’t start changing the subject to other teams, it’s pathetic, everyone realises England didn’t qualify and were crap, move on and try and consider the relevant issues. I am entitled to express my opinion. “There is only one person that lost the game for us”. Yeah, I think my points were valid. You named a host of problems, then scapegoated one player, who was actually one of the least influential players in France’s miserable campaign so far. That scapegoating in spite of all the other glaring problems is exactly what I was condemning you for.

France desperately need a ball-playing midfielder, like Sneijder for the Netherlands. You are right in pointing out that makelele can’t cut it at this level anymore, while Toulalan is good at his job but is basically fulfilling the same role as Makelele and there is no creativity in the midfield, and nobody to spread the ball into the channels, a strategy rendered pointless anyway considering how hopeless Malouda has been all year. Ribery and Nasri should be sent to fulfill the aforementioned roles, and they need some more mobile and hard-working strikers. Govou could work out well, and Henry if he gets service and support from the midfield.

Basically, they need Xavi in the centre alongside Toulalan plus Villa and Torres, with Ribery and Nasri as the supporting players. But that isn’t going to happen…

Eoin,

I don’t have the clarity of objective analysis after what I witnessed,…only emotional analysis. And what I know is that for teams to when tournaments the goalie has to surpass himself. Perhaps its not fair to put all the blame on Coupet,..but I’ve witnessed many a game when the goalie was literally the only thing between victory and certain defeat. Heck,..even todays Italy-Romania game,…Italians would have been on their way home right NOW if Buffon doesn’t make that save. Meanwhile Coupet gave up the 3rd goal which in all rights he should have saved. If he saved it the game is still 2-1 with 15 minutes left,….plenty of time to even the score. The 3rd goal was the back breaker. While other players clearly messed up,…the most obvious mistakes belonged to Coupet.

Fair point.
What a turning point was Henry’s miss and then that penalty decision. Referees have been pretty frustrating so far. When illegally denying a certain goal, distinction between intentional and unintentional is irrelevant. Basically, it’s a penalty and the issue of intention should only be used for weighing up whether or not the offender gets a red-card. That said, it obviously doesn’t excuse conceding 4. The pace of the Dutch counter-attack is frightening. Teams will need to be so wary of that when they meet them in the knockout rounds.

Romanian keeper, Lobont, was a bit of a hero today as well.

I think the 4 goals are deceptive,…when a fast paced team like Holland quickly goes up by 1 goal,…the tendency is for the other team to take more gambles to create scoring opportunities. Inevitably this gives more opportunities for Holland,..and thats how they pile on the points.

The Romanian keeper was great,…and the Turkish keeper was fantastic against the Swiss especially given the condition of the pitch!!! He made some tremendous saves.

Yeah, that’s what I have been thinking; I wonder how this actually reflects on the Dutch team. Obviously they are a good team, great on the counter-attack but I want to see how they react when they have to chase a game. Both of the games so far have played right into their hands, even if both Italy and France clearly have lots of flaws.

I agree with most of what you’ve said Mustafa, but let’s not give Domenech a great deal of credit for getting the team to the finals of the World Cup. Zizou was managing that squad from the third match of that tournament on. And as far as having Barthez come back to replace Coupet. That may not ever be happening, but Mandanda has had a lot of Barthez-esque moments this year (and I mean that in the good way).

I agree that the fourth goal wasn’t that important anymore, but what puzzled me is: why was Malouda marking Kuyt at that corner kick. He didn’t even watch the ball come in! And what the hell was Henry doing there in no man’s land?

Second goal: Gallas suddenly stopped running back to close the space between Robben and Van Persie. Why?

Third goal: it has been said already: Thuram and Coupet… Even Robben looked puzzled after he scored.

Bad defending by France and bad luck upfront.