Read ‘em and Weep: Austria 3-1 France

I totally believe in Frey, Flamini and Trez paying Mexes to fuck up.
I would get in on that, I hope we can get rid of Domenech, so technically this was
a positive results for all of us hoping for his imminent firing.

we desperately need a midfield leader like viera back, i mean hell, bring zizou out of retirement.
whenever we win or do well in international games and tournaments its because we have one amazing midfield player/leader orchestrating everything. Examples: Platini and Zizou!
We desperately need viera back, or have ribery do the job, or even at this point give the leader position to toulalan, hes been amazing every selection! and he seems the care the most out of everyone

its sad when a team full of talent loses like this

france have habit of not having strong mentality to win, don’t know why

domenech needs to go, by 3rd game it will be too late

Cyprus is looking alot hungrier than the French did. Will this be enough for a mid-week firing? I dunno but soon please. Of course, own goals and rugby tackles are not his fault but enough already. Thats my two cents.

Ultimately, there are many new players on the team. They are the future but it’s going to take some time for them to gel. Mexes, Nasri and Benzema have to be gradually integrated into the team. On offense in particular, I would assume that it takes some time for strikers and attacking mids to get to know each other. So the positive is that some of these guys are still young and will hopefully grow more comfortable with each other. The downside is that this might not happen in time for France to qualify for WC.

However, in my opinion the last few French coaches of the DTN weren’t very good at coaching superstars and ego management. They specialize in youth development and don’t seem to have the “soft” skills needed for managing the players. I think they need to look outside the DTN for the next coach.

domenech need to visit the streets of dakar, algiers, kinshasa and yaounde for new talent

Some amusing quotes from the French players before and after the game:

Philippe Mexes: ” The Austrian players have square feet” (Phil talking some trash before the game)

Samir Nasri: “I thought we played well on offense” (I see the coaching staff is using positive reinforcement with the youngsters)

Thierry Henry: ” We still have a lot of work to do on defense” ( Henry throwing his defensive team mates under a bus. He forgot to mention that the team have even more work to do in attack).

Forget offense and defense where’s the team? Everything from management to players is messed up. Unless Domenech is sacked I am not going to support France at all.

france should have started rebuilding their team after 06 world cup. but what did the coach do? he went for old aging players. and mistrust for french players in italy in favor of inferior players . the problem is that these talents haven’t been given an opportunity to play youan gourcuff, hatem ben arfa, jeremy menez, philipe mexes, flamini, clichy, etc. non of these people have been given enough playing time on the international scale. then you have the coach tactics which are a mess.

france needs world class strikers, we can’t always rely on govou, benzema, and henry. govou is inconsistent, henry is getting old. you are left with benzema who scores when france players well and offensively. Yoan Gouffran should be called up

Domenech needs to go right after the Serbia match. I don’t care if we win the Serbia game, he needs to go. I guess this loss can be a blessing in disguise.

What can the team do to fix it, and fast?

Definitely leave Evra in there. If Domenech benches Evra in favor of Abidal, I’ll be at a loss for words.

And leave Toulalan in there. He looks like he could be captain material.

In a normal game, without the comedy defending, it would have been a pretty poor performance, but a 1-0 victory from the Govou goal. I thought that was a really well-taken goal.

I think we (as if we have a say in this) should truly consider placing nasri in the zizou position.
all we need is a link between offense and midfield. A flat 4-4-2 just doesn’t cut it anymore.
This can mean either keep Henry and Benzema on together, and then have nasri in the attacking midfield with a defensive midfielder, Toulalan, (no more of all the Diarra’s). And then 2 wingers.
Or there is the option of tacking out one of the forwards, and playing it 4-5-1 a la wc06 style.

I spend wayyy to much thinking of these things during the day…maybe the FFF should hire me! I wont use astrology to decide player selections and tactics…i promise

I followed the second half by comments so thanks

What was Mexes doing man?
When are we able to get rid of that Domenech?
It’s really becoming dangerous now with him as coach
If we lose on wednesday again, its très, très unbearable

Poor Henry and Toulalan!

I dont wanna see mexes and domenech again, mexes has had enough chances

In short it was preposterous. I think if Domenech makes the 2016 WC his target he cannot fail! (for a while at least).

He needs to forget about viera and anyone approaching 30, apart from henry. Then he needs to actually find out properly who he likes, instead of guessing. We know toulalan, evra, sagna, nasri, benzema should be there. Then even the fans are stumped, i’d say.

T h i s = T r è s , T R È S T E R R I B L E!

If Domenech has brains, he would have learnt vèry much from this match, and knows who he has to call up for the game against Serbia.

Losing from Austria is very embarrassing for a team like France (not anymore though)

Ribéry, recover quickly
And Toulalan, you are GREAT and Henry too

Mexes, go play judo or something

Hey, how about you lose to Serbia (very unlikely) and then Domenech gets sacked? It’s a win-win situation…

I’d just like to remind you how much have the media attacked Domenech for not bringing Mexes to the Euros. Now the very same media are going to attack him again for actually do selecting him. There is definetely too much pressure on the French NT, and it won’t bring it any good.

Actually, my buddy and co-blogger Chris, who writes the Roma blog, believes that Philippe Mexès was paid off by his Italian-playing French buddies to take down Domenech.
rofl. Ah, how altruistic of him to risk his own standing in the NT to bring down the e-vile one! If Mexès manages to get both himself and Domenech banished for this, I may become a Roma sympathizer yet. (Ok, not really, though now that Jérémy Menez is there I’d be a bit more well disposed towards the club. As long as they don’t turn the kid into a brat with an attitude problem, that is…)

Not much to say about the match, except that hopefully the powers that be at FFF saw the same things we did, unlike at the Euros.

Great game, great result!! Domenech is the PERFECT coach for the French people. Enjoy!!!

domenech should drop evra, diara, gallas, henry and mandada, and add flamini, squilachi, glichy and lloris. 2 attacking fullbacks is killing defense. mandada suck, the guy is rubbish.

———lloris———
sagna-squilachi-mexes-glichy
—-flamini–toulalan—-
govou—-nasri—–Gourcuff
——–benzema———

I think Henry and Toulalan played great
From now on Im a Toulalan fan

Michel Olivier: Is Clichy a defensive side back or an attacker? And why is Mandanda rubbish? I’m a Lloris fan, but Mandanda hasn’t done anything yet to lose my confidence. He looks more solid than Frey, who was very shaky the times I saw him in goal for Les Blues. But I do like that line-up- if Mexes doesn’t lose his confidence- for the next match.

Dont worry you guys
i switched my phone numba so raymond cant get me.
you wouldnt want a 36 year old saving your butt
like for the wc06 qualifications

actually Zidane, i really would love it if you came out of retirement and played, would put an instant smile on my face.

I hope the anti-Govou people can quit asking why he keeps getting picked.

I knew KNEW this would happen with Mexes. Even he acknowledges his rugby ways.

And oh Ray, you still don’t know how to make substitutions.

Anyway, people are forgetting that France came really close, if it hadn’t been for that amazing save on Toulalan’s shot. Had that gone in, France would have been at 2-2 with time to equalize. So I don’t think this game was anywhere as dire as the one against the Dutch.

Don’t forget that Austria showed themselves to be a tough little team in Euro 2008 and aren’t the pushovers we were expecting.

The only thing we can all do is hope the team hasn’t lost too much confidence for their game against Serbia.

I still dont like govou inara, im not gonna lie.
To me he will always be that guy who took cisse’s
place in wc06. And if you go by your hypothetical ideas,
france should have been winning 3-2 cuz we hit the bar twice i think.

it doesnt matter, lets just hope things turn around against serbia,
and that rayray gets fired!

And Domenech did it again! A team brimming with talent losing 3-1 to Austria (no offense to the Austria NT, but on paper, Les Bleus is hands down much better than them).

I agree with the need for a midfield leader. I guess we’d just need to wait for Ribery to come back–Jurgen Klinsmann said that Franck should be almost ready for regular training!

And Yoann’s shoes were white. Prettttyyyy, just like him

Call me when Rayray’s fired!

In defense of Mexes I will say that everyone was demanding for him to play not too long ago and then he has a bad game,well terrible game, and now people are saying he should not be allowed to play again. Come on people lets not be so rutheless. Its not entirely his fault that France lost. I personally think he deserves to play again maybe just not against Serbia. Give him some time to regroup. Also Mananda is really the one who should not play again. Him and L.Diarra do not deserve a spot on this team. It was either the first or second goal where Mananda performed horribly and practically let the ball in. So with that said I am greatly dissapointed at our team. I thought we were over this performing well in cycles crap. Put in Flamini already. He is a perfect replacement for Viera. Big changes better come for the Serbia game. Why is it we can beat Sweden 3-2 but lose to Austria 3-1. What happened? Oh and it is apparent that Govou should stay in.

I was never for Mexes, being that I only know him by reputation, but I’m not for taking him out either. I’m sure he’ll rise to the occasion in the next match. But I love it that the Serie A accolytes have to close their mouths for a while; even if it is for a couple of minutes. Their incessant droaning about Dom not playing Serie A players, and those players’ superiority, is worse than some of the aromas emanating from the canals of Venice.

john, Clichy is an attacking fullback.

I’m still reeling after this game. I can’t remember the last time I was this engraged at watching a football match.

Not even the pathetic idiocy of Dunga’s recent matches made me this angry. Not even that farce of an Arsenal game v. Fulham made me this angry.

I couldn’t watch the whole thing live. I was going to watch it live but the minute Austria scored the first goal after such piss-poor defending on that set piece, I put the DVR on to record the game so I didn’t have to watch it live. I was too furious. Gallas has been consistent in one thing lately, both at Arsenal and France: his abject inconsistency. Get him off the French NT now!

I guess the FFF prefer sticking to their old boys network politics than qualifying their country for the world cup. That’s what matters most to them. They apparently don’t give a damn that their country’s humiliated like this. I don’t see those neanderthal idiots having the guts to fire Domenech’s ass. Blame it on Mexes, yes, he f—ed up. But it goes beyond any individual players.

It’s the entire team mentality and attitude. This isn’t a functioning unit. It’s an incoherent mess of great individual talent with no anchor, no leadership and a manager who doesn’t have a clue as to how to inject his team with a winning mentality. It doesn’t matter if he finally uses this or that out-of-favor player that the puclic and media are demanding him to.

It’s his total inability to develop a TEAM UNIT regardless of who he has to work with.

The Austrian coach certainly knows how to do that. That’s why his team won.

If this asshole continues as manager, I don’t want Arsenal players Nasri, Clichy and Sagna to be anywhere this team. I don’t want them injured or exhausted for such witless, useless crap.

One of the most enraging things about Domenech is that he’s known as a conservative, defensive coach — yet he’s totally incapable of instilling in his team the ability to F@!#%ING DEFEND!!!! You’d think that the ONE thing a defensive coach can be counted on is putting out teams who know how to defend set pieces intelligently.

But he doesn’t. He doesn’t even have that going for him. His teams can’t attack and can’t defend. What the HELL is he good for?!

Well … at least Dunga won his most recent game, away to Chile, 0-3.

I have a hard time blaming Domenech for this one … and while I think he’ll probably stick with Mexes, who knows, we could see Abidal or Squillaci starting in his place for the Serbia game.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

The Austrians are young, strong, athletic and very, very tall, which helps explain their utter dominance at set pieces in this game. Since the World Cup, 11 of the 21 goals conceded by France have been from set pieces or penalties.

About the qualification process: unlike the Euro Championship, only the top team from the group is guaranteed a WC spot. And Romania and Serbia are—at least theoretically—stronger sides than Austria. But France can find some solace in the Romanian team, which lost at home 3-0 to Lithuania (without Chivu, Mutu and Rat) …

“On comes Anelka, off goes hope …”

France has not rallied to victory after conceding the first goal since beating Spain at WC 2006. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me—but it seems that whenever Anelka comes on as a substitution, it’s like France is waving the white flag of surrender.

Yes, that was Malouda slouching forlornly in the crowd …

I agree with Sandern

there are good talented young players plus more experienced players, sounds like a perfect team but they mess it all up. as a team they dont know what to do, while induvidually they are great players (except for mexès in the last game, hope he will be better and play footy instead of judo).

I hope france will win from serbia and eventually become a real team, and that all the players become friends and no ben arfa-benzema girl argument stuff.

by the way hey zinedine

and do you old lot in America got the channel EuroSport 1 ? Because that channel broadcasts the matches from Les Bleus against Austria and Serbia. Not full matches, only 60 minutes from the match but it is okay. And it repeats the match quite often
if you got this channel in america, this is the link for the schedules: http://yahoo.eurosport.com/tvschedule_clng0.shtml

It’s really funny how people change their tune so quickly. During Euro 2008 qualification, France had the best defense alongside of Germany (I think) in terms of goals conceded. Games were won thanks to 1-0 victories, due to a defensive style of play and lots of the old regulars like Malouda, Abidal, Vieira, Makelele, etc. No one liked that and kept asking for more younger and newer players, flashier players who would quit with the defending and try to create something.

After Euro 2008, Domenech did exactly what everyone asked for: playing Mexes, Nasri, Sagna, Evra, Benzema, and Mandanda, calling up Ben Arfa and Gourcuff. Domenech asked his players to go forward more often, to use the wings more strategically, and to involve the fullbacks in more attacks.

This stratagem – that everyone wanted – hasn’t gotten off to the best start, and people are already branding it as a failure? As if Trezeguet and Flamini would have been the difference between a defeat and a victory? Come on, if France can’t win against Austria with the players they have on the bench already, then those two won’t be any help at all.

I just don’t see how Domenech can be completely blamed for this loss. Okay, his substitutions could have been more inspired, but after watching Sagna fumble around as a RB against Austria, it makes sense that he put in Diarra there since for Les Bleus – Diarra has done a decent job in that position. Mexes, though a good player, had a meltdown of epic proportions and pretty much caused France the game. Gallas lost his concentration too frequently. Evra was nonexistent. Mandanda, while not really responsible for the goals, didn’t have the most inspiring match either. Benzema and Henry ran around like headless chickens most of the time. That is not Domenech’s fault. We can’t even blame his player selections because these are the players we’ve been wanting all along.

Guys, it was an unfortunate loss. That’s the price you pay for change. People wanted the old players out, the ones who are long used to playing together as a unit. New players are in, most of whom have never played together before. Whether their poor performance was due to unfamiliarity, panic, or just plain apathy (I’m looking at you, Patrice), they are all professional and highly experienced players. They should have performed better.

This isn’t kindergarten. While a manager is always held responsible for defeats, the players have some responsibility in this case as well. I honestly don’t think it’s fair to blame Domenech alone for this loss.

Some players need to be given a chance to prove what they can do. I believe Flamini is one of them. I just don’t understand what anyone sees in this Diara. He isn’t a horrible player but nothing about him stands out. Most of the games he has played he seemed not to have an effective game. Let Flamini play what do we have to lose? Now I am not going to fully blame Domenech for this game. It is obvious that the players are partially to blame for this mess. However from what I gather it seems the team lacked any organization or unity. It is the job of the head coach to ensure that the team plays together. So either Domenech had the team playing well together prior to the game and the players just fell apart or Domenech’s strategy was frail and only was a matter of time before it would come to pieces. Or both. I just can’t find a worthy excuse for this. Why must the French go through this crap?

@ Inara
“France had the best defense alongside of Germany.”
someone did not watch the euro, let me refresh your memory.

france euro 08 tourney:

score 1 goal and conceded 6 <—————————–
0ut of 9 point they had 1 point(not points)

group c
dutch 9 pt
italy 4 pt
romania 2 pt
france 1 pt <—————-

“Fewest goals conceded by a team: 2 Croatia”(uefa.com) <—————
“Fewest wins: 0 france” <———————-
“Most goals conceded by a team: 9 – Turkey 6 – France ” <———–

@Michel-Olivier: I said during Euro qualification.

@ Inara
je sais je sais je sais
i just want to write trash about zhe team because zhe french team is overrated like england.

Hey Johnny,

A Lloris fan? Come on man! That guy was no big deal at Nice and I saw him get drilled especially during that 06-07 near relegation year. Mandanda is miles ahead of that guy. I was shocked when Lyon decided to replace Coupet with that guy. The should have gone after Itandje or even Pele who is also better.

Boy, Lloris was no big deal at Nice? I have a suggestion, then, go to Nice right now, ask them what they think of Lloris. He is a saint in that city (I’d assume, I actually go to Cannes more often). At the moment, I have yet to determine who’d be better in between Lloris and Mandanda, though I mean, saying Mandanda is miles ahead is crazy. Especially when one considers all of the big clubs that have been chasing after Hugo, including Milan.

Seb: Javier is nuts. But saying that a player is better because he was more sought after by big clubs is a specious argument. I think Lloris was more sought after bec he played on an L1 team, and Mandanda played on an an L2- Le Havre- team with less exposure. Also, I don’t know if Mandanda started, or even played that well- didn’t get to see him. Marseille’s scouts did a job spoting this talent and snapping him up. If Mandanda had been starting on an L1 team like Hugo, for the same amount of time, like at Marseille, I think he would have been heavily sought after by big clubs also. I think they are both similar in talent, but I see Mandana losing the top spot on the NT, bec he doesn’t look that sure back there to me. They are both too young to handle that kind of pressure.

Indeed, John, that’s a good point. Although I wasn’t suggesting Lloris is better about Mandanda, actually, I don’t believe I have seen either enough to make a judgment on that, my argument was there is no way that Steve is MILES ahead of Hugo.

Hey John, I’m nuts right? HAHAHAHA. I’m not the one who in the same sentence judged a plyer’s ability yet admitted he hasn’t watched him play. HAHAHAHA. Good one. And maybe i’m exaggerating about “MILES” ahead, I don’t know? Nevertheless, Mandanda is better and has been more impressive in Ligue 1 at a big club like Marseille who saw a resurgence when he came in at goal over a smaller club like Nice that was nearly relegated season before last with Lloris in goal. And a big reason he was popular at Nice was because the guy is like a model on TV and billboards for teenage girls over there. If we go by that kind of crap then Corey Gibbs is the best player ever to play in the EPL since his image was splashed all over England when he signed with Charlton a few years back. hahahaha. Keep up the good work guys.