Read ‘em and Weep: Austria 3-1 France

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

Posted from  United States

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———

Posted from  United States

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

Posted from  Netherlands

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.

Posted from  Costa Rica

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!

Posted from  Singapore

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.

Posted from  United States

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.

Posted from  Costa Rica

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?!

Posted from  United States

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 …

Posted from  Canada

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

Posted from  Netherlands

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?

Posted from  United States

@ 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 ” <———–

Posted from  United States

@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.

Posted from  United States

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.

Posted from  Nicaragua

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.

Posted from  United States