Saha passes medical? Plus World Cup Qualifiers Start Saturday

September 2nd, 2008 | by: jeff |

This headline, “Saha becomes a Toffee after passing Everton medical”, struck me as curious: how did Saha pass a medical?

I, for one, really hope his injuries are behind him for good – can you imagine? When he’s in form he is a cracking striker, and I’d love to see him hit the heights for France. An in-form Saha would be a great partner for Benzema, when Henry’s unavailable or out of sorts. Saha and can deliver some sweet headed flick-ons.

Here’s a story with quotes from Domenech about how he’s accustomed to the feeling that he’s about to get sacked.

Jeremy Menez has transferred from Monaco to Roma. Zizou said Menez is a bit like Cassano. I don’t see a lot of quotes from Zizou about up and coming players, so it caught my attention that he has an interest in Menez, but I don’t know the context in which the comments were made. He’s worried that Menez might not get playing time at Roma.

If France are going to be world beaters again, the French players are going to have to displace the existing players at the top clubs. When players move to big clubs, like Menez to Roma and Ngog to Liverpool, we have to be hoping that they’re good enough to make a big impact. Sort of like Samir Nasri playing left midfield at Arsenal.

The season is still very young, but Nasri has looked like a great signing for Arsenal. He’s already scored a couple of goals, he’s been involved in setting up some others, and the Arsenal faithful are just about ready to fall in love with him.

Arsene Wenger described his most recent performance as “complete”, which in Wenger-speak is high praise. The boss said of Nasri, “We like him to have the ball because we know, every time he does, he’ll do something with it. For me it’s a sign of a player that, when he gets the ball, you’re happy.”

As reported by Metamoralia in the comments, Setanta will carry both of France’s upcoming World Cup Qualifiers on same-day tape-delay. If you have access to Setanta or Setanta Broadband, forget about the actual times of the matches, and focus on these times:

4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, 2008
World Cup Qualifier – Austria v France

6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
World Cup Qualifier – France v Serbia

For those of you not in the Eastern Time Zone, adjust accordingly. It’s strange, but the schedule on Setanta doesn’t say anywhere that I can see what Time Zone the listed times are for. For people outside of the Eastern Time Zone, it could really be a drag to sit down for the game 1 to 3 hours late. Even if the web site knows what time zone you’re in, and shows you your local times, it would be nice for them to specify that by stating the time zone somewhere, wouldn’t it?

That friendly against Sweden was very promising. The highlights we posted are still working, so check out those France goals again to brighten your day.

Let’s start this World Cup Qualifying campaign with 6 points.

Allez Les Bleus!

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Benjamin

I never liked Saha, too inconsistent. and all i remember him for
is how in 2006 wc, he would be subbed on for last 2 min of the game
and still find a way to get yellow cards!

anyways hopefully the young and talented and shine this week
if nasri keeps his form up things will be goood!
metamoralia

Hi Laurie,

Did you see the news on Malouda? Apparently he’s blaming Ray for making him the scapegoat for the Euro failure last summer. That surprises me, as I don’t recall seeing any such comments in the press. What Malouda’s claim indicates to me is that he’s been told by Ray he won’t be starting the upcoming qualifiers … that means it’s Nasri, right?

Hi Laurie,

Did you see the news on Malouda? Apparently he’s blaming Ray for making him the scapegoat for the Euro failure last summer. That surprises me, as I don’t recall seeing any such comments in the press. What Malouda’s claim indicates to me is that he’s been told by Ray he won’t be starting the upcoming qualifiers …

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12098_4089778,00.html
metamoralia

… sorry, I mean, Jeff. (And forgive me the double entry.)
http://www.wickeddeflection.com/ Jeff/433

For the Italy game, the way I remember it, France switched to a 4-4-2 with Henry and Benzema up front, having played more of a 4-5-1 against Holland.

The attacking players against Holland were Henry, Govou, Ribery, and Malouda.

The attacking players against Italy were Henry, Govou, Ribery, and Benzema.

This by itself probably wasn’t enough to send Malouda over the edge, but the attacking players who came on against Italy were Nasri and Anelka, so Malouda didn’t get a run at all, and after having been a starter, that obviously made him bitter.

I can’t blame him. I get bitter about work all the time.

I think the decision to drop Malouda was long overdue, but I’m a bit of a broken record as far as that goes.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Malouda and Abidal shoulda never left Lyon.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

I’m excited to see somebody else at left mid. Malouda didn’t offer a lot of creativity. Let’s bring in some new blood.
sandrahn

“Malouda and Abidal shoulda never left Lyon.” — too true! Reminds me of what happens when most Arsenal players leave the club — it’s a bit of a curse, they usually have mediocre club careers after leaving us (this doesn’t apply to their NT careers). Flamini couldn’t help Milan win a game against newly promoted Bologna at the San Siro over the weekend. Not saying he’ll do poorly at Milan, he’s still very young and can only improve, esp. at a club like Milan who know how to get the best out of players. But a part of me wonders if it was his almost telepathic understanding with Cesc–being Cesc’s partner all season long–that made him so consistently good with us last season.
Jean-Michel

I’m not sure what Malouda’s beef is.
#1 he has been called up which is amazing. Would another coach continue to select him despite his lack of creativity on the left??
#2 when was the last time Malouda scored for France? Correct me if I’m wrong but I think it was a 2006 friendly prior to the World Cup against Mexico.
#3 why would he make this statement prior to the games? To mentally prepare us for his likely benching on Saturday?? I don’t see the same attacking qualities in Malouda that I see in Nasri or even Govou for that matter. If the coach asked him to play a more defensive role perhaps the team needed it and probably would be better off with him defending rather than him turning it over (which he does alot of).
Seb

I’m amazed at myself, but I actually think I’ll be defending Malouda, though I mean, this could go down due to my distaste of Dumbenech. In any case, I think that Malouda definitely has a point that Domenech bowed to pressure ahead of the Italy game as anybody who was criticized in the earlier games was benched. While it makes sense to do something like that, if Domenech indeed did ask Malouda to defend more (which he can do, as I believe he has played as a left back), then it is appalling given that anyone with one good eye could see how thrift of ideas our attack was.

I know that all of you would rather even have Govou (and after his performance against the Swedes, it’s a good argument) in the starting XI instead, though I actually think I would go with Malouda against Austria since without him, we have not one left-footed player. Oh, there’s our left-back, Clichy/Abidal/Evra, and it’s conceivable one of them could play in midfield instead, though I don’t know if anyone them has the passing ability that Malouda, when he’s on his game, has, as keep in mind in his season at OL before heading to Chelsea, he had been league leader in L1 in assists, I think.

In any even, the midfield and attack I’d have:

Henry Benzema
Malouda – - – - – Nasri
Flamini-Toulalan
metamoralia

He may be in the NT for the upcoming qualifiers, but it sounds like Malouda has effectively announced his “international retirement” …

It’ll be interesting to see how Ray responds … and will Malouda become the new Vikash Dhorasoo?

Has anyone seen Dhorasoo’s film? It sounds like an interesting take on group dynamics and the marginalisation of the individual ….
http://france.worldcupblog.org laurie

Jeff, my experience with Setanta is that, if you’re a subscriber, they list the games in your own timezone after you log in. The Saturday game is being shown on Setanta at 1:00pm Pacific, 4:00 Eastern. The Serbia game is being shown at 15:45 Pacific, 18:45 Eastern.
metamoralia

Laurie, I know a lot of people may not have access to Setanta, and that there’s been some discussion in the comments on where to watch the upcoming games on the web. But what about the official FFF site, it seems the Austria game is going to be available there: http://www.fff.fr/bleus/460084.shtml
Seb

Metamoralia, typically the FFF only gives live commentary (in French). It’s not bad, but not that different from what one would get at l’Equipe, for example.
Jean Pierre

meta, seb has right. i have tried the fff website during several matches but it only gives some comments in french. it is not that good, because it only gives 1 comment per 5-10 minutes, so its more of a live summary.
metamoralia

Oh, I see … thank you to Seb & Jean Pierre.

Yeah, that stuff can be frustrating. I’m sure it’ll be much more enjoyable to follow Laurie’s commentary (and that of her contributors), as I’ve done for several earlier games … um, at work.

I’ve always enjoyed the commentary over at the Guardian website, too. There’s an often frequently-hilarious bitchiness that attends to it, especially whenever the England NT is concerned.
Jean Pierre

well we dont have to follow the comments on school (and you lot on work i think?) coz its saturday