When the Watermark Tells the Story

I have said this, well, for about a year, and I think eventually the best center back pair will be the new Desailly (Sakho, he’s considered the new Thuram, though Desailly works as a model too) and the new Blanc (Mexès).

If we want to go into the long, in some cases very long term, there’s Matthieu Saunier of Bordeaux, Léo Schwechlen of Monaco, and Darnel Situ of Lens.

In the shorter term, there’s Gallas, and we have to see if Bodmer, who’s been playing at center back at Lyon, will be able to overcome his lapses of concentration there.

Can someone tell what they think of this line up?

——–Frey——–
-Sagna-Mexes-Gallas-Clichy-
—-Vieira/Toualan—-
-Govou–Gourcuff–Ribery-
–Henry/Trezeguet-Anelka/Benzema–

@ zizou

gallas is getting old (we need to replace him, because in 2 years time he will be gone)
vieira needs to go ( the france 98 players) it time for new generation and i believe we have the players
trez and frey retired
henry and anelka ( good players, but hard to say where they will be in 2 years), we need replacement, jeremy menez is good candidate

Great picture, Laurie … I love those white jerseys!

Is it true the French NT hasn’t worn them since the WC06 final?

@ Zizou Zidane

No gallas, frey and trez sed goodbye
No govou please,replace him by Nasri
but i like the backline

ma favourite is:
Any keeper
sagna mexes clerc clichy

toulalan
nasri gourcuff
ribery

Henry Benzema

but this is a very unrealistic lineup as domenech as coach- he will add gallas malouda and govou and abidal thingies

and ps zizou can i have ur autograph

Does anyone else feel like we should have a more compaitable team more than anything else. I mean right now everyone seems to be playing their own game in a sense. Please lets get someone like scolari or mourinho to build a TEAM, I realistically wanna root for France in WC10.

@D: You’re right: this is not a team, but a group of immensely talented players on the pitch at the same time.
@Jean Pierre: Can Clerc play CB? And Ray Ray is either insane/consulted the stars/has guts, putting Abidal back in at CB after the Italy game. Can’t criticize since it worked-out well this time. And hopefully Mexes recovers mentally from his last debacle and we have him and Sakho for the WC’10.

@john

i dont know i havent seen clerc playing much
and now he is injured for like 6 months

and i agree with “D”
i want a team
with a good coach

fifa 08
france starting 11:
———-frey——-
sagna-gallas-bodmer-clichy
——–toulalan——-
ribery—gourcuff—-nasri
sinamapongolle—benzema

Michel Olivier: are you a Lyon fan? It’s interesting to see how many people are mentioning Bodmer’s name as a possible CB on the NT.

@ John
lyon is the reason i don’t watch french ligue 1 anymore.

Michel Olivier: Then how do you have an opinion on Bodmer’s play?

nice lineup michelle olivier
but i wud put clerc in and replace sinama for henry

http://ligue1clips.blogspot.com/2007/11/nasri-videos.html
9 year old nasri if u scroll down

JP: I’d like to see:
———————Mandanda———————–
Sagna——-Mexes————–Sakho——-Clichy—
——————-Toulalan————————-
Nasri———————————-Gourcuff—–
——Ribery——-Benzema——-Ben Arfa———–

@ jeanne pierre
sagna is better thab clerc.

@ John
bodmer is average but his a big guy(tall) who can go against big/tall central forward like adriano, ibra, toni….
also sakho is going to play for senegal, because france already have lots of players in that position(danze, squillaci, baysse, escude….).

Michel-Olivier, I can almost guarantee that Sakho won’t wear a Senegal jersey. The FFF has treated him as almost a special project on his own, being that he’s jumped from U-18 to the U-21s in less than a year, and he was born/lived all his life in France.

And also, since when did Adriano play internationally? Although yes, I think that is the point with Bodmer, he is tall and actually quite skillful, though he has to get accustomed at the back. Also, why mention Danzé as he isn’t a center back, so he would not be in direct competition with the others you named.

@michelle olivie

ye but clerc is better than gallas
and i ment to remove gallas

@michelle olivie

ye but clerc is better than gallas
and i ment to remove gallas

jeanne petra
your insane mate, clerc is a fullback(lb).

higuain should play for france, someone get him a french girl

Michel-Olivier, actually Higuain has already been capped by Argentina. Though I doubt we’ll miss the guy.

michelle olivia
nothing wrong with fullbacks

we dont need argentinian higuains we got enough talents in france

@ seb
higuain played a u-23 B match for argentina and it’s not recognized by fifa.
basile never called higuain becauuse he prefer messi, aguero, tevez, milito, cruz, cavenaghi, denis, palacio and lopez. i can’t see higuain making the argentine team anytime soon.

domenech should call marvin compper. his born in germany to german mother and a french antillean father. he holds both german-french passport.

@ jeanne petra
“enough talents” l
like who? flops like gomis, cisse…. france don’t need senegalese sakho and saivet.

ma dear mademoiselle michelle olivia

i wudnt call gomis a talent yet, only domenech and it seems like u call him a talent
sakho is born in france i bet ma grandma that he’ll neva play for sénégal

and in my eyes the talents are for example nasri gourcuff benzema ben arfa sagna ribéry etc. and i think thats enough people to prevent us begging higuain playing for france

Michel-Olivier, my mistake, you are definitely correct. Higuain has yet to earn a full cap with Argentina, though really, do you see him ever wanting to wear a Bleu jersey, because I don’t.

Besides, I like Henry, Benzema, Ribéry, Trezeguet, Malouda, Ben Arfa, Nasri, Anelka, Obertan, Saivet, Ménez, Gakpé, Monnet-Paquet, N’Gog, Bodmer, Gourcuff, Rémy, Giuly and even Diaby better than him anyway. Darn, I tried to have a list of 20.

@ seb
but Higuain is the missing piece in the french team. Benzema + Higuain = WC2010.
i can’t see domenech calling Monnet-Paquet, Obertan, Remy also Sinama-Pongolle, Gouffran, Payet and Hoarau. He doesn’t like players(strikers) of DOM/TOM origin.

@ jeanne petra
did you know half of the moroccan nt is french, almost 80% of the algerian nt team is french.

Michel-Olivier, I’ll admit that’s an interesting argument, but doesn’t Higuain have to get off the bench at Real before being able to make an impact internationally? Considering that apparently Real are actually making a serious push after Villa or Huntelaar, doesn’t that indicate they don’t have the highest confidence that Higuain can fill the shoes of van Nistelrooy?

I admit it’s a shame that Domenech, indeed, does not appear to like very much attacking players of DOM/TOM origin.

madame michelle olivia

no i didnt know that lemerre calls up so much footballeurs de france, its interesting. but its their own choice though

and we all know how weird domenech is

Now it gets interesting …

Yesterday on Canal+ Zidane went after Escalettes, basically calling him a coward, if I understand correctly. Did anyone see this? It’s all over the French press ….

wat? The Zidane calling someone a coward? thats reallllllly unbelievable

off topic i got to hold a speech in english for a verrry important english kind of test on school. it is very important because if i fail it again i got to redouble this schoolyear and the subject of the speech has to be about europe so i want to do it about the european championship 08 but im very bad at making speeches and ma english teacher warned me that it has to have “depth” and has to sound like “adult” and i dont know to tell depth about european championship, ma friends either, they only got non-depth ideas and the adults in ma neighbourhood dont like soccer
so i wonder if u, adults who like football and france and have probably watched the european championship if u got any ideas what an adult means by depth in a speech about european championship, and i think that u lot know because ur grown-up + know a lot about soccer

Looking for blogs about France and French culture! Nice blog. Liked it.

Jean Pierre,

How’s this:

For centuries European countries used to fight wars against each other, which culminated in two incredibly destructive world wars in the last century. They don’t do that anymore. They play football against each other instead, as in the European championship.

Football, like all team sports, is a relatively harmless release for male aggression and national sentiment. As spectators, we derive a vicarious pleasure from watching it, safe in the knowledge that our interest is not potentially fatal. Nor, ideally, is it racist or xenophobic.

European football, then, is a kind of sublimated warfare, as seen most obviously in last summer’s European championship. By “sublimated,” I mean we take something unacceptable (warfare) and make it acceptable (football, the beautiful game).

Professor Meta

David – Thanks for that. The French National Team is an integral part of France and French culture. 60 million people – how many of those could name half a dozen players? I’d guess 20 million easy.

Feel free to use this comments board to discuss anything about you’d like. I’m your man for discussions on Bordeaux wine and the culinary traditions of the Perigord.

JP – that’s good stuff from Meta. It’s beyond adult-like, it’s academic, which might be what your instructor is expecting. I’m an adult, and my discussions about football usually reduce to over-using British phrases that I’ve recently learned and chuckling about them. You’re instructor is probably expecting something different than that, although it would be a genuine representation of a native English speaker:

“I can’t believe it – he’s shinned it! An absolute sitter and he’s bottled it! My word, he’s made a hash of things. What do reckon, Trevor? To be fair, it’s that kind of finishing that really threatens to bring the game into disrepute.” Hee,hee,hee.

Wowowow im impressed adults who do watch football do have huge brains with depth! the eyes of ma teacher are gonna roll out when i use ur piece with words like xenophobic and sublimated
thanks professor meta the stuff u wrote are not good but they are totally great and wise and old and professer university stuff, it really amazed me and ty jeff im gonna score a 10

ps @ jeff ty but after 3 years lessons ma english still hasnt reached the level to understand what you wrote – lolll thanks anyways:D

Forgive me …

… but I’m utterly fascinated by this apparent civil war going on now between veteran players and the FFF. There’s definitely a very public attempt going on to get rid of Escalettes and his cronies on the part of Trez, Frey, Pires, Zidane et al … and today Coupet. Zidane denied any orchestration on the part of the ‘98 generation and I don’t doubt that, but they’re obviously embarrased by the current leadership/administration and would like to see the team returned to competent hands.

I love Coupet’s sarcastic comment, as quoted in The Guardian,

“They sacked the doctor and the media guy,” he said. “We were crap at Euro and that would be because of the doctor and the guy responsible for the media. That’s shameful.”

Go Coupet

Coupet & zidane forever

Meta – I don’t find it all that surprising. Nice quote from Coupet.

The French people with whom I’ve spoken act as if there’s unanimous disdain for the current state of the FFF; as if the FFF’s shame is simply a matter of fact, rather than a matter of debate.

@ metamoralia
it’s not a civil war but a revolution