World Cup Warm-up – France 0, Spain 2, Spain Among this Summer’s Favorites

March 6th, 2010 | by: jeff |

Here’s how France lined up against Spain in their friendly at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday night:

Anelka
Henry Gourcuff Ribery
Toulalan L. Diarra
Evra Escude Ciani Sagna
Lloris

Spain won 2-0, scoring both goals in the first half while Xavi and Torres rested. Iniesta, Fabregas, Villa, and Ramos were more than enough for France to handle, but France weren’t quite as hopeless as the final scoreline suggests.

I watched the match on tape delay thanks to the useful ESPN360, and I knew the result going in. I was expecting the worst, so I was somewhat relieved to see that France do have a few players in form: Evra, Sagna, Lloris, and L. Diarra; and a few others just a bit off the pace: Ribery, Toulalan, and Anelka.

Gourcuff looked a little farther off the pace, but it looks like most of his problems are related to fitness. He could be back to his best by this summer; let’s hope.

Henry was some distance off the pace, and looks like he might not be able to earn his spot on current form. Domenech will probably play him regardless.

Escude and Ciani was an experimental centerback pairing. Ciani is a Bordeaux and former Lorient player, and this was his France debut. They weren’t terrible, but they didn’t look like World Cup winners. Ciani had a shocking giveaway early on, which luckily led to nothing, and Escude was beaten for the 2nd goal, and got the deflection to ensure Lloris couldn’t save Ramos’s shot.

France had a lot of possession but very few shots on goal. They hit the post late on when D. Cisse crossed to Malouda, and his header was just a bit wide. In the short time he was on, Cisse looked useful.

Ribery looks like France’s most promising prospect. He was in and out of the match a bit, but he’s been out for most of this season with injuries, so I think that’s to be expected. When he was involved, he looked useful, and comparable to Spain’s best players, which is saying something because Iniesta and Fabregas are fantastic. Torres, when he came on in the second half, looked like the best of the lot.

Lassana Diarra, who was France’s worst player in the infamous match against Ireland, was perhaps the best player against Spain: many successful tackles and pushing forward more effectively than the often-anonymous Toulalan.

France is a bit of a patchwork side right now with so many players missing their best form, but this was not one of the most diabolical France performances we’ve suffered through in recent years. France were carved open with some good counter-attacking play from Spain, but France controlled large portions of the game, although they didn’t create enough opportunities.

The Paris crowd booed them, especially at the end of the first half right after Spain’s 2nd goal. If you go to a restaurant and order a steak and the waiter brings you a burger, then you’re probably going to have a moan, especially if it’s a repeat offense, and I think there was that kind of feeling in the crowd. There was a good turnout, over 70,000, but they’re obviously disappointed watching Spain effectively stroll to victory.

A couple counterattacks was all Spain needed because they were tight at the back. Jesus Navas nearly got a third Spain goal late on.

France have to do more to create goals, and have to be better organized defending counterattacks. If we can just iron out the attack and the defense before this summer, we’ll be in good shape.

Update: For more on the match, see the comments in the previous post, many of which are excellent, and include comments from some long-time participants of this site.

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Sarah

Jeff: Thanks for your review! I was expecting more from Henry given that he plays most of the players on the Spain team on a regular basis (in practice at Barcelona or in La Liga). But, he is our captain and we need him for reasons other than speed. The truth is France has a number of young players who can bring speed, agility and athleticism- if Domenech chooses them. We cannot play a bunch of over the hill players at the same time.

I feel bad for Gourcuff- he is clearly burned out from all of the France and Bordeaux games and he hasn’t shown the same potential since last summer (with either his club team or with Les Bleus). But, I can see that he WANTS to play well- he is clearly just as frustrated with himself as we are with him. Which is a lot better of an attitude than say Benzema who when criticized just stops trying…

But, alas, Raymond will do what he wants to do…afterall, there really isn’t an incentive not to-people already hate him and he already knows he doesn’t have a job left after the World Cup. Even if France did well at the WC, he wouldn’t get any credit…
http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/ GFC

The main issue with Gourcuff is that I think he is being played out of position (I do agree he might be tired as well). He needs to be slotted deeper – similar to Pirlo, Ballack or Veron.

I watched some of the other friendlies and what struck me – in particular watching the Argentina v Germany match – was how deep both Ballack for Germany and Veron for Argentina would come back to pick up the ball. Sometimes it was simply to give a wall pass to one of the defenders, but what it did was allow the play-makers to have more time on the ball (the opposing team was not going to put heavy pressure so deep on the pitch) and allow these players to have a greater vision of the field in front of them. Throw in to the mix Messi for Argentina and Ozil for Germany – I mention them because they are the creative players for both sides – and you have a powerful combo. France have that player as well – Ribery. Rather than having two holding midfielders – slot Gourcuff back along side Diarra (I also agree was the best player for France Wednesday night). You can then line up 2 wide players (Ribery, Nasri, Ben Arfa) and two strikers – Anelka high with Henry slightly behind him on the left? Or Gignac high…This could give the team more offensive options and variety, allowing Les Bleus to be more dangerous, less predictable and put more pressure on opposing goals – I talk more about this in my post – http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/2010/03/domenech-debacle-continuescan-we-please.html

Alas, I fear that Domenech will, in his stubbornness stick to his guns and we will have a repeat of Euro 2008…
Sairax

Hello all. I’m someone who is an admirer of the French team and I like to peek in on this blog I enjoy the recent discussions you’ve been having. I am a big fan of Gourcuff and found an interesting article about his role in the team. I was wondering what you guys thought

Page 1: http://nsm03.casimages.com/img/2010/03/06/100306012025559015573870.jpg

Page 2: http://nsm03.casimages.com/img/2010/03/06/100306012025559015573873.jpg

Page 3: http://nsm03.casimages.com/img/2010/03/06/100306012025559015573871.jpg

Page 4:
http://nsm03.casimages.com/img/2010/03/06/100306012025559015573872.jpg
http://www.adidas.fr/om Justin C.

GFC, Sarah,

On the other post, there was a lot of discussion, and general agreement regarding the Dom’s ineffective formation using two holding midfielders. I was actually going to chime in on that but there was already too much discussion. Yes it’s a team game but it’s true that the game is mostly won or lost in the midfield. I’m in agreement that, in addition to a different formation, Gourcuff should have been slotted deeper. I think under optimal conditions, he can play the Ballack role.

Somehow, I don’t think Dom’s going to listen to anyone’s advice about the midfield formations, but he should. You’ve already heard my opinions about the attack and the back four.
Jeff

Sairax – I’m a Gourcuff fan. When he first broke into the team during the 2010 WC Qualifiers, he gave the team a massive boost. That was top form. In that form he’s untouchable, and could play for anybody. I was thinking that there’s no way he could keep it up. As his form dips, I think it would be reasonable to consider Diaby and Nasri as competition for his place, but one thing we’ve seen consistently from Domenech is that his reaction time is very slow, so Gourcuff is pretty much guaranteed a spot regardless of his form.

He’s got a spot in the first 11 whether he feels up for it or not, so hopefully he’ll be in form this summer. I think he will be. He has to be better than he was against Spain. I think he’ll score a goal this summer, and be involved in the build-up to others.

He’s at the hub of everything with France’s formation, so if he’s not playing well, it’s going to be terrible to watch.
Terry from Fl

I hope we loose the next 3 games than for sure the fff will have to send anyone to SA to replace the moran of a coach
Foreverzidane

If any of you watched the Lyon game today you saw the abilities of Cissoko and the inabilities of Gouvu.
I thought Clichy had speed, OMG watching this guy accelerate is just something else. Toulalan just as incapable with Lyon as he is with Les Bleus. What is so special with him, I’ve got no idea, Bland Bland….
Jeff

I’ve seen the highlights. It’s crazy how many chances Lyon had to score over the two legs. They were carving open chances. Absolutely insane. They could have scored 7 or 8 instead of the 2 they managed. Huge result for France. Gigantic bummer for Madrid.
Adam

Nasri scored an unbelievable goal for Arsenal vs. Porto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heHjNyINrX0

There’s no reason he shoudn’t be included on the NT, especially b/c France needs a pacy midfielder to play on the right so that Ribery can play his preferred position on the left.
miguel rosado

Hello my dear French friends. I’m from Mexico your rival in next WC. I was wondering what do you think about Mexico? do you see us as a strong team or easy to beat?.

take care.
Nick

miguel, your team is seen as a dilema, since there has been times when your national team has not been playing great but unfortunatly for us you really steped it up in the end of the qualifiers, some players like franco, blanco (as a sub and impact player) and a few others, mexico have some great players that could really make it hard for us especially since we haven’t playing great lately, but as a patriot we will still win and in my own unrealistic dreams of grandeur its going to be a 5-0 win france, lol.
Danny

Bring Arsene Wenger to coach the French National Team. The squad is practically a version of Arsenal.
http://www.pricebonus.com/ Amy

GFC, Sarah,

On the other post, there was a lot of discussion, and general agreement regarding the Dom’s ineffective formation using two holding midfielders. I was actually going to chime in on that but there was already too much discussion. Yes it’s a team game but it’s true that the game is mostly won or lost in the midfield. I’m in agreement that, in addition to a different formation, Gourcuff should have been slotted deeper. I think under optimal conditions, he can play the Ballack role.

Somehow, I don’t think Dom’s going to listen to anyone’s advice about the midfield formations, but he should. You’ve already heard my opinions about the attack and the back four.