Watching France-Ecuador? Leave Comments

May 27th, 2008 | by: Laurie | View Comments

Final score France 2-0 Ecuador

Gomis, 59′, 86′

Welcome to Laurie’s half-hearted liveblog of the game. Don’t expect all the action, but expect the important bits.

Post-game. Interesting. The teammates certainly didn’t seem overwhelmed with gratitude for Gomis after the game, did they? I think he’s upset the expected order of things a bit with this game.

90 + 3 That’s the game! 2-0, Gomis is amazing, and we had no injuries. Life is good going into Euros.

90 + 2 France have given up on the defense-only thing, which is good. Some beautful attacks coming up the left and then getting switched to Anelka on the right. Going for the magic of the last goal again.

89′ Malouda goes down in the box, no foul but a corner for France. I got IMed by my boss, so I have no idea what happened, but it must not have been anything because the score is the same. Right?

86′ GOAL!!!!!!! Gomis!!! Beautiful team goal, delivered perfectly by Anelka to Gomis, who sends in a gorgeous volley into the net. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!!!

85′ France is playing triangles in their fina [and Laurie comes in after the liveblog to say: They made a liar out of me by going on the attack, didn't they? I couldn't even finish the thought.]

84′ Ayovi sends off a shot whih is cleared easily by Thuram

83′ France seem content to defend, which is stupid against this team. They have some explosive speed and our defense isn’t that good.

82′ Mandanda doesn’t make the same mistake twice. The next time the ball comes close, he smothers it.

81′ Excellent chance by Cortez, who was undefended. France is very lucky that went wide, after passing through three defenders and catching Mandanda totally off guard. Our biggest problems seem to come from defending the players who are close to the goal and ignoring the ones a little further out who come forward to receive the ball and then blast it. It was pure luck that Ecuador didn’t score on this.

80′ Anelka has a one-on-one with the keeper, but he has to shoot under pressure and the ball goes into the side netting.

80′ France concedes a corner. Beautiful delivery to Castro, but he heads it over.

78′ Ben Arfa sends off a pretty missile of a shot. The keeper is lucky in his positioning and sends the ball over the bar. France gets the corner but it goes nowhere, as have all the other set pieces today. Malouda on for Ben Arfa.

77′ France is playing the triangle game in their own final third, which is dangerous with a player like Tenorio. Mandanda eventually blasts the ball downfield under pressure.

76′ Oh, forgot to say that Abidal is in the center for Escude since the half. Malouda coming on soon.

75′ France were looking very good after the goal, but they’re starting to look a little scattered again.

74′ Clerc in for Sagnol to many whistles.

72′ Another dangerous backpass to Mandanda, but he’s up to it.

71′ France is dominating play, but Ecuador looks lethal every time they get the chance to counterattack.

68′ Gomis is impressing the hell outta me. Just fyi. Castro gets booked for taking him down.

67′ Another good drive for France ends with a mis-hit pass from Sagnol. This is starting to worry me.

67′ Dangerous ball headed back to Mandanda by Sagnol(?)

66′ Evra defends Tenorio well by the endline and is able to force him to knock the ball out for a France goal kick.

65′ I’m taking back all of my questioning statements about Lilian Thuram. He is ON tonight.

64′ Borja on, Quiroz off for Ecuador.

64′ Gomis sends a pretty ball to Nasri in the box, but Nasri can’t shoot in time and is immediately surrounded by seven yellow shirts.

62′ The new strategy seems to have become: Send it over the top to Gomis.

62′ Another great opportunity for France, also involving Gomis. But alas, I was typing and didn’t get all the details. But Gomis was involved, and I think Ben Arfa. The keeper came of his line and missed, but nobody could deliver into the open net before Ecuador cleared it.

59′ GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gomis!!!!!!! After trapping and dodging defense, he turns and blast it into the high far corner of the net. Beautiful. Does this mean Cisse or Anelka is out?

56′ I’m starting to worry about Sagnol. His crosses today lack the accuracy they used to have.

56′ Nasri shows he can defend, sliding in to steal the ball from deJesus.

53′ Oooo! Flamini delivers a beautiful ball to Gomis in front of goal, and Gomis just barely sends it wide past the far post.

52′ Gomis gets shoved out to keep him from saving a throw-in, but the linesman is right there and for some reason doesn’t call it. Replay shows a definite shove. Boo, linesman.

51′ Sagnol sends a ball toward the box, but too hard. Out for a goal kick.

49′ Thuram sends a scary backpass to Mandanda, who has to come out of the box but manages to head it out for a throw-in.

48′ Malouda and Clerc are warming up. I think I see Anelka on the field, so it must be Cisse off. Tenorio is back in.

47′ Thuram goes over the top of Tenorio and there’s a head crunch as he goes for the ball. Tenorio is down.

46′ Free kick won by Tenorio close to goal. Mandanda has to fall forward to get the ball, and he does it well.

We’re back. Looks like Patrice Evra is on the field. And Steve Mandanda too. Ooh, and Gomis! Don’t know for who yet. And Flamini for A. Diarra.

45+ 2 That’s the half. Nil-nil. I’d expect to see Flamini and Malouda come on in the second half.

45+1′ Sloppy defending from France leads to a near goal that Frey just barely saves, but he he doesn’t collect the ball and it goes back into danger. Thuram eventually sends the ball down the field after my heart nearly stops several times.

45′ Ecuador are defending very tightly whenever the ball crosses the center line, not giving France much room to move. Nasri delivers a ball over the top to Anelka, but Anelka hits it too early and heads it over the goal.

43′ Anelka is taken down on the right side a few yards from the corner. Ben Arfa takes the free kick, but it goes over everybody and out of play. Poor Ben Arfa.

42′ All of Ecuador’s danger is coming from the left. Mina is good.

41′ Ecuador is relying heavily on defense, putting three and four players on French attackers every time they reach the final third, then relying on Tenorio for the counter. So far it’s working, at least to keep France from scoring.

39′ Cisse dives into a header for a beautiful opportunity, but the keeper is able to bat it away. Barely.

38′ Tenorio gets a breakaway, goes straight at Frey, who comes off his line and misses completely. Tenorio gets by and shoots, but somehow Lilian Thuram is there in time and saves, putting the ball out for a corner. I love Lilian Thuram. The corner goes nowhere.

37′ Tenorio is taken down off the ball. Couldn’t see who did it, but it’s a free kick from the center, mabe ten yards outside the box. It goes way over the bar.

35′ Alou Diarra gets a yellow for whacking down Ayovi.

33′ Okay, we’re back. Since last update, Nasri had a gorgeous high, hard shot straight down the middle that barely went wide left. Anelka delivered a cross from the left directly to Cisse’s head that just barely went over, but he was called offside. (Questionable, in my opinion.) And Ecuador had a free kick from a dangerous area that went straight to Frey.

26′ France is handling the ball well on the ground but losing it whenever they send it through the air. and my screen has frozen up again.

23′ Nasri tries to send the ball through the air to Anelka in the box, but it goes straight to Ecuador.

22′ Players are slipping on the field all over the place. Ecuador delivers the ball over the top and into the box, but Frey is there.

17′ Okay, we’ll see how this goes. The computer I was watching on crashed. Now I’m typing on that one and watcing on the other. A very fast-paced game so far, and the players are drenched in sweat. Anelka and Nasri and Ben Arfa have had some threatening moments.

8′ I am not a fan of Setanta right now. I’ve got the game running on two side-by-side laptops right now in hopes that one will work.

6′ France is on the attack and looking threatening. Anelka came close to a shot and L. Diarra had a shot that went way high.

3′ Sorry, lost the connection and am having major computer problems. Good timing. Back soon.

-1′ My screen is frozen. This does not bode well.

-1 again. What the heck is Frey doing with those sideburns? They look like tuning forks.

-1′ The guys have their arms around each others’ shoulders. Close up on Ben Arfa’s face. He looks deep in concentration. He has to know that this is it. Anelka’s not singing. It’s so GOOD to see Sagnol back!!

-2 Okay, here we are. Coverage. We’re wearing red and white, Ecuador is yellow and blue. The Ecuador National Anthem is playing

-5′ Okay, Setanta is now saying “Next.” We’re next. I have spent the last five minute pacing the floor to work off some of my over-caffeinated energy.

-10′ Okay, these friendlies are when we learn what to do before the pressure of the important games in June. What have I learned? I really shouldn’t have this much caffeine right before a match. Just fyi.

-20′ Lineups for both teams are finally up on this site. France is going 4-4-2, Ecuador 4-5-1.

I think I’ll do a somewhat half-hearted liveblog here, so keep hitting refresh to see major action points — at the very least scores, cards and substitutions. And my Setanta coverage keeps freezing up. If this continues, I’m going to be ticked. What do I pay these people for, anyway?

Starting lineup, from l’Equipe:

Le onze de départ : Frey ou Mandanda – Sagnol, Thuram, Escudé, Abidal – L. Diarra, A. Diarra ou Flamini – Nasri, Ben Arfa – Cissé, Anelka.

Julien Escudé instead of William Gallas in central defense. That’s interesting. And Alou Diarra or Mathieu Flamini instead of Makelele. And no Ribéry, Malouda or Henry, but Cisse, Nasri and Ben Arfa getting a chance to prove themselves. And Anelka too, for that matter.

I’m seeing something between A and A’ here. And I’m not expecting a high-scoring game, or even a huge amount of chemistry. But I would expect to see a whole bunch of second-half substitutions as Domenech works on that complicated chemistry thing.

I’ll be updating this post as the game gets closer, so keep hitting “refresh.”

Streams:
Download flashplayer for this stream.
And apparently Bet365 is streaming it as well. I’m not familiar with the site for streaming, but here’s the link.
Myp2p.eu is listing several links as well. Be sure to download the software beforehand.
Or you can always try the Sopcast site. Click the link, download the software, the check the Live Channels tab to see if you can find the game.