Watching Spain-France

February 10th, 2008 | by: Laurie |

In case anybody’s interested, reader Kyle has given us a download link for last Wednesday’s game. My computer downloaded at between 55 and 100 kbps (is that the right measurement? probably no) and it took about 3 1/2 hours to download both halves. But the picture quality is excellent and it’s well worth it.

http://www.soccers.fr/index.php?s=7a845a10bfa07d5c8f819f929ed27036&showtopic=88057

I’ve only watched the first half so far, but a few things stand out:

1) When this entire defensive line is on, they’re a dream team. Abidal, Gallas, Thuram, Sagnol. Amazing together. At least for 45 minutes.
2) On a related note, it’s so good to have Willy Sagnol back!!
3) I wonder what an offensively-minded Patrice Evra would have done in this game?
4) I’m really uncertain about this midfield. But Malouda had a good first half.
5) Henry wasn’t bad, but Anelka was beter.

I’ll watch the second half and report back. In the meantime, if you download the video, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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[...] Watching Spain-France Watching Spain-France By: Laurie | February 10th, 2008 | No Comments » In case anybody’s interested, reader Kyle has given us a download link for last Wednesday’s game. My computer downloaded at between 55 and 100 kbps (is that the right measurement? probably no) and it took about 3 1/2 hours to download both halves. But the picture quality is excellent and it’s well worth it. http://www.soccers.fr/index.php?s=7a845a10bfa07d5c8f819f929ed27036&showtopic=88057 I’ve only watched the first ha [...]
Jean-Michel

Dunno about Malouda’s first half Laurie. He looked indecisive as the Spanish defense was up to the task. Lassana Diara was a disaster. The bright spots were Sagnol & Toulalan. Vierra was looking rusty. Benzema & Ben Arfa brought energy back into the game but a bit too late. The understanding between these two is awesome. I’d like to see three forwards up front and instead of being so defensive minded. Seems like France only played aggressive when time was running out.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

I still haven’t watched the second half, so no comments yet on that. But what struck me about the first half, now that I think about it: The defense was like a machine, with every cog firing pretty much when it was supposed to, working with all of the other cogs.

(Wait, do cogs fire? Should I have said “piston”? I’m so mechanically inept.)

In the midfield (and to a somewhat lesser extent the offense), everything had moments when they were firing, but they weren’t in sync. I did think Malouda had some good moments (as did Toulalan and Vieira and L. Diarra) but they didn’t go anywhere because they never connected with anybody else’s good moments.

What we need aren’t players who can put together individual good momentsl. What we need are players who are good enough to figure out how to sync with the players around them to move the ball up the field. And i’m not sure how we get there.