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Man down

June 8th, 2006 | By: Chriso | 21 Comments »

Raymond Domenech has surprised people by picking Lyon’s Sidney Govou to replace Djibril Cisse in the French World Cup squad.

I heard a couple of French journalist’s on the radio today who were sure that Nicolas Anelka was going to be the man called up and thought it might be a blessing he was.
In the event Domenech has showed again he can hold a grudge and neither Anelka or Ludovic Guily who both criticized their ommission’s from the original 23 has got the call.

Govou is 26 and has scored three times in nineteen games for France, but I don’t see him getting the amount of game time it looked like Cisse was being lined up to get in this World Cup. Trezeguet might have gone up in importance to Domenech with this withdrawl.

Tags: Djibril Cisse, Raymond Domenech, Sidney Govou

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Comments

By QStel | June 8th, 2006 at 8:13 am

Domenech is incredibly stupid for not selecting Giuly and Anelka. The French team will suffer dearly…

Posted from France

By pinaki de | June 8th, 2006 at 8:17 am

i think he is right in not selcting them. look at the way they criticised the decision. i think they said they were not even ready to be on the stand by as they were not thecoaches original choice. they would have harmed the team spirit. it is better to take govou whom you can also use in the wing and is not a harmful force in the team.

Posted from India

By Raheel | June 8th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

Domenech must have been devastated by the injury to Djibril Cisse. The role of partnering Henry upfront will now probably go to Trezeguet. While this might seem logical , it has failed to produce the expected results in the past. Sydney Govou is an honest forward who would play well with Henry , but I believe Saha is a better option. He has been lively and effective for Man. United in the latter half of the season and by doing so, had replaced Van Nistelrooy in the starting line-up. I suppose Giuly should have been recalled to the squad. The forthcoming month will decide whether the move to omit Giuly was an attempt to appease personal egos or a tactical necessity.

Posted from India

By miguelito | June 9th, 2006 at 2:55 am

very very sorry for djibril not to be able to show his talents at the wc. even though i am swiss. we will win this time against france with or without cisse. still must be devastating for djibril. hope he has a quick recovery and that he will kick ball (ass) very soon again.

Posted from Australia

By Greekfreak | June 9th, 2006 at 6:15 am

I agree about Saha; he’s done well in his last few months with Man U–well enough to stick Ruud on the bench.

As for Anelka and Giuly, I say screw ‘em. Underproducers, the both of them, and as lousy (if not more so) attitudes as Cisse, they wouldn’t have helped one bit.

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Karl Anwar | June 9th, 2006 at 8:14 am

Domenech just proved himself as same boat with Swede’s English coach, Sven. I think he frather prefer to defend his ego rather than his national squad. Simply make French’s chance slimmer than ever. I’m rather pick Anelka, Saha or Guily.

Posted from Malaysia

By Greekfreak | June 9th, 2006 at 9:10 am

Saha’s in the squad already.

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Michel Platini | June 9th, 2006 at 10:37 am

Yeah bad choice, could have picked two better option – Guivarch or Dugarry – ha, ha – both duds but Domenech would have nothing to lose anyway!!

Posted from Australia

By Echo | June 9th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

It is ok coach would Pick Up Govou b’se others are so Old let him show us his talents and May God bless him.

By truth | June 11th, 2006 at 1:53 pm

pinaki de ,you are the worst fan i ever see .you dont have the right to talk about france
bec it has better players than your country.pinaki de you come
from india no one have heared about it in the history of football. so shutup

By Hugh | June 11th, 2006 at 2:20 pm

truth you obviously don’t understand what pinaki de is saying… and anyhow pinaki de is allowed to give his opinion, it’s called freedom of speech… and I agree with him, anelka a giuly are both good players, but them saying they wouldn’t be on standby just because they weren’t firt choice shows how unprofessionnal – if not babyish – they are… and taking for granted that pinaki de is Idian when you posted from Switzerland but you are for France… are you Swiss? Not many Swiss support France…

Posted from Switzerland

By Alesandro | June 11th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

Domenech is obviously playing the squad spirit thing… Selecting Anelka or Giuly would have led the team nowhere, by selecting an outsider the trainer is making sure that the newcomer is 200% in with no bitter remorse or ego issue that could mess up the whole team… So even though Giuly or Anelka may be more talented, the coach choice seems rather clever…
Anyway, France will beat the cheese out of the Swiss, flaten the pancake face Koreans (avenging the Italians at the same time)and eat Togo for dessert.

By sil27 | June 13th, 2006 at 12:24 pm

I’m sorry to say but for France perhaps this was a blessing in disguise…..

Posted from Malta