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Never in doubt

June 24th, 2006 | By: Chriso | 23 Comments »

After Les Bleus finally started playing like they can and found they´re goal scoring boots again will the coach stick with a winning formula in the next game with Spain?

I know Togo were already out but France played an excellant match last night, high tempo, getting a lot of players forward early. Malouda and Ribery were great, full of energy, getting behind their fullbacks and mixing things up by switching wings.

Ribery missed a couple of golden chances to score but was still finding the good positions and linking well with the likes of Henry. Malouda looks like he can run all day and rarely gives the ball away.

David Trezeguet looked a bit rusty and wasted quite a few 0f the chances that came his way. I think last night was how Thierry Henry prefers France to be setup to get the best out of himself, with a lot of movement and support arriving quickly from midfield allowing him to drift wide and use his speed to go by the defender or cut in a play in a runner.

The thing is it´s pretty sure Domenech will recall Zidane for the Spain game and I just think that will slow play down too much and make it very difficult for the French forwards to get behind a well organized Spanish side.

You read members of the French squad all saying ´we need Zidane´but I wonder if some really believe it going into this knockout round. Last night they did well without him and I wouldn´t change things against a fast and skillful Spain.

Tags: David Trezeguet, Florent Malouda, France, Franck Ribery, Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane

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Comments

By Frazer | June 24th, 2006 at 2:01 pm

Well France, this is as far as it goes.

Ribery falls to pieces in front of Goal

Henry Arrogant and really full of himself

Bartez a clown and a bad one

Silvestre A nervous wreck

Trezeguet well words can’t describe how mediocre he is

Spain now play as a team and will tear you into tiny pieces.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Bidemi | June 24th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

The result against Togo wasn’t spectacular. Actually there is cause for concern. France are wasting too many opportunities and the players lack composure. And the re-introduction of Zidane to the line up will slow down France’s tempo considerably. Furthermore, Henry will go back up top as the lone striker, where he has proven to be ineffective. I prefer the Trezeguet-Henry tandem. Both names alone are enough to strike fear into any defense. With that said, either Zidane, Makalele or Vieira should be dropped to accomodate the afformentioned line-up. Or Domenech can just move Zidane to left wing and drop Malouda, use Makelele and Vieira in central defense and Ribery on the right flank. Another option is the 4-1-2-1-2, with the “1’s” being Makelele as the holding midfielder and Zidane as the attacking midfielder. Vieira would be sacrificed in this occassion. France have the talent to beat Spain, but all they need now is a little bit of luck and composure- and Barthez finding his 98′ form amongst other thing- but it isn’t an impossible feat. I’ll be cheering for France though.

Desailly said it best though- Henry does not play as well with Zidane in the line-up; and he sort of proved that theory right yesterday.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Julian | June 24th, 2006 at 5:59 pm

Agreed, don’t u guys have a country to cheer for? It’s amazing the time some people spend trying to play down France, or even Italy or Argentina, in other words teams that have actually WON something!

Posted from Thailand

By abz | June 24th, 2006 at 8:41 pm

hi i agree france are bad and they dont deserve a place in the quarters!! {{ they won 1 && thts it! }}

Posted from United Kingdom

By shuai | June 24th, 2006 at 9:28 pm

ahahahaha…..

“france bad” “french weak” “they will lose” “lucky french”

Don’t u have anything else to do talking about us? Don’t disparage and support Your country…

Posted from France

By Welsh | June 25th, 2006 at 5:59 am

Everyone is talking about Zizou’s not starting the game. For your information Zizou is still the best, the performance against togo had nothing to do with playing or not. The team is improving because they played three matches together as a unit, as we know the coach never settles on a consistant lineup. I hope Zidane will come back and kick some butt. I will not be surprised if I see France in the final, why? because like they say “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

Posted from United States

By Abz | June 25th, 2006 at 12:48 pm

i dont have a promblem with france i have a problem with there game after all its football not diving! {{ if it was that then they would win the world most diving cup }}

Posted from United Kingdom

By gio | June 25th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

viv la france francia will win this world championship francia champion

Posted from Georgia

By shuai | June 25th, 2006 at 4:16 pm

France has won world cup and euro few years ago. Maybe we should let some nations who NEVER won a sh*t go forward.

Posted from France

By Kiri | June 25th, 2006 at 9:09 pm

The Brits love the French because all they do is bash France day in and day out. Not only football but anything else. In France, on the other hand, they just ignore the Brits. It’s all about jealousy with the Brits. I guess that’s what you get when you live on an island with crappy weather, crappy food, and the most violent and vicious football fans in the entire world. Go Heat!

Posted from United States

By Murp | June 26th, 2006 at 2:15 am

Finals are not about what happened yesterday. All it now takes is one good game. And game by game it now goes. Go France!

Posted from United States

By Haarf | June 26th, 2006 at 11:16 am

France is underdog again Spain, that’s true.
But the thing is that France often do the best when it’s underdog.
So keep on saying they are old and tired and go on thinking about how Spain will play against Brazil.

Posted from France

By Frenchboy | June 26th, 2006 at 7:16 pm

The Brits cant talk. When’s the last time they won the cup. Oh yea ‘66. 30 god damn years ago. France, only 8.
But Kiri said it the best: Crappy weather, crappy food, not to mention crappy people.

Posted from United States

By Lurch | June 26th, 2006 at 8:28 pm

I hope Ribery starts the Spain match. He is very very fast with the ball and was able to give great service to the other attackers. He woke up an otherwise lackidaisical French offense in the Togo match.

He did choke when shooting the ball, but he was instrumental in setting up the first goal. He needs to start the game if there is any hope in putting pressure on the Spain defense.

Posted from United States

By shuai | June 26th, 2006 at 8:41 pm

spain :

few days ago :
” we will crush france”
“they’re old and we are furia roja”

today :
“France is a very good team”
“we are not favorite”

WTF?? I told you, even if we lose, it’ will be very hard to get us out!!

But I’m right now too fed up of referee’s mistakes…in any game! Shame on FIFA!

Posted from France

By Welsh | June 27th, 2006 at 8:38 pm

Are you kidding? No way will France lose to Spain, it’s simple as that Period! Some things are better not discussed, such as Spain winning.

Posted from United States

By Tom | June 27th, 2006 at 8:55 pm

Viva la furia roja española!

Posted from United States

By Helmut | June 27th, 2006 at 11:41 pm

France as divers, Abz? They’re about the fairest team in the World Cup. If you want divers, look to Italy, who base their entire game around the well-timed dive.

Posted from United States

By Abz | June 28th, 2006 at 7:17 pm

kiri, yes france ignore us untill they need help kicking out foreign invaders! then there our best friends isn’t that strange? as for crappy food horse, snails shall i go on?

Posted from United Kingdom

By Alexis | July 3rd, 2006 at 1:57 pm

Abz… England lost and showed nothing interesting… But it semms like France is doing fine… LOL

Thus, we can add up in the list: Crappy food, crappy weather, crappy people, crappy monarchy on a crappy island and CRAPPY NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM…

May god save the queen…Amen…

Posted from France

By high heel chair | July 21st, 2006 at 10:34 am

high heel chair

I never thought about this .

Posted from Republic Of Moldova