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No time for sentiment

June 17th, 2006 | By: Chriso | 17 Comments »

France are in line to equal a dubious World Cup record of going five finals matches without scoring a goal if they don´t hit the net against South Korea tomorrow.

If they want to avoid joining Bolivia on the low scoring charts they´ll have to get a better supply to the likes of Henry and Saha up front.
The talk is that Franck Ribery will be dropped because he didn´t shine in the first game with the Swiss but that Florent Malouda will be back in the team after injury.

Why not play them both, they´re 23 and 26 and France are going to need younger legs against a team like Korea who are always very fit.
If I was Domenech I´d leave Zidane on the bench for this one, start Ribery and Malouda either side of Makelele and Vieira with Henry and Saha up front and try to get the ball to them quickly.

I know its sacreligious to talk of dropping Zidane but France are running out of time for him to find some of the form he had in the past.
He doesn´t have the legs any more so why not use him for the last thirty minutes when he may be able to pull apart a tired defense with a special peiece of skill.

France´s greatest triumph was built around Zidane and it´ll be a shame if the last team he plays on goes down with a whimper because the coach won´t recognise Zizou´s limitations now and use him accordingly.

Tags: Florent Malouda, France, Franck Ribery, Raymond Domenech, Zinedine Zidane

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Comments

By Uncle Same | June 18th, 2006 at 3:00 am

What’s the deal on David Trezeguet? Is he fit to play? Any chance he gets a start? Why is one of the better strikers sitting on the bench?

Posted from United States

By Jonathan | June 18th, 2006 at 3:49 am

henry is pathetic.the french team lacked direction and the argue too much on the pitch. they had better sharpen up or they would be seeing paris very soon

Posted from Nigeria

By mike | June 18th, 2006 at 5:44 am

I agree with your strategy Chriso. Let Zizou come on during the last part of the second half. However I don’t think that will happen.

By eric | June 18th, 2006 at 8:42 am

leave zidane in the starting 11. he played well enough in the last match. But Domenech needs to get Trezguet off the bench, perhaps at Ribery’s expense. I really believe Zidane, Henry and Trezguet can be a successful trio.

Posted from United States

By eric | June 18th, 2006 at 8:42 am

Posted from United States

By JonC | June 18th, 2006 at 3:09 pm

its a shame…
i saw a lot of arguing and bickering during the France-Switzerland game.
like Jonathan said…they’d better sharpen up, calm down, and not get angry at each other.

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Alessandro | June 18th, 2006 at 8:13 pm

Just one thing…

Crush the little Koreans!!!!!!

By jujitjohn | June 18th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

Alessandro,

Korea 1: France 1 tie, buddy!
What happened?

What happened to Italia yesterday?

I lost 20,000 grand because Italia lost. Damm it! I thought France was going to win. I lost 30,000 grand because France lost. Damm it!

This is a strange World Cup.

By Rory W. | June 19th, 2006 at 6:35 am

France lost because, they got complacent after their EARLY goal, ( some say a bit too early )
and because, France has IMO lost their drive and “imph”

Well Played South Korea, moving on to 4 points , just a draw needed agaisnt the SWISS and you should be fine.

France, be quick and dismiss you coach

My apolpogies, Mr. Henry

Posted from Jamaica

By winterbear | June 19th, 2006 at 7:49 am

looks like its 3 and out for france once again. Bye bye froggies.

By Vianney | June 19th, 2006 at 9:18 am

France scored twice during this game (Viera’s scored..but they refused the goal)
With this goal, France would have killed the match)
Anyway, this mistake can not excuse the lack of offenders.
(4 players behing, 2 middle defenders (makelele & viera)…
COme on Domenech, We can not score goals without playing with at least 2 offender (trezegoal – henry + ribery)
Come on, let’s PLAY FOOTBALL, i know we can, ok Demenech?

Posted from France

By Nicolas | June 19th, 2006 at 11:06 am

Viannney…
We’re going to have to really demolish Togo if we’re to guarantee progressing. The loss of Cisse has hurt us
…my picks still are: France, Suisse.

Posted from Australia

By Alessandro | June 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am

Believe me, Italia and France will qualify…Not as easily as expected but they will.

Sorry u lost money, but Italy was tied, they didn t lose (fortunately, otherwise that would have been a shame) and As for France, their team has a bad spirit, many players are spoiled and the atmosphere around the coach is rather strained. However, even with all that shit going on, France should have won, they were denied a goal, should the goal was accepted the game would have been different. Anyway France deserved the 3points, they led most of the game imposing their gameset and showed off way better skills than the Koreans

By Carlos | June 19th, 2006 at 11:57 am

Finally! After eight long years, the wait is over, and France shows that it CAN score a World Cup goal once again.

Too bad it was just a draw though.

Now Les Bleus need to show they can win again. Perhaps it’ll be third time lucky with Togo…

Posted from Philippines