France’s Under-20s through to Semis in Colombia

August 14th, 2011 | by: jeff | View Comments

A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that I could watch France’s Under-20 games from my cabin in the woods in Northern New England; but online video has arrived. And by arrived, I mean a grand entrance with lots of pomp and ceremony. In my world, the last of sub-standard online video died over the summer when Arsenal.com upgraded from “TV Online” to “Player.” ESPN3.com has had the France goods in spades since it’s debut a couple years ago (it replaced ESPN360.com). For a France supporter, ESPN3 is an absolutely fantastic resource.

To Colombia. The first match really captured my imagination: France were lining up against the hosts, Colombia. My enthusiasm went into overdrive when Arsenal reserve, Gilles Sunu, wearing the number 10, scored the opener for France. I’m still salivating from that goal. Let me check for an embed.

This is even better: highlights from all the matches, from Fifa.

If you haven’t already left to go watch the highlights, a few observations:

Gael Kakuta is definitely one of the more interesting players in the team. He was the player who illegally transferred from Lens to Chelsea in 2007, for which he and Chelsea were fined and suspended (Chelsea couldn’t sign anyone for two transfer windows, I think). Update: See clarification from Joe C. in the comments.

Fast forward to today, and Kakuta has not made it at Chelsea (yet), and he will play this season on loan for another London club in the Premier League, Fulham.

These youth tournaments have quite official sounding names, and there are a lot of them. The tournament underway is the FIFA Under 20 World Cup. Kakuta was a key player last year when France won the UEFA Under 19 Championship. (Earlier this summer, Spain won the UEFA Under 21 Championship). Kakuta started the Under 20 World Cup opener against Colombia, but he has since lost his starting spot, because he didn’t look all that impressive, like he was lacking motivation. But today he turned up with key contributions in the quarter-final victory against Nigeria, and I have to say that I really enjoy watching him play when he’s up for it.

In the opener against Colombia, France’s defense gifted a whopping 4 goals after Sunu’s opener. I don’t want to focus on the negative, or make too many snap judgments that will embarrass me later, but the defender Kalidou Koulibaly and the goalkeeper Jonathan Ligali have looked dodgy at times. Koulibaly had a shocker against Colombia, but unlike Kakuta, the manager stuck with him as a starter, and France’s defense has been better since then.

Antoine Griezmann has been really good for France. He has established himself firmly with Real Sociedad in Spain. Unlike the two starters from France on the books with Arsenal, Sunu and Francis Coquelin, his club would be missing him if Spain’s season had started yet. Griezmann has been playing left winger, and he looks like a great player. It’s still early, but he would be a great one to see playing for France in the future. He was mentioned in the comments of this site around a year ago, so I have been somewhat tuned into him since then, although I’ve never seen him play so much as during this tournament.

A word for the captain: Gueida Fofana, a player for Le Havre. He’s been good, and he scored an incredible goal today against Nigeria. A real captain’s goal in the extra half hour after it ended 1-1 in regular time. It was really today’s quarter-final against Nigeria that motivated me to post. It was such a great game.

Not uncommon for this tournament, the match featured goals from Alexandre Lacazette, on the books at Lyon. He’s not even a starter, but he has four goals in the five matches, including two today. He’s another France player who looks very promising.

The player who starts ahead of him is Cédric Bakambu, on the books at Sochaux, and he’s nicked at least one goal of his own. I’ll look up the goal stats.

Lacazette – 4
Sunu – 2
Fofana (c) – 2
Bakambu – 1
Griezmann – 1

The player who has replaced Kakuta in the first 11 is Clément Grenier, on the books at Lyon, who has a more “unselfish” approach. I don’t know that Kakuta would be described as selfish, he had a brilliant assist today, but with Sunu and Griezmann providing flair, the manager, Francis Smerecki, liked some elements that Grenier could bring to the side, and so far it’s working.

I don’t want to go on too long. If you’re hard core enough to have made it this far, feel free to leave a comment. There’s moderation, but when you make it through once, your e-mail address should work to make it through in the future. If you’ve seen any of the matches, I would love to hear other thoughts, although even my French father-in-law who really enjoys watching football (and rugby) had no interest in watching France’s under 20s with me, so I realize I may be in a vacuum here.

I think he’d watch with me if they made the final. Come on you blues.