The List for Next Week’s A and A’ Games

no sagnol???
is there a reason for this?

Sagnol is injured. Not sure of the nature of the injury. Any Bayern Munich fans know?

Delpierre’s inclusion makes sense since he’s a right back, and Sagnol is out. I’ve always thought that France’s weakest position is RB because besides Sagnol, we don’t have anyone outstanding (but in all other positions we have amazing depth). Neither Sagna, Clerc, or Diarra have convinced me, and apparently, not Domenech either, hence why he called up Delpierre so he can observe him personally.

Rami’s inclusion in the squad is kind of weird. He’s a tall young kid, but he has like 17 L1 games under his belt, and even then, he hasn’t been anything special. But he recently turned down Morocco, and perhaps this is Domenech’s way of convincing the player to lean towards France (because we are low on young CBs). Or perhaps he saw something in Rami that the rest of us didn’t.

As for Sinama-Pongolle! Well, I was surprised to say the least. But Piquionne (Le Tallec’s cousin) is injured I believe, and Trezeguet refuses to play for the A’ team. Anyway, Sinama-Pongolle is the poster boy for French boys leaving home too early. He had a great U17 world cup, but then he signed for Liverpool and nearly ruined his career. After several years of nonexistence in the EPL, he finally landed a deal with Recreativo, where he’s finally rebuilding his career and showing off his talent once again. I thought it was too late for him, but I guess not.

Crap no Sagnol. Oh Well. Good to see new faces. You see Domenech can be flexible. I am amazed at how many talented faces we have that can compete to play for France. This is Good news. Well maybe not for Trezeguet.

Yes, this is Bodmer’s first selection.
What I’ve heard about Rami: he made the jump to Lille from an amateur club two years ago, and made just two appearances last season. Only recently has he become a regular starter there, since the start of the second half of this season (15 game appearances so far).

I watched Sinama-Pongolle several times when he played for Liverpool. He’s pretty good on the ball – a nice player to watch. He had struck me as a player who’s borderline International quality. He was playing kind of as a winger for Liverpool, as I remember.

Obviously I’m a bit gutted that Trez and Lloris (though in Hugo’s case, it very well could be that our U-21 coach asked Raymond to allow him to stay in Espoirs as we’re underachieving on that front) aren’t in, but happy to see Mexès is in spite of his feud with Domenech. Mavuba, who’s been terrific since he’s back in the hexagon, is also good to see, and I’m happy that S-P is in, though he was more deserving the previous season, although even now, I’d rather have him than Louis “I’ll get injured even if I’m consigned to a room with Teflon walls” Saha, and I’m a MU fan!

Although I like S-P, I think the only 2 players who are sort of “additions” (either we haven’t seen them in a while or they are making their debuts) that have a shot at being in the 23 going to Austria/Switzerland are Bodmer and Mavuba.

Oh, and I’d disagree with Inara about right back, as really, Sagna’s been one of the best right backs in the world this season. Though of course, we don’t know what Domenech watches or doesn’t watch.

Trezeguet was called up for the injured Benzema!

http://www.fff.fr/bleus/431096.shtml

This was literally the only way trez was gonna make it into the squad but if he pulls off a good performance….well, who knows?

Other replacements:
Reveillère for Sagna
Lloris for Frey

Valbuena is also injured, as is Vieira.

L’Equipe is saying Vieira has muscular fatigue in his left thigh, but will be at Clairefontaine Monday. I bet Inter will be thrilled about that.

Henry out, Loic Remy in.

Domenench has lost a quarter of his squad in three days.

Benzema’s injured? WTF? I can’t leave these guys alone for a minute, can I?

I was watching the Chelsea-Arsenal game yesterday and saw both Sagna and Clichy go down. But I had no idea about the others. You guys are going to have to keep me informed till I get to Paris tomorrow. (These injuries suck.)

Wow, so that would leave Anelka as a starter and maybe Trezeguet if we have 2 strikers…Hmm. That sounds like an interesting combo. David, now’s your time; go do it!

Laurie, have a very nice time in France! How long are you staying and are you just in Paris or moving around?

we could get anelka and cisse atarting on wednesday.

Stade Charlety is on the RER B, blue line. Station Cité Universitaire.
It’s close to Paris, on the southern end of it.
It’s cool, the game is not sold out yet and the places will be 10 euros a piece.

Cissé starting would be disappointing.

Patrick I agree 100%. I don’t want to see Cisse starting. How could you start Cisse with names like Anelka, Trezeguet, and Govou? He is not as impressive. I would like to say that though we have been hit hard with these injuries we still have a lot of talent and should take care of Mali and England easily.

sagna is definitely injured, clichy is ok

Doumé, I’m in Paris only this time, leaving Saturday for Dublin. Back to the US onthe 5th. Someday I’ll make it around the country.

Massaer, I decided it wouldn’t be fair to drag my family to two games in a row. I was hoping the A’ game would be on TV here, but no such luck. Off to the game in half an hour. Can’t Wait!!