What’s Up With Coupet?

When you are the new France World Cup Team Blogger, there are names you like to see pop up on your computer screen. One of those is Grégory Coupet. Because when that happens, you know you have blog post fodder.

Talented? Check.
Photogenic? Check.
Capable of interesting behavior?

Hat trick.

So what’s up with Coupet?

Did the Bleus/Lyon keeper suddenly become the most accident-prone guy on the planet or what? First he misses the Faroe Islands game on Oct. 11 with a game-related injury to his left hand. Then he misses several games for Lyon after getting six stitches in his right hand following a “domestic accident.” (Details! I want details!)

Okay, it’s hard to fake stitches, and that right-hand injury made him miss important Lyon games, so I’m guessing that one’s legit. But what’s up with the left-hand injury, which apparently happened in the Scotland game? I didn’t see the game, but I followed it on a couple of liveblogs. I don’t remember anything about a hand injury. Anybody else? Or am I just by nature overly suspicious?

And in news that I’m sure is TOTALLY unrelated, on October 3 Coupet slammed Coach Raymond Domenech in the international press about his treatment during World Cup. Raymond strikes me as the type who would have quite the sense of humor over these kinds of things, so I’m sure he took it well.

Oh, wait. I’m thinking of someone else.

Note to Grégory from your Unofficial American Team Mom: Barthez is gone now. The job is yours to lose. With that in mind, it’s maybe not such a good idea to vent to the press when you’re ticked off. Vent to your sweetie, vent to your chums, vent to your stuffed animals. But when you’re around the press… Well, golly, isn’t that coach a great guy?

Particularly when you have gents like Paris Saint Germain’s Mickael Landreau and Fiorentina’s Sebastian Frey who are just dying to wear your cap.