France crash out of World Cup – South Africa 2, France 1 – Hard to exaggerate how bad France have been – Domenech finally leaving

im sorry Jeff but are you serious?

if you had followed Bordeaux then you would have seen that Blanc selects his team with tactical precision! Constantly rotating and constructing, which led the team to such success from 09 to the beginning of 10.

Have faith my friend.

while i think you hopes for France pre tournament were a little overly ambitious, i will agree totally that Domanech was and is rubbish. It was only because france made 2nd place in 06 that he was kept as coach. I think that he in fact was the reason that france lost in 06 by picking Barthez instead of Coupet in goal. Barthez hardly had a touch on ball due to the french defence until the penalties which failed to save even one. I think Coupet would have saved one or two. Besides until Zidane decided to take the tourney into his own hands france was lackluster in the group stage even in 06. So i think domanech should have been replaced by zidane immediatly following the last world cup and replaced by Zidane as coach

It won't take much. A lively performance for his first match in charge, and I'll be so happy.

I had originally had a rant about Domenech selecting Barthez in this post, but it started to be a bit much so I deleted it.

you guys will probably disagree with me since most frenchies are dulusional about how great epl is, but had domenech selected the french players in Serie A, france would've most likely gone through the next round at least. have you french fans ever even heard about Menez, Biabiany, Flamini, Frey???? i'm not surprised that france did so poor since most of the french team consists of epl players. chealsea won pl and fa cup. big f-ing deal. they couldn't even touch inter. hopefully next time around we can see the players from Serie A (not sure about mexes and trezegoal though) in the french team. no doubt like before in 98 they served you guys well.

Party times!

I have waited a good 3 years for this to happen. Au Revoir Domenech and some players too.

Unlike 2006, this team lacked strong leadership. Normally a manager is the leader followed by his captain. When a manager is weak you need a strong captain. In Euro2008 & WC 2010 France had no strong leadership.
Guys like Zidane, Thuram, Vieira, Makelele were guys with strong mentality. I wouldn't say Zidane was the ideal captain (Vieira was imo) but he was an inspiration. Vieira maybe reluctantly gave his captaincy to Zidane. All of them had great mutual respect for each other.

In our current team, Henry & Gallas were the only guys to captain a club side and did a bad job of it too. Evra, Ribery, Anelka along with Gallas and maybe Henry had no mutual respect or trust.
It is hard to blame Domenech here entirely. He had Henry selected as his leader during qualification. But after his poor season with Barca Henry wasn't a sure starter for France and so the baton was quickly passed on to Evra. Even though Henry had a poor season, I think he should have still been captain and started. I am sure as he grew in fitness and confidence he would have put in a good performance. And s it was Anelka never really showed anything to start above Henry. With this decision Domenech lost his dressing room entirely. Poor man management, yes. But the players didn't exactly behave themselves either.

The most important thing that will define the Blanc era will be appointing a strong captain. I don't mind mind having a player with inferior skills if he provides a commanding presence on the pitch. Hard to find such personalities in the French squad at the moment. I am waiting to see what squad Blanc calls up.

I just don't want to see Evra, Ribery, Gallas, in it. Anelka & Henry will retire anyways.
Good Luck Blanc. I just want to see qualification to Euros achieved with pride and playing style. I don't care if we qualify through play-offs as long as we do so playing good football.

Of course we've heard of Flamini. He used to play for Arsenal!

It's a common thing that most of players of big league in Europa go to the WC exhausted. But, beyond me the responsibility of Raymundo was total. He should had to be the eye, the guy who can see all which could happen and impose his will to the events. He never saw who was in a good fit or not, that 's just insane. He was a very poor trainer. He was too narrow minded to change his plans, to select the good players, to have several plans. When you know that the Lassana Diarra 's disease is a very common one for an african(it provides a protection against Malaria) and so easy predicable, that most of the french doctors were scandalized by the amateurism of the technical staff, when he prefers fired one of the best french striker defending his ridiculous ego instead of do like all others coach would do “nothing happen, no comment”, it lets the players with a kind of descheat who pushed them to this desperate sos call ” help we are in the hands of a dangerous psychopat, please help us we want someoone to explain this guy, we could play an eternity with his plans, we will always be ridiculous”.

I think the players not having any respect for Dumbenech played a huge role. The weren't willing to make any effort for him and forgot entirely it was France they were running for. They should have looked more often to the colors on their shirt and honor it above all.

With Laurent Blanc I predict something entirely different. His career as a player is something of note. Something every current player looks up to. He is a European and a World Champion. And as a coach you can't but applaud his accomplishments at Bordeaux.

When Scolari took over for Portugal following the WC 2002 disaster he cut loose Victor Baia and João Pinto. No explanation offered. I was a huge critic of this. I'm not sure if I'd agree if Blanc was to leave out players the likes of Ribery, Evra or Gallas. They can offer so much… if properly coached.

Bye bye stinking, gays and france fuckers !!!

Any of your “players” are “stars”just because they born at France ! The 98 champion was to biggest ZEBRA in the history.. put your hands up and thanks GOD for Zidane… All this “players”, if they born in Brazil, they were GARBAGE BOYS.

Take a look at your t-shirt. It looks like a christimas tree, with a star on the top!

Brazilian t-shirt looks like a sky in the night – LOTS OF STARS

Take your ridiculous time, and put it in your big ass !

FUCKERS

On behalf of all intelligent Brazilians with some class, I apologize for this vulgar, lowlife idiot.

vulgar, lowlife and idiot was the way that the europe “nose on the top” – france – deal with the turists who have no idea how to speaks this stupid language ! merci

Please stop embarrassing yourself and our country (Brazil).

The Irish Times has an interesting article on the wider social meaning of the rift between Gourcuff and the Abidal/Evra/Gallas/Ribery gang:

http: // www. irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0623/1224273110084.html

Hello again sandra350,

Just two points – First, in relation to your link from the Irish times, you should know that the journalist, Matthew Spiro is a freelance writer and broadcaster living in France since 2002. He specialises on French and African football, writing for English-language publications such as the Irish Times, the Sunday Telegraph, FourFourTwo and Champions magazines. He has commentated games from the last four Africa Cup of Nations, provides the world feed commentary for French Ligue 1 matches, and also works on French television as a football consultant for Canal Plus and Ma Chaine Sport (you can “google” him).

Second, I noticed in a recent post that you continue to state that Ireland cheated against Georgia. This is untrue and I wish you would check the facts. Ireland received a very soft penalty against Georgia when the ball hit a Georgian player high on his arm (almost at the shoulder). The player did move his arm but it was a very harsh decision by the referee. No Irish player was near the incident and unlike the Henry incident, no Irish player cheated. From Georgia's perspective the end result is the same (an unfair loss) but in the context of how France got to the World Cup the difference is huge. And in the context of how France perfomed in the World Cup? Well, let's just say that the whole world and the people of France are having their say on the performance and attitude of French team. There is nothing I can add.

Here's the thing: There are a lot of teams with inept or unpopular coaches and football federations stuck in the stone age, some of them with management just as bad if not worse than the F.F.F.

Why were they able to play on and the 2010 French players couldn't?

It's a problem of mentality. Evra had an opportunity to lead in a constructive way, on the field, even in an imperfect system. But he chose to destroy the teams chances to restore any honor in the match against South Africa, by choosing to back Le Sulk, wasting time and energy, and creating divisions in the team.

Ribery, Evra, Anelka, and Gallas getting players to exclude Gourcuff because he speaks perfect French, doesn't come from the same background/culture? I don't care if they exclude Gourcuff from PlayStation hour, refuse to eat with him, but what pissed me off the most was them refusing to pass him the ball.

The guy is your teammate. He may not be the same religion, class, race, whatever. I don't give a damn, but he's a team-mate, playing with the same goal to win or at least play with honor for the country… Pass him the ball unless he's deemed incapable of playing. Gourcuff probably didn't say too much because he's generally a nice guy and doesn't look for trouble, unlike some players, stuck with a juvenile delinquent mentality…

The Italians and the English have been struggling this tournament, probably because of ineffective coaches stuck in another era and useless FAs, and they're rich and arrogant and bordering on rebellion too, BUT at least they haven't dishonored their country yet in the way Les Bleus have… We'll wait to see what happens with England if Terry thinks that the “French-style” team rebellion was a good thing.

The crybabies on the French team this year just gave up when things didn't go their way.

The problem with their attitude is that it's spreading. They've set a bad example for other national teams, children in the suburbs, or the new generation of Bleus who look up to footballers as their role models. Trust me, the aftershocks of this event will be more damaging and will be more far-ranging than this. All of us who played and have coached youth football/soccer know that this kind of thing sets a very bad precedent.

Imagine if I start coaching a under 12 team at Mont-Valerien (in Suresnes near where I live) and one of my players doesn't like me switching him from midfield to defense…or giving another player a chance to play. Imagine he says “Va te faire enculer sale fils de pute!” to me, because Anelka said it and the other players decide to have a sour attitude and back him up. What are they going to do, boycott playing? Youth league is one thing. What about the World Cup??

All you had to do was see Djibril Cissé's face after he thought he was going out with a red card. It's been his dream to play at the world cup and the pain on his face showed when he thought it was going to end with dishonor…

Clichy was texting his friends and family when Evra, Abidal, Ribery and Gallas were forming the mutiny and planning the training strike. He was distraught, complaining that three or four guys were ruining his dream of playing in the World Cup!

I'm sure he wasn't alone. I'm pretty sure a lot of players wanted to resist the temptation to interrupt training and start a revolution and middle of World Cup preparations! But what bothers me is that they went along with the Mean Girls gang, who are experienced, millionaire players that play for big teams (Manchester United / FC Barcelona / Bayern Munich Arsenal) and care more about their paychecks, their egos, and protecting the wrong guy, mole-hunting, and otherwise wasting time and energy, than about playing for their country in the first World Cup in Africa.

Which brings me to my next point. Why did the statement come from the players “without exception”. If the other guys are too “nice” to stand up to the mutiny ringleaders, why didn't they stand up and speak? Perhaps the strongest personalities there were the bad seeds? There's rumors that some of the young players came to Domenech to apologize and ask to prepare and play against South Africa to try to salvage something. But it was too late. Training missed. Abidal refuses to play. Evra can't lead in a postive way. Players exhausted, not from training, but from in-fighting…

South Africa fell too, but at least they can hold their heads up high that they didn't embarrass their country with off-the-field self-destructive idiocy…

Then you have the French fans who drove all the way to wish players farewell at the airport, before they leave for France, and they refuse to make eye contact or even say a word. They're too ashamed to face the cameras, to face the public. All we wanted was to watch them play football.

I don't think Laurent Blanc will put up with this kind of infectious attitude, which is why he's going to protect himself by getting the FFF to allow him to walk-away if this kind of thing repeats itself.

Oh please don't defend Frey. Every year we get the Serie A apologists come on insisting that Sebastian Frey should be the starter for Les Bleus.

I watched him play for Fiorentina this year and he wasn't that good. Watch his matches in the Champions League too… He might have had it a few years ago, but he's lost a few steps and needs to lay off the pasta and get quicker before he can even be considered again.

Funny that you're going to try to claim a league superiority thing about Serie A.. All you had was the genius that is Mourinho… The rest of your league folded like origami birds in the Champions League and Europa League. Did you happen to see AC Milan get embarrassed by Man U. Juventus getting embarrassed by Bordeaux. Where was Roma? Fiorentina, Udinese, Lazio…. hahahahaha….

Thanks for a laugh. Arrivederci Serie A…

i like the article…

Sandra, this article IS fascinating.

Firstly, the emphasis so many of these articles have placed on class/race/religious divisions among the French players—which seem entirely based on speculation, regardless of the intelligence or qualifications of the journalists who've penned them—is disgusting. Rather I should say the implications are disgusting. And Finkielkraut's opinions are as boorish as ever.

Every one of these pieces references Gourcuff as the center of these problems, because he is so polite, well-spoken, intelligent, comes from a “good” family… Taken to its extreme, to conservatives and doctrinaires, Gourcuff is finally the right person to represent France internationally, rather than the current “scum,” as Finkielkraut puts it (substitute “immigrants” or “blacks” here and you get the full picture of his statement).

Secondly, if these divisions ARE in fact the reason for the French implosion, then I will be even more disgusted. I know professional athletes can be very immature, but this would go way beyond. So much of the love and respect I have had for the French side has been for its proud diversity. Not that it's the main reason I love the France team, but it's always been something to be proud of. I've always been able to say to critics—and we know there are plenty—that whatever you may say, this team represents multi-ethnic, multi-religious France, and if bigots don't like it… well, I know what Anelka might say.

If I can no longer be proud of that because of egos and insecurities, that will be the most heartbreaking piece of this whole mess. And I'm not even French!

and for marseille too

Bull, Justin. If you would ACTUALLY WATCH Italian soccer (which most people don't. I watch the big four leagues; a throwback to a job I had), Frey is consistently AMAZING. And spare me the rest of the rubbish. Serie A is one of the toughest of all the leagues. I wouldn't over play the tournament thing. These things go in cycles and reverse themselves. Now whether guys like Mexes and all would do better I don't know.

As for Sandra's comments, about Ire/Geo that keeps cropping up. I tend to agree with the gentleman from Dublin, yes, it's true Ireland caught some breaks and in the game against France didn't bury their chances but using these somehow to protect Henry is a logical fallacy; a strawman. That is, it shouldn't be used to deflect from the action. Like I saw with Zidane.

Funny no comments about Domenech's refusal to shake hands at the end of the game? Said much about the man and how he ran this team.

What was Dom's reason for not shaking hands?

Domenech is classless and should've shaken his hand but I have no sympathy for Parreira. Months ago (not a year ago) Parreira volunteered to the international press (without being asked) his opinion on France and called them shameful, saying they shouldn't be in the wc. Now regardless of what he privately thinks or if you think he's right, no national team manager should be publicly trashing another team in the run-up to the world cup. No other manager did.

“And in the context of how France perfomed in the World Cup? Well, let's just say that the whole world and the people of France are having their say on the performance and attitude of French team. There is nothing I can add. “

You seem to think I'd disagree with their assessment. You have no reason to.

And thank you for the correction re the Georgia game. Tho I don't know why you are so concerned, as the whole football world (and many not even in the football world) is currently indulging in the popular pasttime of francophobia and elevating the Irish to morally superior saints and obvious winners of their group, hell, Ireland would've gone on to win the whole damned thing if it hadn't been for Henry!

I detest hysterical campaigns of sanctimonious moral outrage which are always selective and always speak more of the intensity of hatred toward the party being villified rather than the actual act itself. I can assure you that if some little Eastern European country had been victimized by a double handball from England or Ireland or Scotland or the USA, the reaction would in no way be this intense. The level and intensity of hatred toward Henry and France has everything to do with them being French. Look at the reaction toward Luis Fabiano's double handball (and I'm Brazilian) — blatant, and Fabiano even lied about it. There's been some negative reaction but hardly the level of hatred and moral outrage that the French have received. Indeed, I can assure you that if an Irish player had committed the exact same act that Henry did against France, there would be far FAR less outrage. In fact, many would LAUGH about it since the victims would've been the French.

I happen not to like Italy (in football) but I don't enjoy hate parties and wouldn't take enormous pleasure at watching the world hate on Italy. Nor do I enjoy watching people take part in a self-flattering, self-indulgent, endless sense of victimhood–nor an inflated sense of their moral selves. The USA were blatantly robbed of 2 legitimate penalties and worked damned hard to overcome them–and succeeded. But Ireland couldn't do the same. The simple fact is that Ireland could not score a 2nd goal. The simple fact is that Ireland were NOT winning that game. They could not, in fact, win a game against a France team that was there for the taking.

I recently read a fantastic post by a fellow Irishman of yours on another blog saying how initially he too was furious and bitter but then stopped when he realized that Henry did something that nearly every other footballer on the planet does, that Ireland players themselves have committed deliberate and blatant handballs and would've celebrated if a goal had come from one. Robbie Keane in the same game tried to do just that–commit a blatant handball in the France goal. If he had succeeded in scoring from that handball, and the ref hadn't caught it, I don't believe for a moment that Ireland would've agreed to a replay, nor that the whole world would be on a binge of hatred against the Irish.

France should never have gone to the wc long before Henry's handball. I actually hoped Ireland WOULD beat them for that reason. The FFF has reaped what it has sown with this recent debacle. So I do not call for any sympathy for the players, the FFF or the manager. Tho I do sympathize with many France fans.

However, what I have no sympathy for is people (many of whom don't even know much about the sport) using this incident and this meltdown to express their already-set predispositions to hate France. They are actually using Ireland's victimhood for this same purpose. They profess moral outrage when they actually ENJOY the fact that Henry did what he did and that France have imploded at the wc because they ENJOY the pasttime of hating on the French. For so many pundits on TV, the newspapers and online, that's what all this is about.

Jeff, months ago (not a year ago), Parreira insulted the France team as being shameful and not deserving to be in SA in a press conference. He wasn't even asked a question about it, he volunteered his opinion on it. Domenech should still have shaken his hand but I have no sympathy for Parreira publicly trashing another team before the wc.

Justin,
I totally disagree with you. Do you really think Lippi and Capello are innefective coaches ? I don't think so. It's the only difference between England, Italia, … and France. If you haven't got an authority, another authority appears. You can blame the players or some players with the rumors you read on “very serious press” if it help to console your pain but these same players with effecticve coaches give other results. It appears to me that Anelka never said what “L'Equipe” said. And that 's very important because in fact He was fired on the rumors of a paper and never had the support of Domenech or FFF. In a lot of teams of the world there are words between coach and players, the big deal is that the rule “all that 's live in the cloackroom, should stay in the cloackroom” is sacred. He was fired to avoid “the scandal” because Escalette and Domenech are enable to deal with the communication of a national football team. They preferred fired Anelka instead of resist pressure. Domenech resisted pressure for four years to keep his job, lying and saying that all was good that he was very optimistic. Why did he suddenly cease protect his players beyond you ? Because he is a coward and he needs a scapegoat. Anelka and the players try to do what Zidane thuram viera Barthez and makélélé did in 2006. After the second match, they came and said “coach your tactics don't work we will do like this”. And they have words because Domenech is a very narrow minded personn. And France won again, and Domenech to show who is the boss(that shows how a poor guy he is) subs Zidane ater he was booked, trying to say the public opinion, or himself “look how the boss i am” i substitued Zidane to give him a lesson to show him i don't like he's booked. Zidane was furious because France need to win to pass the poule and he punched a door, probably saying for himself some thought about Domenech and his sexuality we could imagine. You never see the title all around the world “Zidane punched an innocent door, and clearly insulted his coach, what a lack of respect ! he should be fired !” because the FFF and Domenech said “no, nothing happened” Everybody knew it wasn't true. But Escalette and domenech no see the imperious necessity to fired him. Because they needed Zidane and France was qualified, and Zidane is Zidane not Anelka. Anelka and the french players did the same they had worlds with Domenech, the big difference is Domenech perfectly know he won't qualify, him and FFF need scapegoat to appear clean and victims. Anelka said for himself “F;;k you with your shi,,y system” If you know most of low class people expression, it is more the contradiction that upset Domenech, that the words he probably used to hear. I understand the players, they felt abandonned and crucified on the Domenech ego and Escalette interest. These days Escalette said he never leave his place. Domenech is still under contract, so he still earn money even years after, from the FFF. Each of them protected their money, that's agood new for them, i think.

sandra350,

Unfortunately once again you are incorrect – Ireland were winning the game (1-0) prior to Henry's intervention with 17 minutes left to play in extra-time in a match Ireland were totally dominating. However, that is in the past.

I don't subscribe to the hatred as you describe it directed towards France and I am not sure I could adequately describe the reasons for it. I love the country, its people and (usually) its football team. My family goes on holidays to France almost every year and we will do so again this year. I suspect it has a lot to do with a number of things including a widespread (mis)conception about French national arrogance, not helped by the fact that in the match the Henry incident was so blatant yet was mysteriously missed by the officials and by the fact that this was a high-profile once-off “do or die” knock-out game televised live between little Ireland and the the footballing giants of France. When the big guy with all the talent and resources cheats against the little guy, the reaction is easy to anticipate. (Not helped when the little guy is a country that has emigrated its children to the four corners of the world for hundreds of years – you should have picked on someone else!). Did you really expect anything else? Arrogant post-match comments by Evra to the effect that a replay could take place on his Playstation didn't help! Henry's handball was a defining moment in France's qualification and was always going to be remembered as such.

There is no point in trying to direct people's anger towards what other teams have done or what players in other countries might do. The fact that Frence imploded just added to the drama and increased the sense of “what goes around comes around”. Pity or sympathy would never be given to France in the situation. But do not blame the world – this is self-inflicted. The reaction of embarrassment in France in November is proof of this. Also I don't recall the same international vilification of France when they had disasterous campaigns in 2002 and 2008 (I maybe incorrect), so I am not sure this is purely a “hatred of France” thing. It has a lot more to do with how France qualified.

In 2002 there was the notion that France were arrogant (having won tournaments in 1998 and 2000), but I think a lot of neutrals were sorry to not see more of Zidane.

Sandrahn – This is gold. I didn't try to research it, but in the couple articles that I saw describing the incident, there was no mention of the background.

Thierry,

Domenech is a tool, and you wouldn't be the first person to lay all the blame completely on Domenech and Escalettes and the FFF. Xavier Rivoire of France Football pretty much agreed with other commentators critical assessments of the players behavior, but then he contradicted himself and the prevailing opinion by saying something like, “But the players are blameless. The fault lies entirely with Escalettes”…No one argues with how bad they (FFF and Escalettes) are.

BUT if you think the players have zero culpability for their actions, then I'm going to 100% disagree with you. There's enough blame to go around. If you disagree with me on Capello and Lippi, fine. We can debate this on the England and Italy blogs all you want. I'm game.

I don't care if Anelka said those exact words, a variation of those words, or merely suggested it. I don't care if he whispered it, yelled it, or communicated his displeasure with sign language. He had a crappy attitude even before words were said. Did you even watch the match? His body language did all the talking. It was the return of “Le Sulk”. I challenge you to prove to me (using Anelka's on-field actions) that any other coach wouldn't have pulled him. Flat-out refusing to play his position. People get removed for bad play and insubordination all the time. He might be mad, but Nicolas deserved to be pulled and he should have sucked it up like a professional, or at least like an adult human being. What good does it do to have any kind of bust-up with the coach? How does that solve any problems? How does this help the team?

Domenech was stupid, most of all, for picking these prima-donnas with inflated egos that thought that they were above the team, above the coach… We soon had a situation where inmates were actually running the asylum. A completely dysfunctional madhouse that spiraled out of control. World Cups are not won this way. Wasted talent.

You can say whatever you want, but imagine if you were a player at a World Cup, perhaps your last opportunity, you'd probably want to behave and play your best, no matter how bad the coach is, no matter how bad the system is, no matter how bad the federation is. It's YOUR opportunity to to play for your country.

Abidal didn't feel like playing against South Africa? He felt “empty”? Tant pis. Too bad. I don't feel sorry for him at all. He loves playing for Barca, earning the big money, and he'll go back to being a wealthy footballer living a luxurious life after the tournament. The World Cup is not a big deal for him.

Most footballers realize that the World Cup is an honor and a privilege. Not everyone gets a chance to play. Lots of great footballers were not called-up. Some were injured.

If these guys had no respect for the system, the federation, or the coach, they should all have refused the call-up. That's the best protest they could do.

Riquelme and Maradona never got along and Riquelme basically said “F*** it, i'll watch the World Cup from home”… controversy over…

Trezeguet didn't like Domenech blaming him for shanking the penalty kick into the crossbar, ultimately condemning France to defeat, and so he announced his international retirement, basically protesting the team. That's acceptable. It doesn't interrupt an ongoing tournament.

There are many ways to protest and dissent. I'm not automatically against boycotts or revolutions or whatever you want to call it, but there's ways to behave with honor, and ways not to. By refusing to practice and agreeing to that statement, the players “without exception” became just as bad as the coach and the FFF. They didn't distinguish themselves on the field, and worse, they added dishonor to their names off-the-field.

Refusing to practice is refusing to practice. There's no way to sugar-coat it. It speaks for itself, and the players suffer the consequences and any backlash against them by the public, the country, the press, the kids, and the next coach.

In-fighting never wins tournaments, but it loses a lot of them. Hopefully the next generation of Les Bleus, choses to go a different direction. And yes I hope Escalettes is forceably removed… Sarkozy has the power to dissolve the FFF if he wants. I'm sure he'll do whatever is more advantageous to him, politically, if he acts at all. A metaphorical guillotining might be in order. And they might want to keep the metaphor around for Laurent Blanc to decide who to spare and who gets sacrificed in the public square.

I answer to this subject in another but there was a kind of censor. Actually i have heard few months ago he approximatively said Domenech was an @,,hole and laughed. True, but not a gentleman act too. Propaganda is also a way to select was is an information and what is not one, in order to make a public opinion. Domenech refuses to shake Parreira's hand is an information.(bash the french) Explain why or Domenech insulted is not an information.
The french players striking on is an information. To inform that it was symbolic and that they trained later the same day, or explain why they did it it's not an information.

Padraig, yes of course Ireland were winning the game in Paris – I meant, Ireland were not winning the playoff. The punditry and talk about France in 2008 was also full of hateful bilge and lots of schadenfreude at France's poor form. Just as there is now.

Well said, Justin, every word. Couldn't say it better. I do want to add that I had hoped that Henry would put aside his ego at the last minute and find the grace to bow out of the tournament. I knew it was naive of me to hope but it would've been a gesture that would've allowed him and his country one small measure of dignity.

Hi, sorry to see the french go but the one thing that is being bandied about (though its merit as an influencer of match results is debatable) is frankly true.
There is a strange arrogance about the french (not just footballers)and I am little clueless as to the reason since they really have nothing to warrant it. It does make the French somewhat unpleasant to hang around with

I disagree with that stereotype based on my personal experiences in France. Maybe I've been improbably lucky, but I've met extremely warm and welcoming people in France. Sometimes they're so excited about their cultural traditions that they can be overwhelming trying to introduce them to visitors, but I find that if you have a taste for good wine and cheese that they'll love you forever.

Anelka looked like indifferent. True. but he always looks like this, even when he 's brillant. The same Anelka, remember who scored a decisive goal against Ireland. To his performance, could you say may that Gignac, Cissé, Henry did better than him ? No. Different players, same results. Isolated striker, powerless attack.
Had you remember, Justin an international competition i, Domenech era whith a team in perfect fit ? or in good fit or in a no very low fit ? May be is one of the key between a”no one looks like proud of the shirt team, but are all super egos players” team or ” oh it's beautiful how they're able to battle for their country, what humble they are” team.
For me fit is the point. yuo can't do nothing without fit. 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 same poor fit. France, Italy, Spain, England,… Did you really think like some english that Rooney doesn't care about England's shirt. I will talk with you on the other point later. Bye Good match.

Well said, Jeff. I've taught English in many countries around the world (incl. to immigrants in the US) and some of my warmest students were the ones I taught in Paris. They invited me to their homes, they took me out on wonderful picnics full of delicious wine and cheese and bread, they invited me to jazz night clubs, they were thoroughly engaged, wonderful students. I think Americans are esp. guilty of enormous hypocrisy when they insult the French for being arrogant — so many Americans are incredibly arrogant about the way think of themselves and their country, so many talk about the rest of the world in a sneering, condescending way.

bye France…that's a shame