France World Cup Draw: Woohoo! No Group O’Death for us!

Lithuania, Austria and the Faroes shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Romania will be the biggest stone in your shoe and Serbia like to keep games extremely tight. Ultimately I feel France have the depth to win the group. If Domenech isn’t around for these qualifiers bring in Deschamps, that guy is all class.

I’d look out for Romania, they’re doing extremely well lately. Personally, I think they can top the group. If you don’t believe me, go ask those sobbing dutch what happened in Group G of the Euro Qualifiers.

How are the Faroe Islands always in France’s group? World Cup 2006, Euro 2008, and World Cup 2010? It’s awesome!

I LOVE Faroe Islands. Particularly since they always seem to manage to score against Italy.

That’s still a tough group. Every team (Faroe aside) is extremely competent.

Anyone with Fox Soccer Channel should try to catch a rerun of Juventus-Palermo. I’ve never seen Trezeguet so active on the wings (especially in the first half)! He scored a great goal too.

Patrick that brings a smile to my face.

I wouldn’t mind @”If Domenech isn’t around for these qualifiers bring in Deschamps, that guy is all class”. Doesn’t France usually do 2 major international tournaments and then change coaches though? except for that guy between Lemerre and Domenech.

I wouldn’t mind Domenech out but that would mean that we more or less screw Euro 2008 final stage… So that is a dilemma…

ONE WORD EASY

final standings:

Romania
France
Serbia
Austria
Lithuania
Faroe

Romania hasn’t beaten France since 1972 and I can only imagine what 1972 Bucharest looked like. I think your table needs work.

I’ll forgive him. He’s my brother-in-blog over at Romania World Cup Blog.

dude l’americain, how many times have they played since 1972? once or twice?
also, romania is doing incredibly well lately, owning netherlands, which in my opinion is a much better overall team than france
if you think 1972 bucharest is bad, come here now
i can’t wait to wipe the smirk off those cocky frenchie’s face, this is what always happens when people get overconfident, just ask the spanish what happened in spain in that 2006 friendly; for those of you france supporters who aren’t acting stupid, thank you

Hello Laurie

I have to praise my lovely little team every time I get a chance. Romania U21 tied France U21 1-1,0-0, both times they played this year and got a 1-1 tie with England U21. Hopefully you will see some fresh new players in the Finals, like Torje (who in my opinion will be 10x the player Mutu is) and finally Ciprian Marica has been replaced by Niculae. So right now we’re looking good. Maybe not as good as France, but good nevertheless.

Honestly, I want Romania and France to play well, and I really could not care less from which spot we advance.

Good luck in the finals

@David – They have played 6 times since then (aggregate 8-2). I would have to prognosticate that Romania, who ‘owned’ Netherlands 1-0 and tied 0-0 would most likely either tie or lose to France. Especially as we remember Romania lost 1-0 to Bulgaria only a week ago.

I also don’t really understand the stupid claim, as all of what I say is backed up by facts, but hey, at least Luc can carry the flag of a true fan for you.

Congrats to Romania for winning your qualifying group, and good luck in the euros.

btw, I’ve never really seen much point in trash-talking an unfamiliar opponent before the matches begin, much less resorting to name-calling when responses doesn’t go your way (on their own turf, oh the humanity).

…to clarify, the above was not directed at Luc for his initial post. Sorry for conflating you two.

Romania is definitely a team with young fresh talents, underestimating them is dangerous. Romania is a true and strong challenger to France in this group. Wish both teams qualify!

l’americain: im trying to look at this from a neutral point of view, i do not necessarily think that romania will beat france, im just saying if they get cocky, they will most likely lose, but nevertheless france probably will top the group if they keep their heads and i am also saying not to rule out romania, and if you read over what i wrote, i never actually said that netherlands got “owned”
also, they werent trying vs bulgaria, they had injuries and sat out their good players, they reallly did not care about the outcome they were guaranteed a spot in the euro 2008 anyway
and finally and most importantly: im sorry if it seemed i was trash talking, sometimes i get a little bit excited, i did not mean any hard feelings

No hard feelings. I was just tired of being labeled an “arrogant Frenchie” (I’m not French, so what does that even mean?) every time someone expresses confidence in France’s ability to win over the competition. For my part, I don’t think that the historical record means that France is ensured of winning the group. A lot of things can change between now and when the qualifiers begin; we have our weaknesses to address (Thuram’s replacement, for one), as I’m sure Romania does.
I know your domestic league has been doing well in Europe in recent years (IIRC it’s currently ranked just behind Ligue 1?), and winning the qualifying over the Netherlands is definitely an accomplishment (though I’d like to hear your reasons for ranking the Dutch over us as they are right now).

Yeah no hard feelings whatsoever David, there is nothing I like more than a passionate discussion about the sport I love.

Glatisant, there is nothing wrong with not being French, I don’t have a single drop of French blood either. However, I make sure that when English fans come up to me in NYC and jam their finger into le coq and call me a ’see you next tuesday’ then proceed to tell me my team is shite, that I make sure to rattle off something awful at them in French. That is the best part about America, you can be whatever the hell you want to be (die hard Faux-French in my case. I’d love to see that guy now that England didn’t even qualify.

Thanks for being grownups, guys. What I love about the people who generally frequent this blog is that we can engage in debate without getting nasty about it. Crossing my fingers that it can stay this way.

Im just stunned about how many non French fans there are out there. I always stand out @ the pubs when watching games but its conforting to know that we have a strong following in the States.

Though group for France but i think that they have the quality to finish in the first place. They simply have too many young talents hungry for fame. Romania and Serbia will battle for the 2nd place and Austria maybe will steal some points from these 3 teams. Yet, France will dominate the group and i’ve got a feeling they will win cm2010. They or England anyway, and this is coming from a Romania fan. Romania has too many problems, you’ll see what they are… Good luck to all of the teams

I think 9 times out of 10, France would beat Romania. But over one or two games, France could be slumming or Romania might be on a hot streak (look at Scotland this year). Romania do have definite quality, and I’m always surprised why more of their players don’t play in the top leagues.

ROFL did you guys see the euro cup draws? france, italy, romania, and netherlands; i think this pretty much rules out romania, at this point im wishing good luck to the french fans, it is definetely possible that they can end up 3rd in this group of death

I heard Romania got this really good player now, he plays for Barcelona, his name’s Luc and he’s their new captain/towel-boy.