Euro shake up, qualifying is never easy!

Ouch...France suffers a difficult 1-0 loss to Scotland. Ireland gets humiliated by Cyprus 5-2! England held scoreless at home to Macedonia. Spain humiliated again losing 2-0 to Sweden. And the world cup champs finally find the winning ways.

All this shows is that the world of international football and qualifying for major tournaments is a marathon not a sprint.

I was fortunate, or unfortunate to once again watch Les Bleus live on my TV5 from Glasgow.

Some thoughts on the match -

France completely dominated the Scots. Although the Scots played their game plan to perfection, playing France defensive the entire game and hoping to hit on the break or on a dead ball. Against a superior team this does not always work, but it can lead to results as today.

Henry was unlucky with a direct kick in the first 8 minutes that struck the post. He was having his way against the Scottish defense drawing two dangerous direct kicks in the first 15 minutes with electric runs. Vieira was off side on a goal, he was barely in an off side position and could have held his run by a split second, the Scotland defense was absent. The telling sign was seeing Claude Makelele carry the ball up into the Scottish half most of the first 45 minutes. Scotland was content to send 10 players behind the ball, 5 across the back and 4 midfielders in front of them. Their lone striker, McFadden, when the ball came to him found himself taking on the entire French defense alone. With Boumsong stuck to his back pocket it was virtually impossible to imagine an danger for the French. And when it did come it was primarily due to French mistakes and not Scottish ingenuity. At half it seemed only a matter of time before the French found the back of the net.

The second half saw much of the same. However the easy defensive first half lulled France into a false sense of security. It was clear that the only way France would concede would be on a dead ball, and that is exactly what happened. On a bunged corner kick, France allowed Gary Caldwell to beat Abidal to the ball and squeeze the ball past Coupet (a shot I would have expecting the French #1 to do a little better on). The last 4 goals France has conceded in official games have been on such plays: Penalty Shot against Spain in the world cup, Header off a corner against Italy in the world cup, Header off indirect kick against Italy in Euro qualification and finally the goal today off corner. This is a disturbing trend because the last two in particular the French defense looked lost.

I think the victory meant more for Scotland than the loss should mean for France. Scotland now sit alone atop the group with 9 points, France remain second with 6 points...with Italy winning against Ukraine they are back in the mix with 4 points. After this Wednesday we should have a better idea if the Scots can run away with this group. Scotland have a troublesome match away to Ukraine, while France are home to Faeroe Islands and Italy host Georgia. Assuming France wins, and if they cannot then they are in trouble! Italy, again assuming they are back to form, defeats Georgia. If Scotland wins, they have 12 points but if they draw or lose, they are only at 10 or 9 points while France should be at 9 and Italy at 7....this group was deemed the Group of Death and it is living up to the hype. It will be interesting to see how the Scots can hold up to a long qualifying campaign, will they be the Ukraine of the WC qualifiers a team that came out of no where to win a difficult group, or Wales from a few years ago, a nation that teased its fans only to fall short at the end?

Other thoughts: Spain is in real trouble, losing to Sweden 2-0, there remains plenty of time for the Spaniards to right the ship in a group that should not be too difficult, but the 3-2 loss to Northern Ireland may prove their downfall...England draws at home to Macedonia and now have to travel to Croatia, not an easy task, seems like the "euphoria" after the defeat of Andorra has lost its luster ... Ireland losing to Cyprus (granted Ireland was wracked by injuries) is awful let alone giving up 5 goals in the process, not sure the Irish have recovered from missing out on the World Cup thanks to the Swiss ... Holland draws with Bulgaria, after only defeating Luxembourg 1-0, and after having players refuse call ups (Van Nistelrooy) not all is well with Oranje, Van Basten better figure this out soon, he has to much talent at his disposal to make this a difficult qualification...Look out but the defending Euro Champs are playing better, a meager 1-0 victory versus Moldova made everyone groan, but a 1-0 victory versus Norway seems to point the Hellenic squad in the right direction, the upcoming Greece-Turkey match looms very large.