Les Bleus - Le Terrible

OMG the unthinkable happened today, France got slapped around in Vienna 3-1 against an Austrian team that had nothing to lose and played France physically and took their chances. Ok first a caveat, I did not get to see the game...for some reason TV5 did not carry the feed, but I "watched" it on line, saw the "highlights" and have been reading the post game commentary.

Unfortunately the defense has conceded 5 goals in their last two games, if we include the Euros they have given up 11 goals in 5 games ... including a 0-0 draw with the Romanians...this is completely unacceptable for a nation that is ranked 11th in the world. France lost to a nation, that prior to the Euros, their own fans put together a petition to pull out of their own tournament! What frightens me is the central defensive pairing, it appears that Mexes is not taking his high level of play from AS Roma to the French team, maybe he is pushing too much, nervous that Domenech has never really been a fan of the Roman defender. Mexes might be constantly looking over his shoulder, afraid to play his game always concerned about his place on the squad. Frankly on the first and last goal Mexes is directly to blame. The opening goal, Mexes allowed the Austrian striker to back him down rather than aggressively attacking the ball. Mexes then inexplicably tackled an Austrian player on a corner kick. Plus he pulled down the player at the PK spot when the corner was a tight inswinger and the player fouled would most likely not have been in the play!!! Gallas has not taken the reigns of the defense. With Thuram retired, I thought this would be the opportunity for Gallas to step up and become the "patron" for the French defense. Maybe the Gunner, while a top notch defender, needs a Desailly, Terry or Thuram to take the leadership of the defense, for he is not comfortable leading the back 4. Maybe all the rumors that were coming out of the Emirates locker room last year that Gallas was letting his teammates down with his lack of leadership, is rearing its ugly head under the blue shirt of France. Mandanda is also not to escape some blame. On the second goal he should have attacked the ball while in the air, the long indirect kick was floated into the top of this 5 yard box where France messed up the clearance allowing the Austrians to smash home the goal from point blank range. The French keeper really should have attacked the first ball in the air.

It also sounds as if Diarra and Toulalan were not the defensive forces they need to be for this system to work, maybe Les Bleus miss Vieira more than they thought. What really drives me crazy is the fact France gave up all goals off set pieces, once again Les Bleus could not defend two 40 yard indirect kicks that, by all accord, were just dumped into the French 18 yard box. Ugh.

This does not bode well, at all. France now hosts Serbia next week. Which will not be a walk in the park. Serbia will play more physically than Austria, and will be tighter defensively than the Austrians. France have no choice but to win on Wednesday....if they come out of these two games with 1 or 0 points, it would be disastrous. They would then have to go to Roumania who would be on 3 points, having played the Faroe Islands next. Serbia would be clearly in the driver seat, with surprise Austria and Lithuania either one at 6 points or both at 4 (they play each other next round). France could conceivable find themselves in last, behind the Faroe Islands.

Of course all is not lost, this is but one game. France lost twice to the Scots in the last qualifiers, and still squeaked in. But the road does not get any easier. The only good thing is that the other group favorite, Romania lost, and they lost at home. But if that is the one straw I get to grasp...it is a pretty sad day in French football.

Hopefully Deschamps has his list of players, he might find himself as France manager very shortly.