Domenech announces his 23 for the Spain game...Boumsong???

 I am remiss to have not written about the list of the 23 French players for the France v Spain match next week I was even in Paris when Domenech had his press conference (sorry for the unabashed gloating). So here is the list:

Keepers - Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Cédric Carrasso
Defenders - Patrice Evra, Bakary Sagna, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Mickaël Ciani, Aly Cissokho, Rod Fanni, Julien Escudé, Adil Rami
Midfielders - Lassana Diarra, Jérémy Toulalan, Moussa Sissoko, Benoît Cheyrou, Franck Ribéry, Florent Malouda, Yoann Gourcuff
Strikers - Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Hatem Ben Arfa, Louis Saha, Sidney Govou, Loïc Rémy

The Good:

• Calling up the Bordeaux man Ciani and Rami is a good move for Domenech.  The central defender has been a revelation this season with Bordeaux and just this past week scored the winning goal in the Champions League. With injuries abound at central defense, Domenech was smart to leverage this opportunity to take a look at Ciani. Rami had been called up earlier but had not seen the pitch. The Lille defender has a good chance of being one of France's central backs very soon. He is one of the reasons Lille is having a very good domestic season, he has provided stability for the Lille back 4.
• The Kaiser Ribery is back in the fold. Granted he has not come back to 100% health, still is being used sparingly with Bayern. But it will be good for Les Bleus to have him back at Clairfontaine. Les Bleus will go only as far as their talisman offensive player can take them in South Africa. We need to remember that France played much of their last World Cup qualifiers without the kaiser. 
• Getting back Saha into the fold is very good, he deserves the call up for what he has been doing with Everton. I think he should be seen as a real option to head to South Africa.
• The return of Ben Afra. The once proud Prince of French football had fallen out of sorts for both club and country recently. The maddeningly talented, but mercurial player, would drive many coaches, teammates and fans crazy. He had a world of talent in his boots, but his mental state did not guarantee 100% efforts all the time. Thankfully, at least for now, he seems to have found the desire and motivation to look to live up to his ability. Let us hope this continues, if it does, it gives Les Bleus a very intriguing offensive weapon to leverage. A very nice example of his talent from a recent Europa League game:

The Bad:

• Um okay...Boumsong....and while I am at why not throw in Gouvou as well. Why oh why are these Lyon players always taken by Domenech. I can sort of see Gouvou, he has been playing well as of late especially in the Champions League against Real Madrid, but I would have rather seen Nasri. But Boumsong???? Really? What about Mexes? What about Sakho from PSG? Is Boumsong really an option to go to South Africa? Based on a rumor circulating France - Domenech has gentleman's agreement that he will get a job at Lyon after his France tenure is over, so to make Aulus happy he is picking many of the OL players....hmmmm.

The Ugly:

• Boumsong Boumsong Boumsong....see above.
• Not including Cisse, the former Liverpool, OM, Sunderland, Auxerre man leads the Greek league in goals, had a double against Roma in the Europa League.  His performance this season clearly should place him on the short list for Domenech's striker selection. Cisse should have been given a shot - at least over Gouvou.
• What appears to be the end of the road for Vieira as an international player. I think that Domenech needs to just put an end to this charade and say that Vieira has had a stellar career for France but it is time to hang up the boots. Clearly Pat will not get enough game time between now and the May time frame for the World Cup list to be put together...so why keep pretending that he has a chance to go to the World Cup? We all know that he has become injury prone at this stage of his career and for the role he plays it is imperative for him to be as close to 100% healthy otherwise he becomes a liability - see the Euro 2008!
• And what about Mexes? Boumsong over Mexes? I realize the golden boy is no longer a clear cut starter at AS Roma, but to me he is still head and shoulders above his former Auxerre teammate. I am not sure what Domenech has against Mexes, but the golden boy deserves to be back in the fold. Hopefully with a new manager for France, Mexes will get his chance to get back into the France jersey.

The game will be telling for France, Spain is a very big fish to take on right now. It will be interesting to see how Domenech lines up his side as well as who he uses through out the match. What will he do on the left - Henry or Ribery? Who will line up on the right flank? Who will be the main striker? What about the central defensive pairing? I am sure Domenech will give us a glimpse during his training sessions...we shall see.