Welcome to the "Frog," my little piece of cyberspace to talk about my passion - le foot (or soccer for my North American friends) especially anything around French football. Of course I will have some guest contributors that might want to discuss other aspects of footy!
I support Les Bleus, Arsenal and PSG but really just love watching, analyzing and following the beautiful game.
"You have to trust your teammates, always. If not we are lost."
Deschamps pulls a minor surprise by inserting the Lyon midfielder Gonalons over TFC midfielder Capoue.
Le 11 de départ français :
Lloris – Evra, Sakho, Koscielny, Debuchy – Gonalons, Matuidi, Cabaye – Ribéry, Benzema, Ménez
Sightly greater pressure than his first cap for Gonalons
The remainder of the starters are not a surprise. It will be interesting to see how the young and inexperienced midfield holds up in Madrid against the Spanish midfield. I fear they might be overwhelmed and overrun. There is increased pressure that will fall on the "veteran" of the midfield - Cabaye - to keep the gaps between the defense and attacking players to a minimum. Otherwise I can envisage the inexperienced players - Gonalons and Matuidi dropping deeper for fear of being caught by the Spanish diagonal runs.
I do not have a good feeling about this game. Unlike a similar situation, when France traveled to Bosnia last qualifiers, where Blanc rolled out a muscled and defensive midfield of Diarra, Diaby and M'Vila, this midfield does not have the same characteristic. And they are facing La Roja not the Bosnians!
Nothing like a baptism by fire. If France can emerge without being embarrassed, this might go a long way to building up some of these players.
As the French national team approaches their matches against Romania and Luxembourg they get hit with the injury bug again - Diaby still recovering from a tough tackle this weekend during the Arsenal v Chelsea match and ADiarra had to leave practice after picking up a knock to the leg. So who does Blanc call upon as cover for two of his defensive/holding midfielders? Toulalan? No instead his Lyon teammate Gonalons and Toulouse midfielder Sissoko. The latter is not a surprise he has been part of the set up in the past, but the former is a bit of a surprise not because he is not talented. I have always been a fan of the Lyon midfielder, but it is a surprise that he gets a call up over his club mate who has much more experience at this level.
This past week the Finals for the U19 European Championship was decided between France and Spain. Which was won, on home soil, by the French U19 team 2-1 against the fancied Spanish side. Granted France played very strong football through out the tournament notable a 4-1 and 5-0 defeats of Holland and Austria. A good write up on the soccerblog.com, also the video high lights of the game, also below.
One aspect of the match is that these two generations met 2 years ago in the U17 Euro finals, where Spain gave their French counterparts a correction winning 4-0. Some revenge for the French players that suffered that loss. Clearly both sides have some strong talent at the youth level, none more impressive than Gael Kakuta who plays for Chelsea and is more known for the punishment that Chelsea almost suffered for improperly acquiring the young French player from Lens. A small example of the football IQ from Kakuta is the second goal of the finals. He is released through the middle and beats the 2 central defenders to find himself one on one with the Spanish keeper. He forces Alex to make a save on his first shot and is able to chase down the rebound. Here is where he demonstrates a high IQ - he had a chance to strike on goal again, it appears the Spanish goal is vulnerable, however Alex is rapidly moving to cover the open side and Kakuta's momentum is taking him away, his body is not a good position to put a solid strike on the ball. Instead of trying to force a shot and most likely putting a weak shot on net that could be saved
or missing the target, the Chelsea player stabilizes himself and rather than go for goal puts a well weighed cross to the far post where Lacazette easily heads home the winner. A smart play when others might have tried for the glory themselves.
It is plays such as these that have made Kakuta the pearl of the Chelsea youth set up, winning the Academy Player of the Year in 2007. He clearly was the creative center piece for the U19 team and based on what Ancelotti has said, he could see more time with Chelsea in the near future. With the move away from Stamford Bridge by Joe Cole that could very well become a reality - Kakuta can easily play on the wing bringing his pace and creativity to bear late in games. Laurent Blanc has also been present at the tournament so could he be in the France plans in the near future? Of course for all the potential and talent Gael has demonstrated he still needs to develop. Too often players who have showcased well at the youth levels have never been heard from again.
Other players from the French side to keep an eye on - Griezmann who plays for Real Sociedad and was approached by the Spanish federation to see if he would play for Spain the speedy winger played a role in getting the Spanish side promoted back to La Liga, Sunu the striker from Arsenal who may still find himself loaned out to a Ligue 1 side which I think would be best for him and his teammate Coquelin who has been loaned out to Lorient. Finally the fact Lyon had 6 players on the European Champions' roster bodes very well for the former France champion. With the likes of Gonalons who have come from the Lyon development system and should play a big role in this year's campaign.
The win last week coupled with Laurent Blanc running Les Bleus should make the debacle in South Africa a little easier to take...not much....but a little bit!
