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 appears to be leaning on a 4-3-3 in the upcoming friendly for France. When Les Bleus take the pitch Friday to face off against Asian side Japan, look for a very muscular midfield trio. The expected line up:
Le onze de l’équipe de France : Lloris (c) - Debuchy, Koscielny, Sakho, Clichy - Capoue, Matuidi, Sissoko - Ménez, Giroud, Benzema
No real surprise in the back, maybe seeing the Manchester City left back Clichy over the Manchester United left back is a slight surprise. Otherwise Kos will shoulder Sakho, Rami back on the bench. With Mbiwa suspended for the Spain match, clearly Deschamps wants to work a pairing for the 90 minutes against Japan. Makes one wonder why Deschamps called up Mbiwa to start with...I realize he might want to have him work with the others during the training sessions, but a risk none the less.
The midfield, again is not a real surprise. Deschamps has opted for a very defensive - holding midfield. Sissoko who has not been called up in years is right back in the starting line up. With Capoue and Matuidi, the midfield seems poised to play more of a "destroying" role than creative one. I wonder if Cabaye is given the time off, but we will see him back in the midfield come next Tuesday, probably in the place of either Sissoko or Matuidi.
No wonder you don't score...you aren't even looking at the goal
Up front is a bit of a surprise to me. With Benzema being pushed into the Ribery channel on the left. Last game he was slotted on the right, where he did a decent job. That role is falling back to a more natural right winger - Menez. I doubt we will not see Da Kaiser back on the left when Les Bleus walk out on the pitch in Spain, but it is interesting to see what Deschamps is experimenting with. He is putting out there a true center forward - Giroud. Albeit one that has forgotten his scoring boots in Montpellier. Benzema has had some success being off set to the left at times, with Lyon and at times with Madrid. The Real Madrid man might be asked to drift (not that he really has to be asked) deeper on the pitch, at times even playing a more #10 role to bring some creativity to this formation.
It will be interesting to see who Deschamps gives some time to as the game progresses. I would think we would see Rami at some point, as well as Valbuena. Le Petit Velo might see some time as a more traditional #10 sitting behind Giroud and Benzema. We shall see. An important test for Les Bleus, especially with what awaits them next week.
The top seed is deservedly the Dutch. the Oranje once again enter a tournament with tremendous talent and expectations. With the likes of Sneijder, Van Persie (assuming his 100%), Robben, Huntelaar, van derVaart, etc they will have plenty of horses to challenge any other national team. The question becomes, will they play as a team? That has always haunted them in the past. They walked through their qualifiers winning all 8 of their matches, scoring 17 and only conceding 2 goals in the process...impressive to say the least. So which dutch team will show up? The one that walked through qualifiers or the last one we saw at the Euro 2008, the one that was being thoroughly outclassed by a Russian team and one Arshavin. The status of Van Persie will also weigh on how far the Dutch will go in South Africa, but on paper they have more than enough talent to get to the knock out stage. So who will join Oranje in the knock out stages? Denmark is the little engine that could. The Danes always seem to show well for themselves at major tournaments, sometimes even winning them after not even qualifying! Quick question - name me 3 Danish footballers....okBendtner and um uh...yeah a team of relatively obscure players who play in the Danish league. However they clearly know how to be a team - having won a difficult qualifying group, ahead of Sweden and Portugal - even defeating the Portuguese 3-2 in the first leg. The Danes are not to be taken lightly, and if history is any indication will do well in the groups and fizzle out in the knock out stages. What about the former co-hosts - Japan? Japan has always sought to be the Asian power that South Korea is, unfortunately they have never been able to assume that mantle. Granted they are getting closer. With a competitive and growing domestic league - the J League - they are becoming more than a baseball and sumo nation! They do have some players in Europe, mainly midfielders - surprisingly 2 in Ligue 1 - Inamoto and Matsui. They have had some recent strong run in friendlies...but those are very different that the bright lights of the World Cup. And they will not have home field advantage. They are getting there, but are still chasing South Korea and Australia for dominance in Asia...so far from world beaters in the World Cup. Finally we have Cameroon, and with the Lions one Samuel Eto'o. Much is being placed on the Inter forward's shoulders, I think too much. Granted the Lions have a solid squad with the likes of Makoun, the Songs (uncle and nephew), and a long in the tooth Geremi. They are also managed by an experienced European manager - Le Guen. This would be a threat...were the World Cup 4 years ago. The stars of Cameroon are a bit long in tooth and not sure they will be able to go far. However Eto'o remains a threat up front they do have some good youngsters in the Song from Arsenal and Bassong from Tottenham (he was a French U21 player). They will challenge for a spot in the knock outs.
Predictions: Holland, Denmark, Cameroon, Japan - I think the Danes are too well organized and will just beat out the Lions by a hair. Japan will show well for itself but in the end out matched in this group. Player to watch: Eto'o - while he is not going to be playing with the caliber of players he had at Barcelona or even at Inter, if he steps it up, he will be a threat in every game the Lions play. While no where near the advanced age Milla was, he could mimic that performance in 1990.
