France lackluster draw with Tunisia

Les Bleus played their second preparatory match yesterday in Tunisia and emerged with a very lackluster 1-1 draw. Not sure how much to take from this game but I will try:

The Good:

• Hmmm not much to go on here...I guess the fact France did not lose is good. I realize I am grasping for straws here, but getting a boring draw is still better than a loss.
• Ribery is showing his worth on the left wing. The Bayern player is clearly the offensive driving force for Les Bleus. His pace and flair off the left flank supported by Malouda is where the majority of the French offense seems to be coming from the left, the right side is completely deserted, more on this later.
• First cap for Planus. The Bordeaux central defender received his first cap - congratulations.  He did not have much to do for his time on the pitch but nice to see him get his first international time on the field.
• No injuries, at least we hope. Gallas did play the match (63 minutes) and appeared free from pain, even scoring the equalizer for France. Of course there are reports today that he had to leave training early due to pain in his right calf...not promising. 

 

The Bad:

• Many questions remain from the Costa Rica game, namely how can Les Bleus bring more balance to the attack especially from the right side? With the likes of Ribery and Malouda the left side of the attack is well represented. Gourcuff has a natural tendency to drift back to the center of the pitch. Govou does not nor has ever really impressed me - and is not the type of player that can sustain one side on his own. If France hope to get out of the group stages and go a few rounds they must find a way to reinforce the right side and force teams to respect the ability to threaten from that side. As I have stated in prior postings - why not try Valbuena? Unlike Govou, he can take on defenders and is not afraid to run at teams nor hesitant to try his luck from the slightest opening. Just this alone will force teams to be more balanced in their defending of Les Bleus, otherwise you will start seeing teams just slide their defense to block the French left and trust their outside back to handle the right side of the French attack without too much fear.
• France giving up an early goal. Once again Les Bleus found themselves chasing the game. They have to correct this very soon, because if they keep up this trend they will not be in South Africa for very long.

The Ugly:

• Center forward remains ugly in the sense Les Bleus have not appeared to settle or find someone who can be a true center forward in the 4-3-3. Anelka? Hast the talent but seems to draw to dropping deep to receive the ball. Henry? Does not appear to be a solution as a starter. Gignac? The one player who fits the mold of a center forward - big and strong he understands the need to look to be as deep as the last defender and call for the ball once he has established that position. He can score with his head and right foot, left foot remains in question. However could be a good solution to play balls to where he can attack the goal or look to feed on rushing players such as Malouda, Ribery, Anelka (if he goes to the right wing), Govou or Valbuena
• The questions around central defense remain ugly. Why? Abidal is not a natural central defender and Gallas remains an injury concern. With just over a week to the start of the World Cup the fact your central defense is not 100% set is a major concern.
• The second half...wow talk about boring ugly football, neither team looked like it wanted to really attack and France seemed completely lost without Ribery on the left flank.

There remains one more match against China. It will be interesting to see if Domenech looks to play what should be the starting line up against Uruguay for more than 45 minutes. Also, what if anything Domenech tries to do to get more life to the right side of the French attack. The clock keeps on ticking.

France v Tunisia - pre World Cup friendly #2

France will face Tunisia, in Rades, for their second warm up match for the World Cup. Much has been made of the recent 2-1 victory over Costa Rica - especially the usage of the 4-3-3 as well as the scintillating 20 minutes of the Petit Velo - Valbuena. This second match will be an important gauge of how the evolution of the "new" French system is going and what changes, if any, Domenech will make to the starting 11.

A few thoughts -

• Stick with the 4-3-3. There is not much time before the start of the World Cup, 2 weeks actually, so every occasion France have to play with this formation must be maximized. We all know Les Bleus can always go back to a 4-2-3-1 with the only question being who would shoulder Toulalan as the second holding midfielder. The new system worked well against Costa Rica, granted there were some defensive issues, which are the ones that will take the most time to work out - another reason why Domenech must stick with this formation.

• Give Valbuena a greater role in this match. Le Petit Velo showed a lot of flair in the time he had against Costa Rica, the question is can he show the same over the full 90 minutes or at least starting against a fresh defense rather than being the "joker" coming in later in the game to run at tired defenses? Much like in 2006 when Ribery was seen as a late game "super" substitute but played his way onto the starting 11 - Valbuena has a chance of animating the right wing of the French much like Ribery does for the left flank.
• Allow Gallas to get at least 60 minutes. France must determine if the Arsenal defender can hold up to more than 45 minutes...I realize Domenech might want to ease his defender slowly into playing additional minutes. This will be a test of how far along this path Gallas has come.
• Get Cisse into the rotation. The leading scorer in the Greek domestic league needs to get some run to figure out what he can bring to Les Bleus - whether it be starting up front as the lone striker or on the right wing - or coming in as a substitute. Leverage his pace and flair against tired defenders.
• A final note, this game will draw Domenech even with Hidalgo in terms of 75 games in charge. Which is nothing short of flabbergasting - Domenech should have been sacked after the disaster of the Euro 2008. Granted Domenech qualified France for 3 straight major tournaments and overachieved in one and flamed out in the second - let us see which side of the ledger this tournament ends up on. 

I would not be surprised if the following starting line would be run out onto the pitch:

Lloris (I think he will get this start and Carrasso the last game)
Sagna - Gallas - Abidal - Evra
Gourcuff - Toulalan - Malouda
Valbuena - Anelka - Ribery

This line up should closely resemble the one that will start against Uruguay on the 11th. This game should resemble the atmosphere that will meet France in South Africa. I do think that Domenech was intelligent in scheduling a game against one of Africa's better quality sides - and playing in a hostile environment. Throw into this the history between both nations and you are guaranteed an animated crowd. A good test for Les Bleus.

Prediction - France 2 Tunisia 0 - Goals from Ribery and Anelka

France announce pre World Cup friendlies

Thanks to Memejfr giving us the heads up here is the list of pre-World Cup matches Les Bleus will be playing next summer - China, Tunisia and Costa Rica.

Les Bleus faced the Chinese prior to the last World Cup, the most notable event from that match was the horrific leg break for Cisse, taking him out of the World Cup and allowing Domenech to add Gouvou rather than a certain Anelka...hmmmm, wonder if France had Anelka on the bench if the finals would have turned out differently. I would assume the China match is scheduled to give the squad an average opponent they can get a win from. Costa Rica is from the same region as Mexico and were in a play off with Uruguay for the World Cup...so a worthy World Cup caliber opponent. Tunisia will be interesting based on the history between the nations. There are plenty of players that play in France or have strong ties to France so they will be motivated to show well. In addition they play in the same region as the last group opponent for France - South Africa (and like that opponent will be playing in front of their home crowd since the match will be in Tunisia). In addition, the way the knock out stages are set up, France could be facing another African nation - Nigeria - in the first round of the knock outs. Les Bleus will be training there as well, an interesting choice of location...I would think that Tignes and its high elevation would be the preferred location (that might be the pre-training area).