Squads announced for France v Argentina

Composition des équipes de France - Argentine (21h00) :
FRANCE : Mandanda - Sagna, Gallas, Mexès, Abidal - L. Diarra, Toulalan - Ribéry, Gourcuff, Henry (cap.) - Anelka.
ARGENTINE : Carrizo - J. Zanetti, Demichelis, Heinze, Papa - Mascherano (cap.), Gago - Maxi Rodriguez, Gutierrez - Messi, Agüero.

Interesting Domenech has decided to align Anelka up front rather than Benzema, maybe Domenech wanted experience over youth, I do like seeing Henry and Ribery on the wings. Again the battle will be won between Mascherano - Gago vs Gourcuff - Ribery. Which ever one of these pairings emerges dominant will allow that team to find the edge. Heinze in the middle of the defense...scary for Argentina.

France v Argentina and other thoughts

Later today France and Argentina will face off against one another in Marseilles. The last time these two sides met, the south americans showed off their class and exploited a piecemeal French defense for a well deserved 1-0 victory. It could have been much worse and France never really threaten Argentina. Will this match be any different? For some reason I doubt it, I think the outcome will be the same....why? Because France has yet to solve the problems that haunted them when they met at Stade de France!

• Defensive issues remain the down fall for Les Bleus. During that match France had to employ a little used defense of Sagnol - Escude - Squillaci - Abidal, the middle pairing was clearly not comfortable with one another at the time. This lack of experience with one another allowed for Saviola to score on what should have been a cleared ball by the defense. The issue, is that this problem still exists with Les Bleus! They continue to struggle defensively, on set pieces, and do not have the system and familiarity that a defensive alignment needs to succeed. While I hold out hope that Gallas - Mexes is given time to work, not sure 3 days of training will make this happen.
• Tactically I think that Domenech is starting to see how the attack will be run - through Gourcuff. But what about Henry, Benzema, Anelka, Nasri? Where do they all slot. While I do not think this is a major concern, I do think that Les Bleus need to figure out very quickly if Henry is best suited on the left flank with Benzema up front, and if the young Lyonnaise can provide the goals the team needs.
• General management continues to be an issue for me, and that all stems from Domenech. For the first time I was happy to see the list he sent out for the game....right up to the point he decided to bring in Boumsong. I still question his in game tactics. I do not think he substitutes well nor manages the flow of the game as a national team manager needs to do. This has definitely not changed since that last Argentina - France match.

So do France have a chance? Of course, playing in Marseilles will help since the velodrome is always a tough place for the opposition. I also think France can exploit one of Argentina's weaknesses - Heinze. I am not sure the Real Madrid defender can contain Ribery or Henry coming down the flanks. It will also be interesting how Argentina look to contain Gourcuff, will Masherano and Gago be ordered to mark the French midfielder? A task both are very capable of doing. In the end I just see too much fire power on the Argentine side - Messi, Tevez, Aguero, I think Masherano will shut down much of the French creativity by winning his battle with Gourcuff, and the French defense still has too many question marks. So I will stick with my earlier prediction of Argentina 2 - France 1.

There are some other games of interest today, in particular US v Mexico, one of the most heated international rivalries in international footie. This is the start of World Cup qualifiers for the CONCACAF region, and once again we know that the US and Mexico will make it and then a third team will emerge. So does this game have any real significance? The loser will not be out, and the winner will know they will most likely qualify. What is significant is this is the a good test for both teams, this is the only game that will really push both sides and the hatred is real. It is being played in America's heartland again, a move the US made a few years back realizing that playing a game against Mexico in a place like LA or Miami is more like a home game for Mexico, so why not have it in the an place where it might be 20 degrees and snowing. Because you know Mexico will make you play them at Azteca, where is it very difficult to breath let alone win for the US! I think the US will win, Mexico is looking a little disjointed recently and will not have some of their youth either due to suspension or because they are rusty from not getting enough game action for their clubs - Vela the former, Dos Santos the later. Still a good, entertaining match to watch. Especially to see if Landicakes mocks his Mexican foes!

Boumsong back again!!!! WHY????

Ok, my prior posting on Les Bleus gets an Ugly - Boumsong is in the mix. With Clichy and Escude withdrawing from the side, Domenech once again called upon his binky - Boumsong....again...why? I know he is playing ok for Lyon but this has to end.

On a better note, he also called up the young Dabo from St Eteinne. The young defender, who has been a mainstay on the French U20 side, is having a good season with Les Verts and appears to signal more youth in the French side as Domenech passed on veterans such as Armand and Mathieu to fill out the defense. What I find surprising, is that France is able to find solid young talent for the lateral defensive slots, yet always look to Boumsong as cover in the middle...the former Newcastle man must have dirt on someone at the FFF...

A nice goal from the newest member of Les Bleus -

Big Phil is out

The latest from Stamford Bridge is that after barely half a season Big Phil has been sacked. Not entirely surprising since Chelsea has slipped to 4th in the Premiership, lost its unbeaten streak at Stamford Bridge, and have only secured 1 point in 5 meetings against the other "big four." Not exactly a record that was world beating. The question becomes did the Brazilian deserve this fate? I mean Avram Grant had Chelsea in a better position this time last year...ouch. The following article captures much of what went wrong -

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/sports/football/sport/football-clubs/chelsea/what-went-wrong-scolari--$1267791.htm

For me there are a few reasons for the failure -

• First the ground work for failure go back a few seasons. When the Siberian billionaire, Abramovich started butting heads with the special one over players, it laid the ground work for team of superstars but a team without a soul. A few summers ago, Abramovich brought in the likes of Sheva and Ballack, but no one was convinced that Mourinho wanted either continental star - where would the aging Shevchenko play? And did he have the style of game to play in England? How about the German captain? Wasn't he redundant with Lampard? The special one had his hands full and it was clear that all was not well at Stamford bridge, coming off back to back premier titles the blues found themselves chasing Manchester United and never really demonstrating the clinical form they had the prior seasons. It was at the this point that the machine started to break down. Abramovich became too meddling, forcing Mourinho out, putting in a figure head in, in the form of Grant. Grant almost made his role permanent when he allowed Chelsea to make a run at a Champions League title as well as a Prem title. However, having failed at both, Abramovich had the perfect excuse to sack his manager and seek, what appeared to be, the most prestigious name out there - Scolari. However the damage had been done, Abramovich seemed to believe he could pick the players based on name and reputation alone, not on if they fit the system or specific need.
  

• The second issue was too many players for the same role. Big Phil was hamstrung with a team that was poorly put together, aging, and without any apparent youth. While it still contained bags of talent and veteran leadership, there was not enough diversity. There were many players that filled the same roles - Lampard and Ballack being the best examples. Then Deco was added (that was a Scolari move) adding another aging middle of the park playmaker to go along with Lamps and Ballack. And what about Joe Cole? Was he a winger, striker or attacking midfielder, again redundant with the above. Anelka was added in the mid season transfer window to cover for Drobga, but what happened when both were healthy? It was clear their games were not good matches and they have both suffered because of it, again too much overlap. Now some of this Scolari could have remedied during the summer transfer window - jettisoned Ballack, moved Drogba - but these were huge names with huge fees associated with them and there are few teams out there that would have taken them on, so by default Scolari had to hold on to them.
  

• The final issue, which I think is what truly hurt Chelsea this season was the loss of Essien and in some part at the transfer of Makelele to PSG. In these two players, Chelsea lost their engine. Of course I am not naive enough to believe that Makelele would have given Chelsea the silverware this season, but the double loss is what truly impacted the Blues for the worse. Last season was perfect, Essien did the bulk of the playing as the holding midfielder, while the older Makelele was used for the "big games" and rested for the less significant fixtures. Mikel was also thrown into the mix and Chelsea had themselves a nice rotation of players for the holding midfield role. This allowed the offensive minded midfielders to roam freely as well as alleviated pressure on the back four. Scolari walked into Stamford Bridge down one of those players - Makelele to PSG - and soon down 2 players once Essien went down for the bulk of the season. Without a realiable engine, Scolari started the campaign severly hamstrung. It has shown recently when Chelsea have not had the midfield presence that Makelele and Essien so aptly brought the side the past few seasons. Mikel, alone, was not able or willing to shoulder the burden, or maybe did not have the talent...

So Big Phil is gone and now Stamford Bridge is clamoring for the former star Zola to return to manage the side. Or maybe another name will emerge, but in the mean time it appears that one more contender has truly slipped into the list of pretenders and unless the Red Devils make a tremendous gaff the title will be theirs once again. By no means was this only Scolari's fault, he deserves some of the blame, but unfortunately he was dealt a not so good hand which he did not improve upon. Such is life managing professional sports.

Chelsea may be facing difficult times ahead. There are rumors Abramovich wants to sell the team. The team is getting older without any real youth stepping up (maybe Chelsea and Arsenal should merge, combining the veterans from Chelsea and the youth from Arsenal!). And there remains some difficult personnel questions - Drogba and Anelka, Ballack, Malouda, Alex, who will manage to name a few. Next season will be a telling time for Chelsea, either they will be an example of why a club cannot find long term success from a quick cash infusion or they will continue to build on what Abramovich gave them in terms of funding and Mourinho gave them in terms of management.

My guess it will be closer to the former.

Benitez and his wisdom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7875621.stm

So I was looking at the transfers and got to thinking, Robbie Keane is back at Tottenham after what can only be called a poor stint at Liverpool. I think this will be a good move for the Irish international, he was not a fit at Liverpool....then again lots of players Benitez purchases do not seem to fit. However, even if he was not a great fit he is a veteran who has a track record to score goals. Um, with the heavy dependence on Torres and now with Gerrard out for a few weeks, is Benitez not concerned about where the goals for the Reds will come from? According to the BBC story, between Torres and Gerrard, Liverpool has enjoyed 77 goals in the past 19 months. That is not something you replace with Babel, NGog, and Kuyt as your primary offensive options.

After moves such as this, I start to understand why the team does not want to completely hand over total player control to the Spaniard. I have always questioned his ability to manage a club over a season, he appears to be much more attune to managing for a knock out competition when he can strategize for one team. But when it comes to the long and grueling odyssey that is the Premiership his skills and ability to manage a roster leave much to be desired. Maybe letting Pennant and Voronin out on loan was not the wisest idea.

Thankfully I am not a Liverpool fan (yes I do have a Liverpool kit...care to guess the player?) and I am even less a fan of Benitez so overall I find this humorous. Unfortunately this means that Manchester United have another cake walk to another title, and that might make me even angrier than seeing the Spanish manager find success.

Domenech announces his list for the Argentina match

Domenech finally announced his list for the upcoming match up against the Albicelestes. Here is who we will be seeing on the Marseilles pitch -

GARDIENS : Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Cédric Carrasso (Toulouse)

DÉFENSEURS : Eric Abidal (FC Barcelone/ESP), Gaël Clichy (Arsenal/ANG), Julien Escudé (FC Séville/ESP), Rod Fanni (Rennes), William Gallas (Arsenal/ANG), Philippe Mexès (AS Roma/ITA), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal/ANG), Sébastien Squillaci (FC Séville/ESP).

MILIEUX DE TERRAIN : Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid/ESP), Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon), Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Samir Nasri (Arsenal/ANG), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich/ALL).

ATTAQUANTS : Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea/ANG), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Thierry Henry (Barcelone/ESP).

At first pass I like this list...primarily because no Boumsong! Thank goodness. But I know what will happen, one of the defenders will bow out because of injury and Domenech will decide call up the Lyon defender as a replacement and then will play him the full 90 minutes. Ugh.

The Good:

• No Boumsong.
• Carrasso is the only fresh face on the team, but a deserved call up. He has been playing very well for French side TFC. Having looked at Pele from LeMans during the last go around, I will give Domenech credit for using these opportunities to look at different keepers. He clearly will give the keys to the team to either Lloris or Mandanda, but is covering all his bases. As he demonstrated during the Euros, he is not afraid to use the third keeper slot on an up and coming talent.
• Strength at central defense while that is usually not something I will say is the case for Les Bleus recently, having Gallas, Mexes, Squillaci and Escude all together is good. Why? I see the natural pairings of Gallas and Mexes, Squillaci and Escude (both at seville now). Hopefully Domenech will have enough time during the training sessions to see if these two pairings work well. Again no Boumsong makes this a possibility.
• I like the fact Nasri is back in the fold. He has been playing well for the Gunners and deserves the chance to make a case for him to be on one of the wings for Les Bleus.

The Bad:

• No Savidan, while this is not completely unexpected, after his first appearance for Les Bleus you would think he deserved another look. I am not sure that Briand is a better option up front.
• No Vieira, this is not really bad, since Pat has just started training again with Inter. What might be bad is that we may never see Pat again playing for Les Bleus.
• Abidal, I am not sure where he will slot for the team. I have lost faith in his ability to play central defense let alone on the flanks of the defense. I realize that with Clichy, Fanni and Sagna, Domenech goes 2 deep for both the left and right side of the defense. However since this is a friendly and in a pinch he can slot Diarra on the right or left of the defense why not take this as a chance to look at another defender, maybe Adil Rami from Lille.
  

The Ugly:

• Surprisingly I do not see any real ugliness with this selection. Of course this will change if anyone drops out and Domenech decides to call up his binky - Boumsong.

Overall there are no real surprises on this roster. I think the team will have a very familiar feel, with a 4-2-3-1 formation -

Keeper: Mandanda (or Lloris) - both are solid, neither has solidified his role as #1.
Defenders: Clichy, Gallas, Mexes, Sagna - I think it makes sense to play 3/4 of the Arsenal defense. It will be important to see if Mexes and Gallas can work together in the middle.
Holding midfielders: LDiarra, Toulalan - this should be the holding duo for the next few years for Les Bleus. ADiarra, Flamini and eventually Blaise Matuidi will be capable second in commands.
Attacking midfielders: Nasri, Gourcuff, Ribery - I would like to see these three on the pitch together, althought I can also see Henry slot back on the left wing.
Striker: Benzema - This might be a tough call, Anelka could easily slot in this spot or Henry, depending on whether or not Titi will slot back to the left side. However I think that the young french star should be given the chance to lead the attack.

This will be a very difficult game, Argentina is bringing their big guns - Messi, Tevez, Aguero, Gago, Mascherano, Zanetti to name a few. The test for Les Bleus will be how will the defense hold up against the dangerous Argentine attack. This will start with Toulalan and Diarra, if they can hold the midfield and slow down the attacks through the midfield the back 4, which is shaky, will have less pressure. I also think this will hinge on how well Gourcuff can hold the ball up front and control the tempo of the game, I am sure he will be matched up against a Mascherano, this will be a stern test for the young Girodin.

I think this is a good test for both sides. Unfortunately for Les Bleus I still think there are too many questions of the defense. Facing such South American fire power will see a similar result as last time they faced off - Argentina 2 France 1 - Messi and Tevez for Argentina, Nasri for France.

Titi to leave Barca?

The latest out of Barca is that they Catalan giants will look to move Titi Henry in the off season, possibly to make room for another frenchie - Gourcuff or Ribery. This would be a surprising move for Barca, since Henry has settled in nicely on the left flank of the Barca attack.

http://www.sport24.com/football/transferts/actualites/henry-sacrifie-236659/

Going after "Kaiser" Ribery would make sense, since he is a natural winger and would slot in nicely on the wing, shouldering Xavi and Iniesta. Ribery would be allowed to roam one of the wings with Messi on the opposite wing. That move would make sense. The move for Gourcuff would make no sense to me. First I think Gourcuff needs to stay at Bordeaux, regardless of who comes calling. Second, his role would be redundant based on the presence of Xavi and Iniesta. Finally, if the rumors are true, that Barca might also go after Cesc, Gourcuff would fall even further down the pecking order.

Big names in football will always be linked to the big clubs like Barca, but sometimes just because the name resonates does not mean the player will fit. I think that Barca should keep Henry, and if they are to seriously pursue anyone look to Cesc. He would slot in nicely in support of his Spanish midfield companions.

Sagnol retires...merci

Willy Sagnol has announced his retirement from professional football, for the most part this was not by his choice. A nagging injury has caused the Bayern man to leave the scene. A converted winger, Sagnol always gave Les Bleus an extra element when he would come up the right wing supporting the offense. I also think during France's run in 2006 in the Germany World Cup, he was the best crosser of the ball France had. He almost got the assist when his cross to Zidane forced a terrific save from Buffon late in the finals.



Sagnol was an important part of France's success during that run. Unfortunately we might remember him more for staying longer with Les Bleus. During the 2008 European Cup, it was evident that Sagnol and the rest of the old guard could not keep up with speed from teams such as Holland. That should not be his legacy.

Sagnol was a solid international defender. You could always see the influence he carried over from his early days as a winger. He will be missed, but I think that his retirement will allow Domenech to move on, go with Sagna as France's right back.

Merci Willy