France 2 Serbia 1 — World Cup qualifier

Encouraging play earns relieves pressure on Domenech

Greetings from Munich!

Just a quick post as I’m on limited internet time…

Well it wasn’t the crushing win we were hoping for, but it was apparently very encouraging.

Domenech replaced Mexes with–gulp–Abidal, yet there was thankfully no repeat of his Italy performance. It would have been a huge confidence boost for him. Clichy also came in for Evra and had some dynamite runs down the flank. Perhaps most importantly though, Doms handed the young Gourcuff (Bordeaux) his first start in place of Nasri and he looked every bit the playmaker we’ve desperately needed, pulling the strings and going for goal (he hit the crossbar in the 72nd minute).

Both goals came in the second half, the first by Henry off a Govou pass and the second by Anelka, after Gourcuff had done the work. Anelka had come on at halftime for Benzema.

We annoyingly allowed another set piece goal as the Serbs pulled one back–and it wasn’t the only time in the game we looked weak on set pieces. But, our overall play should give us some good hope going into the Romania game, who themselves had trouble beating the Faroes 1-0.

In other games, Lithuania took the group lead by beating Austria 2-0.

–Stéphane F.

Austria 3 France 1 World Cup qualifier

France suffer humiliating defeat in Vienna

Sigh. Hello fellow sufferers. Sorry about not venting any sooner, but I just couldn’t get myself to put this post together…and with JP off getting burnt in Greece for the week, I’m afraid the blog got neglected!!!

I won’t dwell too much on the game, as you’ll have surely read some reports about it already. To be honest I’m finding it a bit hard to completely fault Domenech for this performance. I mean, if you have seen the goals, you’ll have seen our defense doing some incredibly basic errors, that cannot be attributed to the coach. What Mexes and Gallas are doing on those first two goals, i have no idea. Why are they backpedaling, instead of trying to meet the cross? In both instances, Mexes/Gallas end up between Mandanda and the goal scorer. What is that about? That is basic defending stuff. I can’t really blame Steve either because his defenders are so far back, so close to him, that he can’t push out.

And the penalty Mexes gave away, that’s just inexcusable really. You do see that kind of thing ignored a lot of the time. And in fact the french commentators had this exchange after it was awarded: “How can he [Mexes] expect to get away with that?”, “because he has done all game”. But why Mexes, a very good defender, felt the need to rugby tackle a player of a much lesser skill level, I have no idea.

We did have a nice passage of play before/after Govou’s goal (who’s really been playing well lately and finishing at a high level), but that’s obviously not enough. Why we struggled to score against a team like Austria, I don’t know. We can’t blame Malouda…he’d been banshed to the stands by Doms for his comments earlier in the week. Offensively, those were the players we wanted in there (well Ribéry aside of course). It was clear that we desperately need a playmaker like Ribs. Yet he’s not really that kind of player. He slashes, yes, and creates opportunities, but he’s not a central midfielder who is going to pull the strings.

I will criticize Doms and say that we must stop playing with two defensive midfielders. This is insane to have Toulalan and Diarra chilling out in the back. Diarra has had 2 games now and hasn’t really impressed, so it’s time to give someone else a chance. Flamini? Maybe. More importantly we need someone who is going to be allowed to push forward. Doms can hide behind the fact that we were playing away and so maybe there’s a need to play more conservatively, but on Wednesday, there’s nowhere to hide…at home to Serbia, we must win and look good doing it. I’m talking about 2-0 or 3-1. Anything else and this black cloud will still be heavy upon us.

Still it’s not all bad. Romania somehow lost 3-0, at home to Lithuania. Serbia had England-style trouble in defeating the Faroe Islands. And we know the Austrians are going to be hard pressed in keeping this up. So we have a lot of games left, but we need to shake things up. This is pretty much the last gasp for Doms–and my trust in him. We should be cruising through this group with the talent we have. Hopefully the Austria game will be a wake-up call (as if we needed another one!) for the players to show them that just because we’re playing more “attacking” football, that doesn’t mean we’re going to waltz this group. Players still need to be personally accountable and maintain 100% concentration…especially on these damn set-pieces!

I won’t be able to report on the Serbia game, as I’m in Germany from tomorrow till Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy reading L’Equipe Thursday morning. Allez Les Bleus!

–Stéphane F.