France 0 – 0 Uruguay

Repeat of World Cup 2002 as France and Uruguay share dull draw.

Yep, once again we drew with Uruguay in what was an unsatisfying and rather ill-tempered game at the Stade de France.

It was a frustrating first half, as expected, with the Uruguayans showing very little attacking intent and defending very aggressively. I always find it baffling when I watch them play and think to myself what are they doing? Is it some training ground exercise – show as little attacking intent as possible, don’t try to keep the ball and just tackle and hustle the crap out of your opposition! What on earth does that accomplish?

The play was choppy with the Uruguayans constantly breaking the game down and stopping France from getting any momentum. Still, France were very slick and very active and showed a lot of positive intent and as a result got themselves in many good positions but unfortunately couldn’t make the most of moments.

France v Uruguay — Friendly Preview

Uruguay comes to town to face an ever-rebuilding France

Ho-hum here come the Uruguyans for some fun.

Uruguay?

That’s right, in the midst of a tougher than expected European World Cup Qualyfing campaign (or was it expected?), where we’re having trouble dealing with teams from our own continent, we’ve invited some South Americans over. Oh, Argentina? No, that’s next February. Brazil? Nope. We’ve asked one of the more anti-flowing South Americans teams (if that’s even possible!) to come and stockpile their half of the pitch, to lunge in with late tackles and generally try and avoid having too much fun.

Oh, oh, but i forget, as ol Doms points out, “they are a unique side [clearly] and can present a tough challenge in the World Cup”.

Ahem, World Cup? How about we first figure out how to handle teams that are supposedly beneath us (Austria are 80 ranking spots below us, according to Mr. Blatter), and then we’ll worry about those “unique” sides.

But, I suppose that’s too negative from me so let’s move on–wait, aren’t there other European teams who have friendly dates tomorrow? England play Germany, why can’t we play a high quality opponent? This whole arrangement with Uruguay smacks of “well all your [Uruguay] players are based in Europe so why don’t we do you a favour…we left it too late anyway”.

OK, back to the actual game. Couple of injuries have thinned are squad…Sagna, L. Diarra and Escudé are all out. While Doms has brought in BoumBoum for “support” (i thought i said our squad was already thinned??) he has not replaced Sagna. So the only right back by left is Fanni, making him poised to earn his 2nd cap–and 2nd start in a row! The Rennes man was brilliant the last time out and he has a real shot at cementing himself as Sagna’s backup, especially with the news coming out that Sagnol will call his international career if he doesn’t recover from his current injury (and even he does, apparently). Add to that Francois Clerc’s long term injury, and Fanni has a real chance here.

The big surprise though is the inclusion of the 30 year old Caen striker Steve Savidan. A career lower league journeyman, Savidan helped Valenciennes gain several promotions to LIgue 1 and impressed enough to be transferred to Caen, where he already has 7 goals this season. Doms is keen to see if “he can raise his game another level”. It’s an odd choice, we have younger strikers who weren’t picked, like Sinama-Pongolle, as well as some who have been (Briand) but who’ve never been given a real shot. And now here’s Savidan. And he could play too (why pick him if he won’t play?). At today’s press conference at Clairefontaine, Doms, answered that thought with “nothing’s impossible”. Although he also mentioned that when asked about the apparent synchronicity between Savidan and Ribéry, “yes, both players could be on the pitch together–or on the bench!”.

Vieira is back in the squad, and barring any last minutes setbacks I expect him to play.

There are questions in central defense…who will pair with Gallas? Will Mexes be given another chance? Probably. Although Silvestre has sneaked into the squad…

There’s also some debate at goalkeeper. Mandanda was virtually handed the #1 shirt after the summer, but hasn’t convincing of late, while Hugo Lloris has been in impeccable form for Lyon. A change there, albeit possibly temporary, would be no surprise.

Malouda and Ben Arfa were left out of the attack, but Doms did not seem too concerned as he dished the proverbial “not everyone can always be picked, their time will come again”. He even went so far as to say that Ben Arfa would be in for the Argentina game since it’s taking place in Marseille.

Nasri gets the nod off the back of his impressive game vs Manchester United and Gourcuff seems like he’s already undroppable.

The rest of the attack isn’t a surprise, it will just be a question of who starts…

Score prediction: 3-1

Full squad:

Keepers: Mandanda, Lloris, Pelé
Defenders: Clichy, Escudé, Gallas, Mexès, Evra, Fanni, Sagna, Silvestre, Boumsong
Midfielders: A Diarra, L. Diarra, Gourcuff, Nasri, Toulalan, Vieira
Forwards: Anelka, Henry, Benzema, Briand, Ribéry, Savidan