Deutschland 2006: Which France Will Show Up?
May 17th, 2006 by Emmett WilliamsFrench coach Raymond Domanech continued the trend of shocking 2006 squad announcements on Monday by calling up Jean Alain Boumsoung and winger Franck Ribery while not naming Arsenal’s Robert Pires and Fenerbahce’s Nicolas Anelka.
Boumsong is familiar to Premiership watchers as he has been given the blame (along with Titus Bramble) for much of Newcastle’s recent defensive woes and is likely to be sold during the close season. Ribery is a shock because though he is an exciting and talented young player, he’s yet to feature for the national team and he’s on the roster while Barcelona’s Ludovic Giuly has been left off. The reason may be that Dommanech wants a team made of players who can play a variety of positions and Ribery is able to play any of the midfield positions.
There’s no way to guess which French team will show up. The vision of Thierry Henry, and the pace and late season form of both Djibril Cisse and Louis Saha could make France the most exciting team to watch, excluding Brazil. But the age of Zinedine Zidane plus the defensive mindedness of the best French midfielders Claude Makelele, Alou Diarra, and Patrick Vieria could make for a team holding out for 1-0 wins. And did I mention that Jean-Alain Boumsong is in the squad?
Luckily for France, their group is winnable to the point where Domanech could have the luxury of using the matches to find out which formation and lineup will work best in future rounds. The French should comfortably get past South Korea (as they are not playing in Korea this time and Guus Hiddink is off to Australia), Switzerland (lucky to make it to the Finals), and Togo (just happy to be in Germany).
In the Round of 16, France should meet Tunisia, sending another African team home. The quarterfinals could see France meet an Italian team that may not be beaten this summer, and I think Les Bleus would hold their heads up high going out to the Azzuri at this late stage after the humiliation they faced four years ago.
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May 17th, 2006 at 10:24 am
I beg to differ on a couple of points.
First of all, Switzerland were everything but lucky to finish second in their qualying group. They were on a par with France and Ireland. Admittedly, all three were abysmal but Switzerland certainly deserved to finish above France, particularly after dominating the tie in Zurich.
They also beat Turkey fair and square. Despite the incredible amount of pressure the Turks tried to put on them in the return leg, they managed to survive in one of the most hostile atmosphere imaginable in a football stadium. The fact that they didn’t just give up and let the Turks have their way is a credit to them.
They might be technically poor and not exactly pretty to watch but, for all their big name players, France have proved unable to match them, not once but twice.
I’m also surprised to read that France should meet Tunisia in the second round. Tunisia are a decent side and have a chance of reaching the last 16 but both Spain and the Ukraine appear to have the players to defeat Lemerre’s team. They are by no means assured of a second place finish and I suspect that the French staff are more worried about Shevchenko than Jaziri at the moment.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Watching the Turkey v Switzerland match, I thought that Turkey lost the match as opposed to being outplayed by the Swiss. Switzerland looked very poor throughout and if the Turks had been able to keep themselves together they would have won….i don’t think Switzerland won’t be so lucky in Germany.
And while the Ukraine did play exceptionally well in qualifying getting past Denmark and Turkey, they really are a one man team. And i can’t see Africa not having one team not go through to the Round of 16…and Tunisia are better than people think.
But your points are valid. Thanks for writing…keep it up…..e
May 19th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Tunisia are definitely a lot better than what most people think. Unfortunately, they are a bit lacking in the talent department but Lemerre has turned them into a well-organised team and, if nothing else, they’re now a tough nut to break.
However, I believe the Ukraine have more to their game than Shevchenko. Voronin is a good player and Milevsky is very promising. It will also be interesting for Spurs fans to see if Rebrov can recapture his old form if he plays alongside Shevchenko. Their partnership was one of the strongest in Europe not so long ago.
As for Switzerland, they were indeed very poor in Turkey but they’d been outstanding three days earlier in front of their own fans. I’m not a big fan of theirs and they picked up some shocking results along the way (including an abysmal performance at home against Cyprus) but they could upset France this time around two.
In any case, both teams are very similar: they struggle to create anything when the opposition play with 10 men behind the ball. Maybe Zidane’s return will be enough to give France the upper hand against Togo and South Korea, while the Swiss are likely to drop points against one of those.
Having said that, nobody expected France to struggle the way they did against Uruguay, Senegal and Denmark…