Romania vs. France
I keep hearing that the Romanians are dark horse possible favorites to get through the quarter finals. They face one of the other tournament favorites, France today.
posted by gooner71 @ 7:25 AM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Monday, June 09, 2008
I keep hearing that the Romanians are dark horse possible favorites to get through the quarter finals. They face one of the other tournament favorites, France today.
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
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39 Comments:
As Andy Gray has just said, this is what we've all been waiting for. There have been few surprises so far with the obvious favorites getting off to comfortable starts. Bring on the Group of Death!
Here are the sides for today:
France:
23. Gregory Coupet
19. Willy Sagnol
15. Lilian Thuram
5. William Gallas
3. Eric Abidal
22. Franck Ribery
20. Jeremy Toulalan
6. Claude Makelele
7. Florent Malouda
8. Nicolas Anelka
9. Karim Benzema
Romania:
1. Bogdan Lobont
2. Cosmin Contra
4. Gabriel Sebastian Tamas
15. Dorin Goian
3. Razvan Rat
11. Razvan Cocis
6. Mirel Matei Radoi
5. Cristian Chivu
16. Banel Nicolita
21. Daniel Niculae
10. Adrian Mutu
Raymond Domenech has elected to start with Benzema and Anelka up front, with Ribery just behind them. That means no room for TH-14. Henry was the best player in the world before his move from Arsenal. Not anymore, apparently.
I'm really looking foward to seeing Karim Benzema today. There are loads of teams in for him this summer and I'd like to see him rip it up.
Romania have plenty of quality in their side too and had a super qualifying campaign, so you can't count them out.
The French side have five players over thirty and several pundits have mentioned that this is an aging tournament, heavy on experience. We'll see if that has an impact later.
A very cagey opening so far, as to be expected from this kind of match. It's been mostly French pressure, though, with the Romanians playing deep and defending heartily.
Anelka seems to be in the mood today, swinging both left and right and running on to long balls the way that he used to at Highbury.
First sight of Benzema, who's been playing very deep. He jinks inside and launches a long shot that was always rising.
Breaking news from the French squad - Patrick Vieira has been ruled fit to continue in the squad and Matthieu Flamini has been cut. That decision might come to bite the French in the bum.
It feels as if it's going to take a French goal to open this match up. The Romanians definitely seem to set up to defend as a tight unit and to launch long balls to Mutu in the hopes of a smash and grab act.
First activity for the Romanian keeper Lobont, who races sharply out of his goal to deny Malouda.
Tommy Smyth is having a real go at Franck Ribery. It's true that the Bayern man hasn't really got going yet, but he's had some tidy touches on the ball and it's only twenty minutes in. I'm more disappointed at how the French have set up with Anelka the lone man, Benzema behind him rather than a strike partner and Malouda and Ribery wide left and right.
I'm sick to death of Claude Makalele, one of the most negative players in world football. I'll be glad to see the back of him after he retires from international football after this tournament.
A ridiculously deliberate handball by Daniel Nicolae earns him the first yellow card of the match.
Raymond Domenech doesn't look very happy. He looks a bit like a Gallic Woody Allen.
Benzema makes a nice run from deep and earns a dangerous free kick....
Malouda takes and strikes it dismally into the wall.
Best chance of the match so far. The ball comes over from Ribery and it bounces up in front of Anelka who just can't keep his header down. He should have worked the keeper at least on that one but it was slightly awkward.
We haven't seen much of Romanian playmaker Christian Chivu yet. They've been very tentative so far.
Ribery turns a ball inside to Benzema but he didn't quite get any purchase on it. Disappointing.
Two quick Romanian yellow cards in the past five minutes for Contra and Goian. They may rue those later in this match or at the end of the group stage.
For once, I agree with Tommy Smyth: there's been far too much "digging in the midfield" from the French. They've set up with both Makalele and Toulanlan as defensive cover midfielders and it's robbed them of a bit of creativity. Still, they really should have the quality up front to do the job in the end. I reckon that Florent Malouda is a bit of a waster.
Half time: Disappointing. The Romanians have clearly come to frustrate the French and Domenech has set up too cautiously. I'd love to see Benzema pushed up front and one of the defensive midfielders withdrawn in favor of Ben Arfa or Henry.
Funny moment in the half-time coverage. The pinhead host was profiling the goalkeeper battle in the upcoming Italy-Holland match and Andy Gray chipped in with, "I hope that they don't have great games. We need some goals in this tournament."
He's absolutely right. It's been the most low scoring tournament that I can remember since the 1990 World Cup with teams setting up very conservatively and not enough quality up front.
Second half starting and it doesn't seem if there's been any change made to either side.
The Romanians will probably continue to play it tight, but I wonder about that tactic. Obviously nicking a goal and hanging on would be a terrific result for them as four points will certainly be enough to get out of this group. But a draw? That would leave them needing to beat either Italy or the Netherlands - I can't see it.
That was odd. Mutu won a free kick wide left about forty yards out and he elected to take the free kick himself rather than jogging forward into the area to compete for it. Of course, his cross floats aimlessly over Nicolita's head and out for a goal kick.
There are good signs here that Ribery has drifted inside. He's creating more chances now and should have picked up a free kick on the edge of the box there.
Then he feeds Malouda who elects to shoot from a narrow angle toward the near post - always a low percentage option.
Mutu again runs at Sagnol and the Frenchmen chops him down at the left corner of the box. Yellow card for Sagnol and now Romania will set up for the free kick...
Mutu takes and curls it straight into the top of the wall.
The pace of the game has picked up with Romania having a go at winning this match. We could be set for a grandstand finish if they can nick a goal.
The best move of the match. Toulanlan spreads wide right to Ribery, who crosses perfectly for Benzema at the top of the box. But when you expect a sharp shot, Benzema tamely sidefoots into the goalkeeper's arms.
Sixty minutes in and surely it's TH-14 time. I know that he picked up a slight knock in training but they really need some quality up front.
Now the commentators are forgiving the players because of the length of the season. I think that's a fair point but I think the tentative nature of the match reflects tactics rather than fatigue.
The Romanians disappointingly make a defensive change. For the first five minutes of the half it looked as if they had the proverbial bit between the teeth but now they've settled into defensive posture again and are going for the point.
Makalele has gone down with a problem and let's hope he's been crippled.
Seventy five minutes in and this has really turned into a dismal affair. The crowd is starting to turn on the players, whistling and booing sporadically. Tommy Smyth has just said that this is a very "tactical" game: read boring.
Nicolae outwits Makalele and picks up a dangerous free kick...
Chivu shoots high, wide and....yes, horribly off target.
Both sides are ominously withdrawing their main strikers now. Mutu has gone off for another Nicolae.
And it's the end of a dispiriting match for Karim Benzema. He's replaced by new Arsenal boy Sarim Nasri. It'll be interesting to take a look at him for a few minutes.
Ten minutes left....
This kind of reminds me of the way that the French started out the last World Cup campaign. They only really started to perform in the later stages and of course made it all the way to the final.
Full-time: 0-0. The worst match of the tournament so far with both sides trying desperately not to lose and in the consequence not doing enough to win. There were plenty of players (Mutu, Benzema, Ribery) who came into this tournament with lots of hype but they did little to live up to that today.
No question about that. This was really, really poor.
The Romanians can be praised for being a tight defensive unit and for having the best player name -- I give you Razdan Rat! -- but they are woeful up front. I'm not surprised that Mutu was a bit quiet with that 9.5million pound judgment against him. If only he'd kept some of that coke to sell, eh? But Nicolae especially struck me as perhaps the most inept forward I've seen in a proper competition. He'd be booed at Dagenham he's such a tool.
But the French have problems and the biggest is Domenech. I don't care what stars or goat entrails you're consulting, who needs to be told that Evra is better than Sagnol or Abidal? Who doesn't know that Makalele and Toulalan are the same player, just one old and better, and the other younger and not as good? Surely Flamini was the right choice.
Benzema didn't look interested enough to interest me much. Nasri was really lightweight when he arrived. Sticking Nik up by himself wins you nothing, and on and on and on.
Did you notice that Domenech had switched jackets with the bellhop at the French team hotel? I think that he should stick to heaving bags and riding elevators, the dolt.
There's a real chance that France doesn't progress on this kind of form.
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