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5 6 Things We Learned in SwissAustria, June 17

June 17th, 2008 | By: Laurie | 13 Comments »

1. It just wasn’t in the stars for France.
When your best player is stretchered off the field in the ninth minute, and you then go down to ten men in the twenty-third AND go down by a penalty, the stars are clearly aligned against you. One would think that coach Raymond Domenech, a follower of astrology, would have seen this coming.

(And yes, congratulations to Italy. It takes a certain something to be able to come back after starting out with 3-0 drubbing, and they got the job done.)

2. Defense wins championships .. but not JUST defense
The most conservative teams in the tournament, Greece and Romania, both crashed out. Romania arguably out-Greeced the Greeks, running the defense-and-counter playbook far more effectively in securing two draws than Greece did in suffering two losses (and counting). But in the last round of the group stage, it’s essentially knockout football, and you don’t last long in knockout football without at least a goal per game.

3. The Dutch B side is stronger than many teams’ A sides.
Imagine going to your bench and seeing Arjen Robben, Klaus-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie. As impressive as the backup front three were for the Netherlands, the real story of the day may have been the swarming defensive efforts of reserve center backs Wilfred Bouma and John Heitinga. When the backup defense of HOLLAND can play like this, the opposition is in a lot of trouble. Maarten Stekelenburg wasn’t too bad in goal either, but he touched the ball all of about five times.

4. Bridging the age gap is a good thing to do before a tournament.
As France discovered at Euro 2008, when almost all of your best players are either over thirty and extremely experienced, or under twenty-five and extremely inexperienced, eventually you’re going to run into problems. Unfortunately that “eventually” hit them in the group stage of a major tournament.

5. Ruud Gullit doesn’t like the Italians. But he does like Julie Foudy.
The former Euro 1988 winner and current LA Galaxy coach had this to say about Group C as he lamented his Oranje’s failure to let Romania win, thus knocking out both the French and the Italians:

“The Italians…don’t need to play well to win a tournament.”

Ouch.

He then went out of his way to bring ESPN co-host Julie Foudy into the conversation so he could compliment her game knowledge. If he’d been a cartoon character, there would have been little hearts floating out of his eyes.

And finally, I couldn’t end my France tournament coverage without including one last thing:
6. Willy Sagnol and Lilian Thuram are class acts.
Daryl said hea read that both French players asked to be benched today after poor performances on Friday against the Dutch. If Ribery had stayed healthy and Abidal hadn’t gotten ejected, it might have worked to see France through. It’s sad to see your sacrifice in vain, guys. But many hugs for putting the team first.

Tags: Arjen Robben, Euro 2008 News, France, Group C, Italy, Klaus-Jan Huntelaar, Lilian Thuram, Netherlands, Raymond Domenech, Robin Van Persie, Romania, Willy Sagnol

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Comments

By Rob | June 17th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I think what Thuram and Sagnol did was pretty inexcusable. If teh coach thinks you are the best players you can’t throw a wobbler and not play, you gotta go out and give 105%, especially in a match of this magnitude. If i were French I’d be pretty annoyed at them myself.

Posted from United Kingdom

By gianfranco | June 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

Laurie, any word on Ribery?

Posted from United States

By Laurie | June 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Rob, I would agree with you if I thought they were the best on the team. But they weren’t. Sagnol is nowhere near the player he was before his knee injury, and Thuram can’t keep up with attackers anymore. I was hoping neither would play today, but I love them both and didn’t want to see them experience the pain of being dropped either. And sometimes Domenech has a hard time making the tough decisions with players who’ve been there for him in the past. That’s why I’m impressed with what they did.

Gianfranco, Ribery’s injury is being described as a “twisted knee” right now. What that means is anybody’s guess. With luck he’ll be good for WC qualifying, because we really need him.

Posted from United States

By Hana | June 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

Weird comment from Gullit, considering he was a Milan legend. Oh well, I suppose love for your club doesn’t necessarily translate into love for the national team.

I’m not sure what Domenech did to mess with the fates, but nothing was going right for Les Bleus, hard to bounce back when one of your best players is out at the 9th minute. Sad to see.

By k | June 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

it really does suck for france the game went down the way it did… but domenech only has himself to blame… france’s main problem seemed to have been their attack and their defence… and the 2 players left home could have very, very easily solved that problem… leaving a 20 goal season striker in trezeguet and a central defender as good as mexes at home was the downfall of france… it begs the question, would mexes have made the same mistake abidal did… instead of having a wingback fill in the central position he could have taken one of the best center backs all season in europe…

and when considering the lack of goals that they have had to deal with, a striker like trezeguet who just always seem to pop up at the right place at the right time would have been invaluable… a foolish, foolish decision by domenech…

By joejoejoe | June 17th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

It’s sad to see the end of the run for this group of French players. I think only Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera are left now from the ‘98 WC and ‘00 Euro champions and there is no guarantee either will be healthy or in form for the 2010 World Cup. France is a great fooball nation but “France” isn’t the same team we are all used to seeing. Zidane pulling a rabbit out of his hat to get France to the ‘06 WC finals probably clouded the judgement of Domenech when it came to the virtues of youth.

Posted from United States

By gianfranco | June 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Hana and K, I should have known your incite here to be just as valuable as it is at Milan. I have never met a guy more pigheaded than Domenech, his personal issues left guys like Trez and Mexes off the roster, and a team really missing valuable pieces…

It was a shame it wasnt a better a game, but I am relieved that its over in favor of Italy.

Posted from United States

By Kxevin | June 17th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

K summed it up perfectly. Abidal, for us over at Barcelona, has always crapped it up when forced to defend from a central position anywhere near the box. Fine winger, but just festering shite in the middle.

Benzema’s value keeps dropping with every match. He’s right to want to stay at Lyon and develop.

I just don’t get Domenech. His animus toward Trezeguet is unfathomable. Anelka over Trezeguet? I just don’t understand. Henry was pretty invisible, as well.

But really, as has already been stated, the match changed on two plays: Ribery’s injury and Abidal’s brain fart. Hell, concede the goal, or at least let Coupet try to earn his keep. To mug the guy in the box like that….I dunno.

Thuram I can forgive. He isn’t the man he once was and injured, he would have just been a pylon. Sagnol should have gutted it out, though. Wonder if this will be the tournament that gets Domenech fired? Here’s hoping.

Posted from United States

By Marco Pantanella | June 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

Thuram asked to be benched? That’s a new one Laurie… (and completely untrue).
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/20080615_114100_thuram-ne-se-l-explique-pas_Dev.html

By Marco Pantanella | June 17th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

http://www.europe1.fr/Sport/Euro-2008/Les-Bleus/Euro-2008-France-Thuram-veut-jouer-l-Italie/(gid)/143967

If you need another source…

By Laurie | June 17th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

Oh, fine, Marco. Just destroy my delusions about my boys being noble.

Posted from United States

By Marco Pantanella | June 18th, 2008 at 1:18 am

Hey I never said Thuram wasn’t a class act. I love the guy, one of the best defenders ever to play at Juve and in Serie A.

Just don’t base it on wrong assumptions.

By Jan | June 18th, 2008 at 2:37 am

We had a bbq last night, 4 French + me and 6 Italians. Everyone agreed that with Ribéry and Abidal the game could have gone differently.
What a shame for France, although we will finally get rid of Domenech, Deschamps as a coach would be great!

Posted from Italy