David Trezeguet Gets Second Chance at Euro 2008

March 24th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Trezeguet recall When you get left out of a 39 man squad, that’s a pretty clear message that you’re not wanted. So David Trezeguet had pretty much accepted that he wouldn’t be playing for France at Euro 2008 this summer. Maybe he made plans to rent a cottage somewhere with Raul and Alessandro Del Piero, where they could all watch the championships together and mumble about how they would have scored that with their eyes closed. Or maybe not.

But then Thierry Henry pulled out, and French golden boy Karim Benzema got himself injured during Lyon’s 4-2 win over PSG at the weekend. All of a sudden Trezeguet was back. Despite their personal differences, Raymond Domenech recalled the Juve striker and reignited his hopes of playing some football this summer.

So now the game against England has yet another reason to watch. First of all it’s France vs England. Then it’s Beckham’s 100th cap (more than likely.) It’s also the whole England team desparately trying to impress new boss Fabio Capello, and now it’s the second chance saloon for David Trezeguet. If it’s taken injuries to Henry and Benzema just to get Trezeguet into a 39 man squad, then the striker’s going to have to do something pretty special on Wednesday to win over Domenech. Whatever happens, it’ll be fun to watch him try.

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Comments

By los cojones | March 25th, 2008 at 4:49 am

trezegue plays alike a moron

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By Ian | March 25th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

It takes a bit more than a ‘moron’ to score 20 goals in Serie A. It’s amazing to me that half the French strikers had to be ill or injured for Trezeguet to get a call-up, when he’s been so brilliant at Juve this season. Not to mention a record of a goal every two matches for France, including the golden goal against Italy at Euro 2000. He’s got the experience and the form, and leaving him off of this squad would have been a decision based on personality, nothing more. It shouldn’t take Henry and Benzema coming up lame for him to be called up.

By Inara | March 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Trezeguet is a good player, and I think he might still be in the group for the Euros. But the reason Domenech hasn’t called him up recently is for two reasons: Trezeguet refuses to play on the A’ squad, and he doesn’t perform well with the current crop of NT players or with Domenech’s tactics.

As to the first, Domenech’s creation of the A’ squad was in response to the fact that he has so many talented players that he can’t accommodate, and he wants to be able to observe and experiment with different players without hurting France’s chances in important games. So it doesn’t make sense for Domenech to put four world class strikers on the A team for qualifiers and friendlies. But Trezeguet refuses to play on the A’ squad (which is a bad attitude on his part), and who would you drop out of Henry, Anelka, and Benzema? Henry hasn’t been at his greatest, but he’s still France’s all time leading scorer and was responsible for some very important goals in qualifying. Anelka is resurrecting his career for the EDF and works well with all the players. As for Benzema…well, he’s France’s future – right now.

About the second, Domenech did call him up several times last year, but no matter who he was partnered with, it was apparently that it’s difficult to accommodate a goal poacher in a team that requires its strikers to contribute creativity. Henry, Benzema, and Anelka are good at tracking back and starting offensive movements. They don’t just hang around in the not-quite-offside position and wait for a strategic pass. Not that I’m trying to downplay Trezeguet’s talents – he has an eye for the goal, and he’ll score when he gets the service he needs. But France right now can’t provide that service.

What people don’t get about Domenech is that this isn’t a vendetta. He doesn’t care about anything except how his team performs. He’s not out to make friends with his players, and he isn’t above recalling someone he’s previously snubbed. For example, Anelka, Coupet, and most recently Mexes have bad mouthed Domenecb publicly, and he’s not holding it against them. But Trezeguet just doesn’t fit in with his plans. And at the end of the day, you have to allow the coach to decide the tactics.

Let’s put it this way: If France doesn’t do well in Euros, what are people going to say? That they failed because they only had Henry, Benzema, Anelka, Ribery, and Cisse?

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