Dammit, Mexes! Pay attention.
On Friday, Les Bleus will face off against Belarus in Group D qualifying for Euro 2012 in what is also Laurent Blanc’s first competitive match as the national team coach.
After “punishing” the WC 2010 players by leaving them uncapped for last month’s friendly against Norway, Lolo decided that he actually needed some players with experience for this qualification campaign.
Unfortunately for him, things haven’t started off very smoothly. After anticipating the loss of a partially-fit Lass Diarra by bringing in Yohan Cabaye and Anthony Reveillere, he is now faced with fitness questions for Cabaye and Karim Benzema, leading to a provisional call-up for Blaise Matuidi.
This makes the squad for the first two qualifiers (Les Bleus play against Bosnia-Herzegovina on September 7th):
Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris* (Olympique Lyonnais), Steve Mandanda* (Olympique de Marseille), Cédric Carrasso* (FC Girondins de Bordeaux)
Defenders: Bacary Sagna* (Arsenal FC), Adil Rami (LOSC Lille Métropole), Philippe Mexès (AS Roma), Mamadou Sakho (Paris-Saint-Germain FC), Benoît Trémoulinas (FC Girondins de Bordeaux), Gaël Clichy* (Arsenal FC), Anthony Réveillère* (Olympique Lyonnais)
Midfielders: Mathieu Valbuena* (Olympique de Marseille), Jérémy Ménez (AS Roma), Alou Diarra* (FC Girondins de Bordeaux), Yann M’Vila (Stade Rennais FC), Abou Diaby* (Arsenal FC), Florent Malouda* (Chelsea FC), Yohan Cabaye (LOSC Lille Métropole), Blaise Matuidi (AS Saint-Etienne)
Forwards: Kévin Gameiro (FC Lorient), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid CF), Loïc Rémy (Olympique de Marseille), Louis Saha (Everton), Guillaume Hoarau (Paris-Saint-Germain FC)
Overall, that means that 10 players from the disastrous World Cup 2010 campaign (those marked here with an asterisk) have been called back to fulfill their international duties, while Franck Ribéry is unavailable due to suspension and André-Pierre Gignac and Djibril Cissé were left off due to injury concerns. In the end, then, it is possible that 13 of the 21 WC 2010 malcontents will find their way back to Les Bleus.
So it seems that Laurent Blanc’s threats of a “blank slate” approach will be fairly toothless when all is said and done. If he’s really serious about putting forth a team that plays with pride for their country, perhaps he should bring back Zizou and Barthez.
Hey, NYK. I had my ipod on shuffle this morning and La Marseillais came on. (Long story why that’s on my ipod.)
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I immediately thought of you for some reason. Then I pulled over to the side of the road and surrendered my car.
bastard!
But at least you recognize the fact that it’s the greatest national anthem in the world (which is presumably why it’s on your ipod)
Let’s not jump to conclusions. Maybe he just needed some good surrenderin’ theme music.
No Gourcuff? Wouldn’t that make 14?
Well, technically LeBlanc DID bring back Zizou:
http://bit.ly/c2I0vU
Greatest National Anthem: Uruguay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB5EIVxZXa4
Sounds like a Sousa b-side
@berg – ah, yes. Gourcuff would make it 14, although Cisse is old enough that he might not play in Euro 2012, so that would make it 13 again. In other words, never mind my mistake. Ignore the man behind the curtain.
What curtain?
You mentioned Cisse, so I wiki’d him to see how old he was, and found out that since 2005 he has been “Lord of the Manor of Frodsham”.
Good for him.
@ JT: You are correct, Uruguay is a wonderful anthem
@ NYK: That midfield looks shaky, no? And, I’ll go ahead and get it out of the way before having to say it Friday: Curse you Mexes!
@ Ryan: He is also High Mayor of the Shire. After Frodo left and Samwise Gamgee retired, of course.
@OM – I’m comfortable with Diaby, Diarra and Malouda in there. At this point I assume that Valbuena (who, apropos of conversation about the Shire, is truly hobbit-sized) will also start, although I would prefer Matuidi.
@ NYK: Valbuena is the main one I was referencing re: shakiness, but I’m curious to see if Malouda can carry his club form to this match and under a new program w/Blanc.
Oh, and who gets the armband in this one?
@OM
Lolo doesn’t trust anyone, he will wear it on his own arm on the sidelines.
@ TNO: Or, he’ll give it to Anelka as a sign of reconciliation from the summer. Wait, what’s that–how many games? Clowns.
@OM – yeah, Valbuena definitely isn’t the answer. As for the armband, I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to Diarra or Malouda, although there are vague rumours of Sagna
how come we have no forwards?