[Nico]

Well, I hear about the matches they do ( as a team or individually, in their own regional teams ) coz I have friends who follow it, and  everybody has seen how "well" they fared in Japan, right?
Anyway, I don't understand why you'd defend them

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Nico
Well, I hear about the matches they do ( as a team or individually, in their own regional teams ) coz I have friends who follow it, and  everybody has seen how "well" they fared in Japan, right?
Anyway, I don't understand why you'd defend them

Because a) you have the luxury of having a top-notch football team representing your country, but you don't appreciate - I'm a Scot, and we get nothing but babbling pish from Berti Vogts, coupled with nowt but abject humiliation.  You should appreciate what you have, and revel in it when you can.

and b) because it's not fair to criticise players - or any person - if you have no basis for it, and if the criticism is bollocks.  I've seen most of the French team regularly playing on the telly for their club, and France still has one of the best groups of players in the world.  Not only that, the likes of Henry and Zidane are fantastic, exciting players to watch, and everyone likes to see fantastic players.

Oh, and Japan was 2 years ago.  Spain, Portugal, Italy and Argentina has woeful tournaments too.... it's possibly this (i.e. the exhaustion of players playing too many games a season) that led to the champions league having the 2nd group stage removed.

[karajorma]

Maybe but that still doesn't explain why they let Zidane hobble out onto the pitch for their final game.

 If they were capable of such a big mistake it's not a strech to believe that they also mistakenly thought that Senegal was a pissant little team that they could beat any day of the week and didn't bother to prepare properly for them.

[Nico]

Originally posted by aldo_14


Because a) you have the luxury of having a top-notch football team representing your country, but you don't appreciate - I'm a Scot, and we get nothing but babbling pish from Berti Vogts, coupled with nowt but abject humiliation.  You should appreciate what you have, and revel in it when you can.

and b) because it's not fair to criticise players - or any person - if you have no basis for it, and if the criticism is bollocks.  I've seen most of the French team regularly playing on the telly for their club, and France still has one of the best groups of players in the world.  Not only that, the likes of Henry and Zidane are fantastic, exciting players to watch, and everyone likes to see fantastic players.

Oh, and Japan was 2 years ago.  Spain, Portugal, Italy and Argentina has woeful tournaments too.... it's possibly this (i.e. the exhaustion of players playing too many games a season) that led to the champions league having the 2nd group stage removed.

ok, Japan was two years ago, but then again, France was four years ago. And when you'll see your football players doing TV ads for champoo or macDonald ( no joke, Bartez for MacDo ) -I'll spare you the sportwear brands-, you'll understand what I mean.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by karajorma
Maybe but that still doesn't explain why they let Zidane hobble out onto the pitch for their final game.

 If they were capable of such a big mistake it's not a strech to believe that they also mistakenly thought that Senegal was a pissant little team that they could beat any day of the week and didn't bother to prepare properly for them.

Everyone thought Senegal would be whipping boys, so lets not take it away from them...... France missed Zidane big-time, though.  He and Pires were (are) basically the creative heart of the team, it's a bloody big gap to try and fill - and they couldn't.

but you don;t go from being World & european champions to a nobody team overnight - if anything, France are more dangerous thanks to the 2002 debacle.  Not to mention that Boumsong (fingers crossed) lad is top-notch.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Everyone thought Senegal would be whipping boys, so lets not take it away from them......

Fair enough but considering that almost half of the sengalise team played in France they really should have been better prepared

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by karajorma


Fair enough but considering that almost half of the sengalise team played in France they really should have been better prepared

True, but look at how crap Diouf turned out to be for Liverpool.........maybe it's a classic better for country than club thing, ala Roque Junior

[karajorma]

True