Posts Tagged ‘Didier Deschamps’
French football quotes of the year 2010
The World Cup
“As I’m an optimistic person, I’m going to say that I have a 100 per cent chance [of going to the World Cup].”
- Pride comes before a fall for Patrick Vieira
“I read the letter. I don’t think the players wrote it. It was typed out on a computer and there were no spelling mistakes.”
- French Football Federation general secretary Henri Monteil lets the world know exactly what he thinks about the intellect of the average footballer after reading the statement released by the France squad explaining their training boycott
“Go on Yoann, you’ll be alone on the pitch. Everyone will see you and you’ll be a media star.”
- What Franck Ribéry allegedly (emphasis on the allegedly) told Yoann Gourcuff on the France team bus after he threatened to break the training strike
“He sullied my name without trying to find out what happened. Lilian thinks he’s the new coach, the president of the federation and the president of the [French] Republic… Walking around with books on slavery in glasses and a hat does not turn you into Malcolm X.”
- Patrice Evra on Lilian Thuram, after the France 1998 stalwart called for him to be banned from the national side for life
“They’re real clowns, these people. I’m dying with laughter!”
- Nicolas Anelka pours scorn on the unprecedented 18-match international ban handed to him by the FFF
Foreigners
“You should see him in the changing room: he sings French rap. He’s even learnt the song the Bordeaux fans chant to wind me up: ‘Oh, Diawara, go fuck yourself/You have got no loyalty!’”
- Souleymane Diawara on Lucho González’s successful integration in the Marseille changing room
“The baguette. It’s amazing how good it is, the baguette.”
- Lyon’s Argentine attacking midfielder César Delgado, when asked what he would remember most fondly from his time in France
“Steve makes me laugh with his fake Marseille accent. A black guy from Normandy with a Marseille accent – it sounds wrong to be honest!”
- Guillaume Hoarau upbraids former Le Havre team-mate Steve Mandanda for his efforts to blend in at Marseille
“We don’t talk. We played one year at Arsenal without talking. There were other people who didn’t talk to him either. The collective cause was more important, though, and we got on with things.”
- Samir Nasri lifts the lid on his (non-)relationship with former Arsenal team-mate William Gallas
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Article: France rebuild after nightmare year
A version of this piece, a review of the year 2010 in French football, was written for Agence France-Presse and published on the AFP newswire on Wednesday, December 15.
France's World Cup squad, after deciding to boycott an open training session at Knysna, South Africa on June 20, 2010
Marseille ended a 17-year wait for major honours and Lyon reached the Champions League last four for the first time, but the World Cup debacle meant that 2010 was a black year for French football.
The controversial nature of their qualification ensured that France arrived at the World Cup as the most unpopular team in South Africa, and things went downhill from there. The fall-out from Thierry Henry’s handball in the play-off win over Ireland lingered long into the year, as Raymond Domenech struggled to find a winning formula for the team he had led to the final of the 2006 tournament.
Victory over Costa Rica in their first warm-up game raised hopes of a positive campaign, but an embarrassing 1-0 loss to China guaranteed that Les Bleus pitched up in South Africa with storm clouds already gathering.
France drew 0-0 with Uruguay in their Group A opener in Cape Town, before things began to really unravel in the second game with Mexico. A 2-0 defeat left Domenech’s side clinging to faint hopes of reaching the knockout phase, but the turning point of France’s tournament occurred in the changing room at half-time.
Striker Nicolas Anelka, reacting to Domenech’s criticisms of his positional play, let rip at his coach with a foul-mouthed tirade and was immediately substituted. That would have been an end to the matter, had the outburst not been leaked to French sports daily L‘Équipe, which led a subsequent edition with Anelka’s words – “Go fuck yourself, you dirty son of a whore!” – reprinted as an explosive front-page headline.
La semaine en France: Week 14
A bite-size round-up of the week’s events in French football, for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in Ligue 1 but hasn’t got the time (or the French) to do so.
Ligue 1
The big guns moved into position in Week 14, with no less than five teams leap-frogging former leaders Brest, while Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon closed to within two points of top spot.
Brest were beaten 2-1 at Rennes in the Brittany derby thanks to goals of real quality from Jires Kembo Ekoko and Jérôme Leroy, and it is difficult to envisage Alex Dupont’s men making a renewed assault on the upper echelons of the table now that their momentum has been checked.
Rennes sit fourth, level on points with third-placed Paris Saint-Germain, who briefly topped the pile after strikes from Guillaume Hoarau and Mevlüt Erding saw them to a 2-1 win over Caen at Parc des Princes. Montpellier went top after Olivier Giroud’s late goal earned them a 1-0 win at Nice on Saturday night, but Lille ended the weekend atop the standings after Eden Hazard inspired them to a 2-1 defeat of Monaco on Sunday.
Marseille and Lyon continue to improve, albeit slowly. It took an 88th-minute header from substitute André Ayew to snatch victory for OM at Toulouse, while Lyon were absolutely wretched at second-bottom Lens until Yoann Gourcuff and Lisandro López were summoned from the bench and a second-half brace by Bafétimbi Gomis turned a 0-1 half-time deficit into a 3-1 win.
Bordeaux also had to came from behind to win, but they found life slightly easier against the 10 men of Arles-Avignon as Anthony Modeste’s hat-trick set them up for a 4-2 success. Marseille, Brest, Bordeaux and Lyon are now all on 22 points, but Marseille still have a game in hand at home to Rennes on December 1.
The fixture list has thrown up some particularly appetising encounters in Week 15, with OM hosting second-placed Montpellier, new leaders Lille travelling to Bordeaux and Lyon tackling PSG in Sunday’s late game.
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Report: Nenê shines as PSG check Marseille momentum
“PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain climbed to third in Ligue 1 and prevented champions Marseille from going top with a 2-1 win over their arch-rivals at Parc des Princes on Saturday.”
Read my AFP match report here.
La semaine en France: Week 7
A bite-size round-up of the week’s events in French football, for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in Ligue 1 but hasn’t got the time (or the French) to do so.
Ligue 1
Ask any football fan how they’d prefer to beat their fiercest rivals, and they might not say a 5-0 thrashing or a thrilling 4-3 victory with a dramatic winner deep into injury time. For some, there is nothing sweeter than beating your worst enemies in unjust and controversial circumstances after a match in which you’ve been completely played off the park from start to finish. Fans of Saint-Etienne have been celebrating just such a victory this week.
Lyon’s performance in the 100th Derby du Rhône was probably their best of the season. They dominated possession, had two shots cleared off the line and hit the woodwork three times. But in the 75th minute, Saint-Etienne were awarded a dubious free-kick and man of the moment Dimiti Payet stepped up to send a picture postcard of a shot into the top-right corner, keeping Les Verts top of the pile for another seven days and sending Lyon into the relegation zone.
Saint-Etienne head into Saturday’s sold-out home game against Marseille with a one-point lead over Rennes, who won 2-1 at Nice. Toulouse are a point further back in third, having been held to a 1-1 draw at home to Lille. Marseille, the champions, continued their rise up the standings with a 2-1 win at home to Sochaux (Taye Taiwo’s opener, a wind-assisted attempted cross from wide on the left, will go down as an early candidate for fluke of the season). OM are now sixth, level on points with fifth-placed Paris Saint-Germain, who secured their first away win since December last year with a 2-0 victory at Lens.
Brest continued their encouraging return to the top flight with a 1-0 win at home to Valenciennes, while fellow Ligue 2 escapees Caen remain fourth after a goalless stalemate against Bordeaux.
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La semaine en France: Week 2
A bite-size round-up of the week’s events in French football, for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in Ligue 1 but hasn’t got the time (or the French) to do so.
Ligue 1
The collective slump suffered by France’s elite clubs worsened in Week 2, with Lyon, Bordeaux and Marseille all losing to leave them mired in the bottom five without a single win between them.
Marseille led the way with a 3-2 defeat at Valenciennes on Saturday, having fallen 3-0 down after barely an hour. Mamadou Niang (pictured), in his final game for the club before joining Fenerbahçe, spurned Marseille’s only chance of the goalless first half by falling over with only the goalkeeper to beat and was unceremoniously withdrawn in the 57th minute. Didier Deschamps said he had played “like he was trying to avoid injury”.
Injuries have crippled Marseille’s back line, with first-choice centre-backs Souleymane Diawara and Stéphane Mbia both out, and Lyon and Bordeaux are cursed with similar problems. Lyon went down 3-2 at Caen, despite a two-goal salvo from Bafétimbi Gomis, and lost Cris and Michel Bastos to matching torn thigh muscles for good measure. Claude Puel’s casualty list also includes Lisandro López (victim of a mysterious Achilles complaint) and Ederson, who somehow managed to badly tear his hamstring attempting to deliver a cross in Brazil’s friendly with the United States.
Bordeaux fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Toulouse and will be desperate to welcome back goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso and Michaël Ciani from suspension for Sunday’s trip to Paris, but Alou Diarra looks set to stay at the club for the time being after Deschamps said he was no longer looking for a holding midfielder.
Toulouse and Caen are the surprise joint-leaders, while Paris Saint-Germain demonstrated their new-found solidity in an impressive 0-0 draw at Lille. Nancy and Lorient proudly unveiled their controversial new artificial pitches and then made a mockery of speculation it would give them an unfair advantage by both losing.
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