Olympique Marseille » Euro 2008

Valbuena and four others called up…

Magnusson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:42:11 +0000

After the humiliations of the past week, a few Marseillais received some good news this afternoon. Steve Mandanda, Gaël Givet, Samir Nasri, Mathieu Valbuena and Djibril Cissé have been called up in the French National team to play for either the A Team against England or the A’ Team against Mali. We’ll see which players are affected to which squad but it would seem normal that all of them (Samir Nasri excluded) would be called up for the Mali confrontation.
It is a great achievement for Valbuena and Mandanda who were both relative unknows at the beginning of the season (even though Mandanda seems to be the natural heir of Greg Coupet once the Euro is done). Gaël Givet is being rewarded for coming back to his best level after six tough months. So is Djibril Cissé who has a spot in Raymond Domenech’s heart, we know that. As for Samir Nasri, despite being a little less popular these days because of his erratic behavior lately, It’s always nice to see that Raymond wants to give him the keys at some point.
Mathieu Valbuena will complete the list of five newbies that are called up for the first time, Matthieu Delpierre, Mathieu Bodmer (I never made it a secret that this guy was one of my favorite players of the Ligue 1. He’s definitly my favorite Lyonnais, just because I still believe he could play for us. I stopped dreaming of Benzema last year), Adil Rami (he plays for Lille, Julien knows him) and Florent Sinama-Pongolle (waw, this is a surprise. This guy palys for Recreativo Huelva and we pick him while OPeter Luccin is one of the best midfielders in Spain and still ain’t called). Valbuena’s best friend Rio Mavuba’s move to Lille was obviously a good choice for the man who said himself that his move was a mistake. They’ve known each other since they were 9 years old and hopefully for the both of them, they’ll play in the french National team together next week. Either one of them.
All in all, Uncle Ray ray called 39 players:

Keepers: Grégory Coupet (Lyon), Mickaël Landreau (Paris SG), Sébastien Frey (Fiorentina/ITA), Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille)

Defenders: Eric Abidal (FC Barcelona/SPA), Jean-Alain Boumsong (Lyon), Gaël Clichy (Arsenal/ENG), François Clerc (Lyon), Matthieu Delpierre (Stuttgart/GER), Julien Escudé (FC Séville/SPA), Patrice Evra (Manchester United/ENG), Willam Gallas (Arsenal/ENG), Gaël Givet (Marseille), Philippe Mexès (AS Rome/ITA), Adil Rami (Lille), Bakary Sagna (Arsenal/ANG), Sébastien Squillaci (Lyon), Lilian Thuram (FC Barcelone/ESP)

Midfielders: Mathieu Bodmer (Lyon), Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth/ANG), Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal/ANG), Claude Makelele (Chelsea/ANG), Rio Mavuba (Lille), Samir Nasri (Marseille), Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon), Jérôme Rothen (Paris SG), Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan/ITA)

Strikers: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea/ENG), Hatem Ben Arfa (Lyon), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Djibril Cissé (Marseille), Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona/SPA), Florent Malouda (Chelsea/ENG), Sidney Govou (Lyon), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich/GER), Florent Sinama-Pongolle (Recreativo Huelva/SPA), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille)

Franck Ribery, French Player of the Year…

Magnusson — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:29:15 +0000

Two weeks after the Ballon d’Or that went to Kakà, France Football gives a trophy to the French Player of the Year. And after many years of Thierry Henry domination(5 trophies and four in a row from ‘03 to ‘06), this year it rightfully went to Franck Ribery for his outstanding performances for Marseille than for Bayern Munich as well as with the French National team. Franck becomes one of the youngest laureates at 24 (only Marius Trésor and Michel Platini got it when they were younger). Other youngsters are included in the list. Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema are both in the Top ten and you see that Hatem Benarfa’s and Steve Mandanda’s season beginnings have been remarked and they have been included as well. Fot the first time in years, Patrick Vieira has not been included because of injury and you can see how much clout a player like Henry has since he comes at N°2 and hasn’t even had a complete season. But his Platini record breaking is still in all minds.
The jury is composed of past winners and some french journalists, each of them giving five names with the same rating system than in the Ballon d’Or race.
Here is the full list

1. Franck RIBÉRY (Marseille/Bayern Munich) : 126 points
2. Thierry HENRY (Arsenal/Barcelona) : 76 pts
3. Karim BENZEMA (Lyon) : 63 pts
4. Florent MALOUDA (Lyon/Chelsea) : 60 pts
5. Eric ABIDAL (Lyon/FC Barcelona) : 47 pts
6. Samir NASRI (Marseille) : 28 pts
7. Claude MAKELELE (Chelsea) : 15 pts
8. William GALLAS (Arsenal) : 12 pts
9. Nicolas ANELKA (Bolton) : 10 pts
Jérôme LEROY (Sochaux/Rennes)
Philippe MEXÈS (AS Roma)
12. Jérémy TOULALAN (Lyon) : 7 pts
Lilian THURAM (Barcelona)
14. Ulrich RAMÉ (Bordeaux) : 5 pts
15. Julien ESCUDÉ (FC Séville) : 3 pts
Hatem BEN ARFA (Lyon)
Sidney GOVOU (Lyon)
David TREZEGUET (Juventus de Turin)
19. Grégory COUPET (Lyon) : 2 pts
Olivier DACOURT (Inter Milan)
21. Patrice EVRA (Manchester United) : 1 pt
Sébastien FREY (Fiorentina)
Steve MANDANDA (Marseille)
Robert PIRES (Villarreal)
Sébastien PUYGRENIER (Nancy)

Congratulations to Kiki.

Euro 2008, The case for Steve Mandanda…

Magnusson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:58:47 +0000

Incredible, magnificent, brilliant, glorious, splendid, there has been a lack of superlatives lately to qualify the very impressive outings of young Steve Mandanda as our goalkeeper. There has been unanimous praise from all over the country and might I say, the World. The kid has been impressing everybody and poor Cédric carasso may never be able to wear our jersey ever again. There has been so much praise and so much hype around Mandanda that the natural reaction is to ask oneself how a kid stays this humble. Look no further than Samir Nasri, Karim Benzema and Hatem Benarfa for that and you’ll see a pattern in young french phenoms lately that seem to be playing it a lot safer after seeing a whole generation of players as talented as they are if not more and who were themselves promised the world (Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Jeremy Aliadière, Damien LeTallec, Samir Belloufa…). The kid is cool under pressure and doesn’t seem too worried for his future. Seriously he plays in one of the most difficult clubs in France in terms of pressure and he seems unphazed by it.

Now Let’s look at the French National Team. In the absence of Gregory Coupet, it’s been Mickael landreau’s turn to guard our very important cage and he didn’t do so well. After seven years of being #3, Landreau naturally landed the #2 spot once Fabien Barthez quit (or was forced to quit, but that’s another story) Les Bleus. Maybe him being comfortably given that spot did not help him in the motivation department. After a hand fault in his own Parc des Princes in paris that Coupet told the scottish press he would’ve stopped (That was not nice Greg, even kinda douchebag-y), a chance was given to Sebastien Frey. Now I’m a huge fan of Serie A and I love Sébastien but he might have fucked himself over by letting that “light” disturb him and get scored upon against Ukraine because he may never be able to get another chance, given how stupid Domenech already gets when it comes to suddenly giving some players the cold shoulder.

Those two lackluster performances created a national debate lately that, and that’s only MY opinion, doesn’t make any type of sense. Everybody and their momma seems to have an idea about who should be #2 and #3 at the next Euro. And honnestly, do you remember the third goalkeeper of any team at any competition. Not to show any disrespect but their job is to be able to get the right records in the CD player that is in the locker-room. The debate would only become interesting if Coupet doesn’t come back in top physical shape and let’s say I’m not too worried he’ll be back. This is going to be his first and last international competition and there’s no way he won’t be putting the gloves on.

Nonetheless, the debate is still the number one issue concerning football fans right now and France Football decided to give it its proper shine now that they’re done with the yawner that was this year’s ballon d’Or race. So just after Kakà, Mandanda graces the cover of France Football that will be in stores tomorow. Always nice to see an olympian on the cover. In the issue,two old-timers (both of them World Champions), Bernard Lama and Lionel Charbonnier weigh in on the issue and if both of them agree that Coupet is and will remain #1 if he comes back as strong as he finished last season. Their opinions about who should be #2 and #3 are far less certain.

I haven’t read the article yet but it seems that both of them agree that the five best keepers in France right now are, in no particular order, Coupet, Landreau, Frey, Ramé and Mandanda. Experts are all saying that it would be for the better if Domenech decided to shake up the hierarchy and invite Mandanda if Landreau keeps being the keeper he never were, someone unsure and totally lacking confidence.

All this extrapolation is nice and all but we’ll only know for sure and get the answers as to what to expect only when Remy Vercoutre is not starting matches for Lyon anymore.