Euro 2008 Qualifying

10/7/06
                   It was quite disturbing to see France lose in Glasgow. After having watched Henry's freekick shave the upright, both Vieira and Trezeguet called for offsides despite putting the ball in the net, and France completely dominating the Scots for the first 45 minutes of the match, Gary Caldwell's headed goal was truly shocking, if somewhat undeserved. But football, for all its thrills and excitement, can be sadly unfair at times, a fact I have learned the hard way, considering both France and Arsenal reached the finals of a major competition in the last 6 or 7 months, only to fall at the very last hurdle by the tiniest of margins.
                  I am of course not implying that Scotland is a weak side - on the contrary, no weak team scores 9 goals in three games while conceding just one - but that France and Domenech need to fix a problem that seems not to have been cured even by the departure of the eccentric (if somewhat brilliant) Barthez; the last four goals condeded by Les Bleus have all come from set-pieces. It was the horrendous defending on corners and freekicks that cost France maximum points in Glasgow, not to speak of the World Cup Final itself. What to do about this defect?
                A different approach to defending should be taken - Domenech should stress organization in the back, a feature both Switzerland and the notorious Greek side of 2004 excelled at. France currently plays a rather whimsical style of football, mainly relying and hoping that the individual brilliance of each player may fit nicely into a solid, compact team unit. Yet they should learn from the so-called "smaller" teams which clearly lack the same vast pool of talent - that the Henrys, Vieiras and Riberys cannot beat tight organization and clinical finishing. There has been much talk about the failures of the galacticos of Real Madrid, and the star-studded Inter Milan side going into the '06/'07 season without a single Champions League victory...let this conflict of oversized egos and overconfidence not plague the French national team as well.

                Looking back on the other Euro qualifying matches, I must say that Spain is, as Joaquin Sanchez deftly asserted, in a state of "chaos." A Larsson and Ibrahimovic-less Sweden was able to score not one, but two goals unanswered against the Spaniards, and poor Luis Aragones must be feeling the backlash of his stupid decision to omit one of Spain's most influential attacking midfielders from the national team.
                 In Group E, England missed a fabulous opportunity to maintain a stronghold over their group, as a lackluster performance at home against Macedonia continued Wayne Rooney's barren spell. Perhaps the Crouch-Rooney pairing in attack was really the downfall for Sven-Goran Eriksson and his men in Germany?

                  There were some quite shocking outcomes today as well, most notably Cyprus's stunning 5:2 victory against Ireland, highlighting the fact that Ireland are in deeper trouble than I had thought them to be in previously. Their slump in form has most definitely stemmed from Robbie Keane's inability to find the back of the net - once a clinical and reliable finisher, Keane has been wasting chances for both club and country, and his '06/'07 season is sadly heading towards disaster.

                The results from this week-end reflected Arsene Wenger's comments about the state of international football - everything is much too lopsided. Croatia and the Czech Republic scored 7:0 wins today; Slovakia, 5:1; Latvia, 4:0... and in only 6 of the 22 games did both teams find the scoresheet.

Some interesting games on 10/11/06:
Poland vs. Portugal (0:2)
Ukraine vs. Scotland (1:0)
Georgia vs. Italy (1:2)
France vs. Faroe Islands (4:0)
Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Greece (1:1)
Rep. Ireland vs. Czech Rep. (0:2)
Slovakia vs. Germany (2:2)
Croatia vs. England (1:1)