France

That Raymond Domenech! He Really Knows How to Change!

First thing. I’m thrilled by the win, and thrilled that we scored three goals, and thrilled that the Govou who showed up today was Visible Sidney, as opposed to his more-frequently-present evil twin, Invisible Sidney. And Sagna looks promising, especially offensively, and he and Benzema could be golden together when it comes to scoring. And Henry did that one cheeky little in-the-air backheel thing that was amazing and essentially won the game.

So why do I not feel better about this match?

Here’s why: Domenech’s really switching things up and changing things around, just like he was told to, huh?

(Note: That was sarcasm.)

I really thought he was when I saw the call-ups. Now, though, I’m thinking it’s a lot more of the same ol’. Except… a teeny bit different.

Let’s think about this.

Domenech replaced three of the four in the back line!
Yes, but…
…Abidal had to be replaced today because of that red card. Chances are he’ll be back.
…Thuram had to be replaced because of retirement.
…Sagnol maybe didn’t officially retire (did he?), but he was a shadow of his former self at Euros and pretty much had to be replaced. And Clerc, Domenech’s previously favored #2, is injured.

In Domenech’s favor, he did play Mexes over Boumsong in the center. That’s a plus. But that was probably the biggest media outcry after Euros, so I’m thinking it may have been forced on him.

Plus this defense? SCARY. They played it too close to the edge and came close to giving away more than that one penalty. Way too many Hail-Mary, Oh-my-gosh-how-did-he-get-this-close tackles. It really did make for an intense and exciting game, but a really good team would punish them for it.

What about the midfield?
Let’s see…in the center, Makelele is replaced by Makelele Lite (aka L. Diarra).
In the attack… Whoa, looks the same to me. Domenech continues to do the “switch around Govou, Ribery and Malouda” thing. With a taste of “sub in Nasri (here read: Gourcuff) so it looks like I’m being innovative.”

And on the attack, let’s be really creative!
Henry and Benzema. Yeah.

(In Domenech’s favor, it did work today. But I’m still not seeing Henry as a ninety-minute player, and I don’t think that’s going to change as he gets older.)

But what about in goal!
True, Coupet’s eligible but not called up, so that’s a switch. But Mandanda kind of scared me today. There were at least a couple of “bat it away back into danger” moments that reminded me of what always terrified me about Barthez, and he just didn’t look…confident. I personally didn’t see a lot of improvement over Coupet. This could change, but I personally wouldn’t be annointing him the new #1 just yet. I would have loved to see Lloris (or…um…Frey?) out there for a half.

But wait! Domenech got creative with the subs, right?
The biggest WTF moments of the day. Seriously, Alou Diarra for Malouda? I like Alou, but is there anybody out there who can say with a straight face that Alou Diarra is the face of France’s future?

I thought not. We already KNOW how Diarra plays! Put on Flamini!!

Also, Gourcuff subbed in for twenty seconds? What the HELL was that all about?

And subs not used, in a crucial game which just happens to be your last friendly before it really counts, and you have some key holes, and you really, truly need to see who’s up to the pressure before it’s too late?

Does anybody else think that Raymond is just paying lip service to change? And that at the first possible opportunity he’ll be playing 4-4-2, with the only changes from the Euro lineup the ones that had to be made due to injury, suspension or retirement?

Or am I being too pessimistic?

(On the plus side, though? I like the new jerseys.)