The lead story in today's L'Equipe? It's not the Tour



Not surprising. Domenech is the trainer of the French national team and he was reconfirmed despite a dismal showing at the European championships. It is actually very big news here in the Old World.

The same happened a week ago here in Italy - we canned the coach who accomplished little in the European Championships, and it was all over the papers.
 
Powerful Pete said:
Not surprising. Domenech is the trainer of the French national team and he was reconfirmed despite a dismal showing at the European championships. It is actually very big news here in the Old World.

The same happened a week ago here in Italy - we canned the coach who accomplished little in the European Championships, and it was all over the papers.

Donnadoni's removal from the Italia job has increased speculation that our newly appointed national coach, Giovanni Trappatoni, may be approached by the Italian federation.


Sign of the times when L'Equipe doesn't feature LeTour as front page news.
 
France won the world cup in 1998 and the european cup in 2000. They then finished as runners up in the world cup two years ago but a few weeks ago went out in an embarassing way in the group stages of euro 2008. IMO football (soccer:rolleyes:) has grown in importance to the french - keeping on a coach who it could be said has done so poorly and let everyone down is therefore going to be big news.
 
limerickman said:
Donnadoni's removal from the Italia job has increased speculation that our newly appointed national coach, Giovanni Trappatoni, may be approached by the Italian federation.


Sign of the times when L'Equipe doesn't feature LeTour as front page news.
Not to worry Lim. Lippi has been appointed. 'Il Trap" as we call him here will not be moving.

By the way, the Int'l Herald Tribune is opening with an article on the TdF today.
 
Our local paper wrote a small story about Tour de France today. They DID name Cadel Evans as the favourite, BUT they said that his main rivals were Valverde and PEREIRO :)
 
Well not much on the Gazzetta site either. They have a special on what team Ronaldo will play for next year, and about the Massa's crash (Ferrari F1 driver for the yanks).

Have to go to the cycling section for an article on the TdF presentation. :eek:
 
Powerful Pete said:
Not to worry Lim. Lippi has been appointed. 'Il Trap" as we call him here will not be moving.

By the way, the Int'l Herald Tribune is opening with an article on the TdF today.

Marcello Lippi's a good choice for manager.
After all he did a superb job at 2006 world cup.
 
limerickman said:
Marcello Lippi's a good choice for manager.
After all he did a superb job at 2006 world cup.
Well, he certainly has his work cut out - he will have to essentially start from scratch... I think we only fielded two under-32 y.o. players in the entire European Championships...
 
of the bunch, the one i'd keep an eye on is guus hiddink. seems to know how to get his side ready no matter where he coaches. why the dutch turned their noses up to him still amazes me.
 
I think Hiddink kind of enjoys training 'lesser' national teams and getting away with the upsets he usually has (Korea beating Italy, Russia beating the Netherlands, etc).

I wonder if he would enjoy coaching an 'established' national team - kind of similar to Capello's disinterest in coaching Italy (or at least, that is what he says).
 
slovakguy said:
of the bunch, the one i'd keep an eye on is guus hiddink. seems to know how to get his side ready no matter where he coaches. why the dutch turned their noses up to him still amazes me.
van Basten is not doing too bad either. Sure, the Dutch did crash out in the quarter-finals, but they played outstanding football in the group matches. Unlike ... France and Italy for instance.
 
Powerful Pete said:
Well, he certainly has his work cut out - he will have to essentially start from scratch... I think we only fielded two under-32 y.o. players in the entire European Championships...
I hope he gets the Italians out of the crappy defensive mindset. Geez, in the match against Spain, Italy played for penalties. :rolleyes:
 
given his career path, probably not. looks like he's the next bora. probably nets him a healthy income without having to bear the burden of a nation's hopes where failure is more common than getting to the top of the heap. i'm really just giving vent to my disappointment that the orange cannot grab a trophy of any note.
 
limerickman said:
Marcello Lippi's a good choice for manager.
After all he did a superb job at 2006 world cup.
BTW Lim, the news of Lippi replacing Donadoni is somewhat old now. I'm a bit surprised that it didn't reach you earlier (don't know much about Irish media).
 
TheDarkLord said:
I hope he gets the Italians out of the crappy defensive mindset. Geez, in the match against Spain, Italy played for penalties. :rolleyes:


like watching germany in the 70's/80's. garbage football.
 
TheDarkLord said:
I hope he gets the Italians out of the crappy defensive mindset. Geez, in the match against Spain, Italy played for penalties. :rolleyes:
OK, I will bite. The crappy defensive game came from not having a midfield or attack of note. That simplifies things.

And as a matter of fact, we did not have much of a defense either... Truly a disastrous European Championship for us (not that we ever do well in our European competitions).

Now let us stop discussing football. Or we will slide into the 'Italians play crappy defensive football' diatribe. For the record, I do not agree - we won the last WC with quite a high number of goals. If that is defensive football, so be it. ;)
 
Powerful Pete said:
OK, I will bite. The crappy defensive game came from not having a midfield or attack of note. That simplifies things.

And as a matter of fact, we did not have much of a defense either... Truly a disastrous European Championship for us (not that we ever do well in our European competitions).

Now let us stop discussing football. Or we will slide into the 'Italians play crappy defensive football' diatribe. For the record, I do not agree - we won the last WC with quite a high number of goals. If that is defensive football, so be it. ;)
I know you called for a stop, but I can't resist. :p

There is no harm in playing defensively AS LONG AS you have a good attack that can blitz through the opposition suddenly. Netherlands vs France is a good example. France was pushing Netherlands, but the Dutch still steam rolled them thanks to the sudden attacks. For whatever reason, Luca Toni sucked big time during the Euro cup (in spite of his having a great season in Bundesliga). I commented in FID that Toni couldn't hit a goal even if there was nobody between him and the goal. In the absence of a decent attack, defensive play sucks big time. Ok, now you can pick holes in my argument. ;)
 
TheDarkLord said:
van Basten is not doing too bad either. Sure, the Dutch did crash out in the quarter-finals, but they played outstanding football in the group matches. Unlike ... France and Italy for instance.

I was really impressed by the Dutch team - I thought that they played really well.
But championship football requires grit and determination and while the beautiful football is pleasing, it is not always the right type of play for tournament competitions.
(only have to look at how Germany - with a very ordinary team - managed to get through to the finals IMHO)
 

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