Live The Pitch

New French national team coach Laurent Blanc has suspended the entire 23 man World Cup roster for an upcoming friendly match against Norway next month.  Under former skipper Raymond Demenech the French were lucky just to qualify for the World Cup and were embarrassed in South Africa after going win less amidst in house controversy.

The drama started to unfold when striker Nicolas Anelka and Demenech were involved in a heated exchange in the locker room at halftime of the Mexico match.  Anelka was then sent home by the French Football Federation for his actions which did not suit well with the rest of the team.

The team decided to protest the decision to send Anelka home by not training which led to more team controversy.  There have been a few French players who have publicly stated that this was a stupid decision.

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was quoted in L’Equipe: ”We acted as a team,  To strike was the decision of a squad who felt lonely, who believed that no one had stood up for them and who had a message to convey. We went too far. It was a very awkward decision, a big mistake. It was completely stupid. But there were so many problems.”

It is understandable to want to send a message to these players, but to suspend the entire team does not make much sense.  With a great nucleus of young players to choose from France will still be a top team when they face off with Norway.  Blanc will choose his young squad wisely to see who can come in and change the mentality of this broken team.

With fair play always at the forefront of any FIFA competition, today’s Group A games were played simultaneously. We had Mexico and Uruguay on one channel and France and South Africa on another.For those of us who want to take in every minute of World Cup action as possible it’s a hectic time. Just as the teams on the field I am constantly trying to get updates from each game to see how group play will end up.

A goal from Luis Suarez allowed Uruguay to win Group A and they will play the runner-up of Group B when the knockout stage games begin June 26. In the other game South Africa Beat a disgruntled French squad 2-1. Both South Africa and Mexico were tied with four points, but Mexico advanced on goal differential to play the winner of Group B.

For the French they stayed true to form by getting a red card in the 25th minute and playing the rest of the game down a man. Then when the match was over French coach Raymond Domenech continued to give South African coach Carlos Parreira a tongue lashing, further embarrassing his country. Just get on the first flight back France and shut the hell up! I for one have heard enough out of this joke of a national soccer team.

The French national team took the pitch today for training one day after the players refused to train after the French Football Federation sent home star striker Nicolas Anelka. During halftime of France’s last match Anelka and coach Raymond Demenech were involved in a heated exchange with Anelka apparently going too far.

Apparently Anelka told Demenech to go “Fuck Himself” in the locker room at the half. Players were clearly not on the same page throughout the Mexico match at times being drastically outplayed.

“I tried to convince the players for 45 minutes that what they were trying to do was stupid, that it was an imbecility,” Demenech said. I’m not too sure calling your players imbeciles with a chance to advance to the next round on the line is a good idea. On paper this team is still loaded with talent but seem to not mesh well together.

With captain Patrice Evra in the middle of all the drama it is still unsure who will start in their last match. Evra was not in attendance at the French press conference today which FIFA will now investigate.

When asked about Evra remaining captain Demenech said: “There will be a discussion tonight, we’ll see. Again, this is not a problem of trust, but rather a question of psychological and physical condition to play the game.”