At the start of the tournament nobody would have expected this live online and radio commentary Euro 2008 group match between France and Italy live to hold so much significance and importance and at the end of the day it might not even mean much as either team might still not advance even if they win it accordingly as they must.

A new coach, several new players, new tactical systems...so I figured it was time for another team building exercise.

I can't resist this picture. It's Lyon to a T.

Between friendlies and the first few competitive games, we've gotten a vague idea about the kind of team Puel wants to form - tactically organized, defensively solid, players sticking to their roles (as opposed to last season, where players would be out of position all the time).

Nothing else to talk about, so I will fall back on this for today. Thankfully, it's La Liga preview tomorrow, so I won't have to spend ages on another list.
This list is the 50 best players now. It therefore will not include any has beens who's talent might be rekindled (sorry R10) and no wonderkids who remain just that.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Let the games begin, again.

World Cup qualifying is set to kick off tonight when Paraguay plays host to Venezuela (and Vanuatu faces Fiji), but tomorrow is when most of the world will have its attention turned to a loaded qualifying schedule and all the teams trying to make it to the 2010 World Cup.

I picked this one up from The World Cup blog, who grabbed it from The Sun, a British tabloid who compiled a list of 20 young players to watch in 2008. Ten of them are playing for teams that have made the knock out round (Final 16) of the UEFA Champions League which will begin again in February. Follow the links to see the entire list with background on each of the players.

France Raymond Domenech's squad on paper is definitely Euro final material & the frogs will want to get one over the Italians after The World Cup Final (nut)-cracker. France posses a fantastic team with plenty of depth. They conceded just 5 in qualifying and would probably be at better odds for the trophy if it weren't for the group of death draw.

Raul has scored 61 goals in the Champions League - his closest rival being his teammate Ruud van Nistelrooy at 53. Can any of the younger crop of players - Messi, Ronaldo, Benzema, Torres etc - catch up with the likes of Raul, Ruud, Sheva (47) and Henry (45) or is the age of the pure [...]

The latest striker to be linked with United is Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz. Reportedly Sir Alex is preparing a £15 million bid for the Paraguayan goal scorer, but United is not alone. Man City, who look to have already snatched up Blackburn's boss Mark Hughes, are also in the running for the 26-year-old, but who [.

Allez Lyon!!!

Lyon:

Lloris
Reveillere - Cris - Bodmer - Kallstrom
Juninho - Toulalan - Makoun
Govou - Fred - Benzema

Bench: Vercoutre, Boumsong, Kallstrom, Ederson, Piquionne, Mounier

Bayern:

Rensing
Oddo - Breno - Lucio - Lahm
Schweinsteiger - Demichelis - Ze Roberto - Ribery
Klose - Toni

Bench: Butt, Van Buyten, Podolski, Ottl, Van Bommel, Sosa, Borowski

Feel free to post commentary, frustrations, and thoughts here during and after the game.

Arsenal midfielder Lassana Diarra has publicly stated that he wants to leave the club after failing to secure a regular starting berth in a congested midfield. The 22 year-old arrived in North London on the final day of the Summer transfer window after Chelsea agreed to a last-minute deal with Arsene Wenger.

There's an article over on Foot Mercato that lists current form for the potential France players. Curious to see what you think about individual players. Agree? Disagree?

The Barometer

Rising: Franck Ribéry, Patrice Evra, Gaël Clichy, Grégory Coupet, Thierry Henry, Philippe Méxès, Rio Antonio Mavuba, Mathieu Flamini, Patrick Vieira, Sebastien Frey;

Stable: William Gallas, Eric Abidal, Bakary Sagna, Claude Makélélé, Alou Diarra, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Mathieu Bodmer, Mickaël Landreau, Nicolas Anelka, Willy Sagnol, Jimmy Briand, Samir Nasri, Anthony Réveillère, Lassana Diarra, Lilian Thuram, Steve Mandanda, Florent Malouda, Hatem Ben Arfa;

Falling: Djibril Cissé, Louis Saha, Jerome Rothen, Julien Escudé, François Clerc, David Trézéguet, Rowed Ulrich.

Karim Benzema might be picking up a World Footballer of the Year award within the next few seasons. The French striker is still far from the real deal, although he's had a fantastic season for Lyon and demonstrated in the Champions League against Manchester United that's he's hot property. It's little surprise that the likes [.

In 1965 these players were plying their trade. Ferenc Puskas, Garrincha, Pele, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stefano and Gerd Muller. With more than some arguments, from Argentines especially, this could be considered an all time top 10 list. Surely this was the golden age of football, talent wise?

This indecisions bugging me
If you dont want me, set me free
Come on and let me know
Should I cool it or should I blow?
Should I stay or should I go now?
Aaaahhh the good ole Clash, you've gotta love them and never were more those words more appropriate then when looking at the many indecision regarding so many players across Europe.

It's hardly a rare occurrence for a relatively unknown youngster to be caught up in the limelight in the days and weeks preceding a crucial European tie. Last Wednesday was no different. The name on everyone's lips at the Stade Gerland stadium, Lyon, was of the 20-year-old French striker Karim Benzema.

Azzurri - Les Blues! Do or die! The World Cup finalists on the edge of elimination.
France: Coupet, Clerc, Gallas, Abidal, Evra, Govou, Toulalan,
Makelele, Ribery, Benzema, Henry.
Subs: Mandanda, Frey,
Boumsong, Vieira, Malouda, Anelka, Nasri, Thuram, Squillaci,
Gomis, Sagnol, Diarra.

Les Cahiers du Football had an interesting article last week looking several possibilities for a starting XI for France. I thought it would be fun if I posted those formations here. Do you think that one of these other lineups might have had a better chance of succeeding?

FRANCE A: The Starters (at Euro 2008)

Coupet
Sagnol - Thuram - Gallas - Abidal
Ribery - Makelele - Vieira - Malouda
Henry - Anelka

UEFA halo
Originally uploaded by Toni_V Esta fotografía fue tomada en una estación de trenes allá en Zurich donde se jugo la Eurocopa.
De todos los jugadores que aparecen en las fotos ¿quienes realmente fueron estrellas de la Eurocopa?
Adidas players: Barnetta (Switzerland), Ballack and Lahm (Germany), van Persie (Netherlands), Cech (Czech Republic), Charisteas (Greece), Villa (Spain), Benzema y Vieira (France), Ivanschitz (Austria) y Chivu (Romania).

Arsenal have signed 21-year-old French attacking midfielder Samir Nasri.
Now that Nasri's signed, and taken over the number 8 jersey, recently vacated by Lassana Diarra, Arsenal supporters want to know good he is.
Here's some video of Nasri playing.
Samir Nasri only played briefly for France at Euro 2008.

Manchester United are ready to give up on trying to sign Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov and instead try and sign Barcelona ace Thierry Henry. The former Gunners frontman has been linked with a move back to the Premier League all summer after an average start to his career in La Liga.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has been priced out of a move for Berbatov after Spurs demanded £30 million for the Bulgarian.

1 - 0 J.Makoun 12'
2 - 0 K.Benzema 58'
3 - 0 K.Benzema 66'
DISCLAIMER: Tutti i video presenti in Calcioplus appartengono ai loro creatori e sono ubicati su server esterni. Calcioplus non ha alcun video sui propri Server. Calcioplus non è responsabile del contenuto di siti web esterni.

Soccer is coming back in many of the leagues throughout Europe. The English Premier League had a rather slow start with the Charity Shield game between Manchester United and Portsmouth, which ended 0-0 and then went to penalty kicks where Man U won easily.
In France, Lyon got off the a strong start, with Karim Benzema scoring 2 goals to lead them to a 3-0 victory over Toulouse.

L'équipe has the probable first 11 for France's opening world cup qualifier on Saturday :
Mandanda
Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra
Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Nasri
Benzema, Henry
In North America, Setanta will be showing both of France's upcoming world cup qualifiers on same-day tape delay:
Setanta broadcast at 4:00 p.

Despite the continuing string of injuries- that would have crippled a mere mortal team- Lyon are through to the knock-out stages of the CL. Doing much better than just picking-up the minimum one point needed before Tuesday's match in order to advance past the group stages, Lyon walked in and out of Stadio Artemio Franchi like they owned the place and took 3 points- and probably some Bistecca alla Fiorentina- with them.

Good afternoon folks. Apologies for the slowdown in posts but I'm working on a few stories and also preparing for SBI's trip to Florida for the MLS Combine.

Here are some European soccer news tidbits for those of you who have been busy doing things like working and studying:

Newcastle sacks Allardyce.

Bad luck for you, Manchester United: your hot target Benzema has just signed a two-year extension to his already long contract at his French club Lyon. Benzema's contract with Lyon was until 2012 and now club president, Jean-Michel Aulas, says that the player has agreed to sign a two-year extension to his contract that will also [.

(Summary is not available.)

I ran this poll once before, but that was before we had our final four strikers, and before we'd seen what they could do in the friendlies. So lets see if your answers have changed in this time. Assuming 4-4-2, which looks probable, which two strikers would you like to

FINAL SNOWDROPS FROM THE ALPS -

FOREIGNER FLARES
Too much was made of Germany's Lukas Podolski gunning down his country of birth, Poland.
This is a globalised world, where people emigrate and every country is to blame for not enforcing racial purity tests in their national teams.

Forgive this abbreviated match preview, but I'm in the middle of trying to find a new apartment, so things are a bit chaotic in my life at the moment. I'd a nice, long preview planned for the first game of the season, but I guess that will have to wait until next week.

August 10, 2008
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3 PM Eastern time (21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT)

Toulouse is always annoying to play against, but now that Johan I-love-to-score-against-Lyon Elmander is at Bolton and Achille Pain-in-the-ass Emana is at Real Betis, hopefully things will be a little easier.

Benzema celebrates after scoring Lyon's only goal in last year's 2-1 loss to Lorient.

This week, Lyon travel to Brittany to face FC Lorient at Le Stade Moustoir. Lorient is currently tied for 2nd place with seven other teams in L1, having defeated Le Mans 1-0 in the first week.

TORONTO - An exciting chapter now begins for Pistolas FC as the offseason begins and a bevy of opportunities opens up to make this team more committed, more creative, more skilled, more defensive, and a hell of a lot quicker.
Having just barely missed out on the European Transfer Window which closed just yesterday, the likes of Christiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Benzema, Adebayor, Dani Alves, Samuel Eto, Didier Drogba, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are all locked up for the year.

I'm buzzing from that France performance. I wrote about it a bit already, but the buzz still hasn't subsided.

I'm wary of getting carried away with hyperbole, but Yoann Gourcuff was a revelation, I thought. Starting in that most coveted of positions, central attacking midfield, the number 10 position, the Zidane role, he had a fine debut, with any number of marauding runs forward.

Dear Lyon,

Don't screw this up.

Hugs and kisses,

Me

Lyon:

Lloris
Reveillere - Boumsong - Bodmer - Kallstrom
Makoun - Toulalan - Juninho
Govou - Fred - Benzema

Bench: Vercoutre, Gassama, Cris, Mensah, Pjanic, Ederson, Piquionne, Mounier

Fiorentina:

Frey
Zauri - Kroldrup - Dainelli - Vargas
Kuzmanovic - Melo - Montolivo - Almiron
Gilardino - Mutu

Bench: Storari, Donadel, Jovetic, Gobbi, Jorgensen, Santana, Pazzini

Feel free to post commentary, frustrations, and thoughts here during and after the game.

Manchester United confront Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League, last 16, first leg tie and United manager Sir Alex Ferguson isn't taking the six times running French champions lightly at all. Even though United are in a great run of form and thrashed Arsenal in the FA Cup at the weekend, Sir Alex [.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas is boiling hot at the endless speculation by the British press that Manchester United are certain to launch a multimillion dollar bid for their 20-year old French international striker Benzema. Aulas has hit out at the typical British tabloid section who keep in splashing such speculations which are often without any [.

Reigning Premiership champions Manchester United play six-time reigning French champions Lyon in the second leg, last 16 tie in the UEFA Champions League at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. The Red Devils have an away goal cushion after the match the Estadio Municipal de Gerland ended 1-1. Man United left back Patrice Evra says that although [.

Ninety minutes of decent football, if you can call it that. Manchester United remain conservative in Europe rather than adopting a swashbuckling style, but this bland performance hardly justify the money spent on amassing the plethora of attacking talents. The 1-0 victory for the Red Devils came from Cristiano Ronaldo in the first half, and it [.

Well, what an end to the season that was. A Man United double was just about enough to make me hurl down the front of my replica jersey.
And so, to Euro 2008. France are the team everyone's watching, and the group of death. Searching for Zizou, that's what we're about. A Zizou for 2008.

(Summary is not available.)