If Les Bleues feel robbed today it's in the way you do after leaving the doors to the house
unlocked and the windows wide open. They took the early lead with two quick, confident and gorgeous
goals from Gaëtane Thiney and Marie-Laure Delie.
A proposal: when we wile away the hours compiling lists of the Greatest Ever Footballers, we are
doing a disservice to this form of discourse if we do not take its premises seriously. To pretend
that we can go on existing without this genetically-hewn proclivity for reducing the world to an
Excel document is both futile and obscene, and we've no interest in arguing as to whether Grand
Ranking is really a childish waste of everyone's time.
Perhaps, on a bookshelf in the offices of the Football Association at Wembley Stadium, there is
a leather-bound book called "How To Get Knocked Out Of A Major Tournament". It's a well-thumbed
tome, of course, and the England team at this year's Women's World Cup couldn't help but crib from
its extensive advice in getting themselves eliminated from this year's tournament at the hands of
France at the end of a tumultuous match in Leverkusen last night.
Publication on July 20th: Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football. The book that re-writes
the Arsenal story.
——————————————–
By Walter Broeckx
14 July...what again is so special about that day? The French national holiday? Okay we do have
a lot of French players at Arsenal but no, that can't be the [.
Yesterday we were treated to the first pictures of pre-season training and, leaving aside the
the fact that the training kit looks like it was designed by Prince and Helen Keller, everything
seemed pretty rosy. Andre Santos was there, looking like he'd spent most of the summer eating
delicious pies of all kinds.
Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has revealed that he rejected an approach from European champions
Chelsea before confirming his transfer to the Gunners earlier this week.
Giroud, 25, scored 21 goals for Montpellier en route to their Ligue 1 triumph last season and
was reportedly targeted by the Blues as a replacement for outgoing legend Didier Drogba.
France international striker Olivier Giroud is reportedly finalizing a transfer to Arsenal that
the player himself has described as a dream come true.
Giroud, 25, endured a frustrating Euro 2012 campaign as Les Bleus went from a 23-game
international unbeaten run to two consecutive 2-0 defeats in which they were outplayed completely
by Sweden and Spain.
Lille playmaker Eden Hazard has admitted that in addition to Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur,
Arsenal remain one of his desired destinations in the Barclays Premier League.
Former Gunner Emmanuel Petit, however, does not think the Belgian alone can make a difference at
the Emirates.
Hazard, one of the most highly coveted players in the world at the moment, has made it clear
that playing English football next season is a high priority for him.
Arsenal's French centre-back Laurent Koscielny has set his sights on improving even more after a
terrific run of form for the Gunners. Speaking to Le Parisien, Koscielny said, "Like all the French
players, I dream of the 2012 European Championship... I know that I need to keep being good to keep
being called up.
I am far from the best person to write a scouting report on Olympique de Marseille, but no one
else is volunteering. (Add comments if you have any thoughts.)
Match: Champions League Group Phase Away to the Arsenal
Last week we had the Man Utd defender Patrice Evra singing the praises of Samir Nasri, and telling
him that he should give up Arsenal and move to United to win trophies, and now Rio ferdinand has
joined in by saying that Nasri is one of the best French players in the Premiership. "Samir Nasri
[...]
AS Roma is coming to Red Bull Arena for a summer friendly, but it will not be against a club
team.
Roma is set to take on El Salvador's national team in a friendly at Red Bull Arena on July 27,
the New York Red Bulls announced on Monday. The match will be Roma's final exhibition in their
first preseason trip to the United States, while it will also serve as another tune-up for El
Salvador before World Cup qualifying resumes.
Lots of news coming out of Montreal recently. The Impact had announced the resignation of head
coach Marc Dos Santos last month after a very disappointing and poor start. The team was 2-3-7
under Dos Santos this season.
Sporting Director Nick De Santis took over the team on an interim basis and is trying to turn
his squad around.
In the other Group D tonight in Donetsk, France rather easily beat the Ukraine 2-0, after it had
been 0-0 at the half. French players celebrate after great Yohan Cabaye strike And that was
France's first win in six years in major tournaments, as they had not won in the South Africa World
Cup in the summer [.
Hatem Ben Arfa has been named by France coach Laurent Blanc along with Newcastle team-mate YohanÂ
 Cabaye in his preliminary European Championship squad. Mercurial French winger Ben Arfa in
provisional French Squad Laurent will announce the provisional squad in two bits if you like, and
this squad is those French players based abroad.
With Newcastle now scouring the French football leagues for good bargains it's not surprising that
Arsenal could be int here for the same players. Benjamin Corgnet top French midfielder interesting
Arsenal and Newcastle Arsene Wenger has brought in a lot of French players in his time as the
Arsenal manager, and it seems that [.
Demba Ba has been interviewed on the French web-site RMCSport and what he says will  worryÂ
Newcastle fans. Demba Ba was interviewed in general by RMCSport about other French players atÂ
Newcastle and how he expects to do at the African Cup of Nations. Ba was born in Sèvres, which is
a community in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, and the player [.
Former France international Laurent Robert has talked today about the new Newcastle side, who have
a number of French players in their ranks. Laurent Robert - while at Newcastle Laurent played for
Newcastle 129 times from 2001 through 2006, with 30 goals, and from 2005 through 2006, was on loan
at Portsmouth.
David Ginola, Newcastle's former winger under manager Kevin Keegan in the 1990s, thinks the new
French players will have a big impact at Newcastle. David Ginola very popular player at Newcastle
Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, Mehdi Abeid and Demba Ba were all born in
France,  and were signed in the summer by Newcastle for a total of around £8M - which was
[.
Alan Pardew is almost the perfect players' manager. John Carver staff have done well to integrate
players The Newcastle manager supports his players, has regular communication with them privately,
so they all know not only what's going on at Newcastle, but they also know what the manager expects
of them.
Sylvain Marveaux has come across great, in his recent interview with the Newcastle press corps.
Sylvain Marveaux - you can almost taste the passion of the Geordie people With so many French
players in the squad now, there is a distinct danger the squad will develop cliques as they did in
the past, but John [.
Revolutions, radical change and a sense of foreboding: why French imports come with a warning
label for Newcastle United fans - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
In the Age of Enlightenment, a European nation overcame financial crises and numerous regime
changes to briefly flourish on the big stage for a few years.
'Who, me?' The reality of being identified as a Level 1 Hottie hits home for Olivier when five
hundred rampant Tetu readers (plus a couple of well-informed Kickette staffers) turn up and request
unsolicited snuggles. Cheers to @Philby1976 for the tip!
We thought we had the inside track on controversial decisions involving the relative hotness of
French players.
One of the areas that Harry Redknapp will surely need to strengthen is in defence and with that
in mind, there are a number of rumours today linking Tottenham with Elaquim Mangala. A defender of
Congolese descent who current plays his football with Belgian outfit Standard Liege.
Mangala is just 20 and has so far made a dozen appearances for France at Under 21 level.
French national team coach Laurent Blanc has been cleared by France's Sports
Minister Chantal Jouanno of discrimination claims.
Jouanno said no anti-discrimination laws were broken when Blanc and soccer federation colleagues
discussed whether quotas should be introduced to curb training academy access for young French
players with dual nationality, many of them black and Arab.
A clash of truly tricky and skilled teams! A chance to see some of my favorite creative players in
the women's game in action.
France v Japan, naturally.
Japan should take it, but never count the Frenchies out - especially since they can match Japan
skill for dribbling skill in team passing.
The U.S. men's national team returns to action later today in Paris, where the Americans will
take on France (2:55pm, ESPN).
Jurgen Klinsmann will look to help the U.S. team post its first win in Europe since March of
2008 (against Poland) by beating a young French team that is expected to field an experimental
squad against the United States.
With PPL Park playing host to it's first playoff game this Saturday, August 20 at 4:00pm
when the second-seeded Philadelphia Independence host the WPS Super Semifinal, the PSP caught up
with Independence and US National Team goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart. A former WPS champion with FC
Gold Pride who has earned 39 caps for the USA, Barnhart discusses the recent Women's World Cup,
the Philadelphia Independence, PPL Park and WPS.
0:1 against France is always better than 0:6 against Spain. We've made progress during the last
year, but in all honesty we started from a really low level. The players gave their all and played
to the best of their abilities. The 'problem' is that the French players took the game seriously
and they are more skillful.
