France vs. Mexico

A french fan, I can only be really bitter and frustrated at France's performance against Mexico (0-2). I was very sad watching my team completely fall apart in the last 25 minutes of the game and seeing the shock and despair on the faces of players like Thierry Henry, watching the game from the bench.
What a poor game from France! There were some interesting plays and nice construction in the beginning of the first half, but the Mexicans were just better. When we had the ball, Mexico exercised very strong pressure, blocking us from developing a coherent, fluid game. We sometimes rushed our construction, and thus easily lost the ball. Mexico's first goal by Hernandez revealed a very passive french defense and Blanco's penalty came from a stupid foul from Abidal.

Except for Diaby, Toulalan, and Lloris, every starting french player played poorly. In front, Anelka, Ribery, and Govou did nothing interesting, nothing intelligent and the three of them maybe collected 1 shot on goal. Pathetic! Evra and Malouda were quite disappointing as well. Coach Domenech shouldn't have given in to the pressure to leave Gourcuff on the bench. Domenech instead gave the role of attacking midfielder to a very disappointing Franck Ribery. Gourcuff is a necessary element of the french team and should have started against Mexico. I really think this defeat is in large part due to his absence. Gourcuff is a big 'winner' of this defeat to Mexico: the french team, without him, lost miserably.

Why does Domenech keep persisting on Anelka and Govou? They were simply bad in the preparation matches and in the Uruguay game (0-0). Forwards are meant to score or deliver passes and they visibly couldn't do any of that before, so why insist? The choice of taking Anelka off at half time was good, but he shouldn't even have started the game. Same goes for Govou.

Incredibly frustrating game for France overall, at the individual level as much as at the collective level: there was a lack of collective envy and real motivation. Just like Toulalan and Diaby, Matthieu Valbuena (replaced Govou) really showed envy, but a whole team needs it to go anywhere.

France still has an extremely slim chance of passing, but honestly, I don't see it happening.

For Mexico, Dos Santos and Salcido had excellent games, especially the latter always making intelligent runs down the left wing. Marquez also had a very solid game in his defensive midfield position. I really applaud Mexico for this success and a very solid game. They really deserve it, the best team won.