Assorted News Bits

By: Inara | October 10th, 2007

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I take back what I said about the away kits. The gold kit is fast becoming a favorite, whether paired with red or dark blue shorts (though I prefer the red). As the Setanta broadcaster said this weekend…gold is a color only to be worn by champions!

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Jeremy Toulalan, Karim Benzema, and Sidney Govou have been called up by France to take on the Faroe Islands and then Ukraine in crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers. Fabio Grosso has been called up by Italy to take on Georgia and Scotland, Kim Kallstrom has been called up by Sweden to face Liechtenstein and North Ireland, Milan Baros will be joining his Czech Republic teammates to take on Germany, and Kader Keita has been called up by the Ivory Coast to participate in a friendly against Austria. Additionally, Hatem Ben Arfa will be joining the France U21s to face Bosnia-Herzegovina and Romania.

UPDATE: Domenech has called up Hatem Ben Arfa to replace the injured Louis Saha! This is Ben Arfa’s first call up to the senior team.

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Fabio Santos is having a great birthday. Not only did he put in his best performance ever in a Lyon shirt this past weekend, he almost made Jeremy Toulalan redundant. In fact, his performance was so good that he landed a spot on Gazzetta dello Sport’s European team of the week. That’s a pretty big jump from nothingness to having his name next to the likes of Lionel Messi and John Terry.

Team of the week: Casillas/Real Madrid - Garay/Santander, Terry/Chelsea, Kyrgiakos/Frankfurt - Elano/Manchester, Ze Roberto/Bayern, Fabio Santos/Lyon, Quaresma/Porto - Van Persie/Arsenal, Alves/Heerenveen, Messi/Barcelona.

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Alain Perrin is living day to day at Lyon. Convinced his job could go at any time, the Lyon manager is grateful for the 3-1 win over Bordeaux on his birthday. He is “a little less threatened at the moment” though he did receive the dreaded vote of confidence from Jean-Michel Aulas.

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Lyon’s game against Monaco on October 20th has been pushed back by an hour to accommodate the Rugby World Cup final. The game will now start at 10:15 AM (instead of 11:10 AM). In addition, PSG-OL on October 27 has been pushed forward another hour and will start at 3 PM (as opposed to 2 PM). *

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Since Lyon are L1 champions, they, along with runners-up Marseille, were given a bye to the round of 16 in the Coupe de la Ligue. Lyon have been drawn against Caen, and the game will take place Wednesday, October 31st at Caen. *

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Depending on what you read, Mancini wants to leave Roma either because he broke up with his girlfriend (he did it over text messaging…what a classy guy) or because he wants his salary doubled. He is willing to consider a move to Lyon if the price is right, and according to Il Romanista, Lyon are prepared to offer €4m/year. Right.

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Lyon may or may not be interested in Simone Barone of Torino and Adrian Mutu of Fiorentina. Fiorentina, on the other hand, are interested in Hatem Ben Arfa and sent a scout to watch both him and Karim Benzema this past weekend against Bordeaux. Dream on, Viola.

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Eager to make amends for making this comment, David Trezeguet is now smoothing ruffled feathers by laying the praise on Karim Benzema rather thickly while still managing to paint Lyon in an unflattering light.

“In Karim, I can partly see me at the same age at Monaco. He has achieved an extraordinary start to the season at Lyon, even if l’OL are not the same as in the past. I am really impressed by Karim. He has everything, left foot, right foot, desire, daring and dribbling sense. He still has to show his qualities at Lyon and then he will leave. Ligue 1 is perfect to show yourself growing, but high-level is somewhere else. Benzema has all the qualities to become a great forward. I believe he represents the future of the French team.”

Thanks, David. You must be so glad that Didier Deschamps wouldn’t let you sign for Lyon when you were desperate to escape Juve’s Serie B demotion.

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Even the snide commentators at British site Football365, who are very dour handed when it comes to praise (unless it involves Darren Bent), are growing fond of Benzema. According to one columnist,

“Lyon have a potentially world class player, and Benzema looks destined for far better things than Ligue 1. He might even be good enough to make Alain Perrin look like he knows what he’s doing.”

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As for Karim Benzema, none of the praise is getting to his head. He reiterates that he has a lot more progress to make, that he’s not a kid anymore, and that he prefers playing as an axial attacker in a 4-4-2. He also says that Lyon aren’t weaker, just different, and that it will take time for the new players to gel together. Benzema also says that if he ever played abroad, he would favor a move either to Spain or to Italy because he doesn’t like British or German football and its accompanying lifestyle. But have no fear, French fans, because when asked if he can imagine himself staying at Lyon for another five years (until the end of his contract), Benzema said this:

“Why not? I know that in football, things can change suddenly. But I am very happy here. I was born in Lyon, and I have my family and friends here. And to begin a career at OL is not a bad thing at all. Lyon has been the best French club for seven years, and one of the better European clubs. Every day, I play against big players and I progress. So I don’t think about leaving.”

D’ya hear that, Roman?

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Scottish midfielder Charlie Adams accused Alain Perrin of sour grapes for saying that Rangers play anti-football. Adam says that “it’s easy for teams to blame other teams after defeat.” I must admit that he does have a good point.

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Juninho can count his lucky stars that UEFA will not be sanctioning him for his rather embarrassing dive against Rangers last week, especially since his compatriot Dida is facing investigation for his theatrics against Celtic. UEFA says that since Juninho’s dive didn’t affect the result, it doesn’t warrant much attention (though it did result in a yellow card for David Weir). Hmm. While I’m glad that he’s not being punished, saying that some dives are okay is not the message UEFA should be spreading in the world.

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Speaking of Juninho, he hit back at the French media for the heavy shower of criticism Lyon have been dealt since the start of the season.

“People have the right to criticize but they don’t have the right to be disrespectful. Our team is the 6-time champions of France and we have entertained people everywhere. Sometimes I get the feeling we’re like foreigners, that Lyon isn’t part of L1. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it before! It’s much harder this season but hard work pays off and the team will continue to improve.”

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Jean-Michel Aulas might be overplaying the humble underdog card as he keeps on insisting that a UEFA Cup spot is a realistic objective. He even went so far to tell Laurent Blanc that he hopes Lyon will join Bordeaux in the competition, and that there is nothing humiliating or dishonorable in losing a game (in reference to the loss to Rangers).

* Since this is a blog written in Boston, all match times are in US Eastern time. To standardize them to French time, just add six hours.