A 72nd minute goal from Loic Remy was all France needed for a 1-0 win over the United States at Stade de France on Friday. USA goalkeeper Tim Howard did a lot of work to keep the score manageable, with France holding a decisive lead in shots taken and shots on goal. Hugo Lloris kept the clean sheet for France.
“From a technical perspective, the shape, working, and really finding a rhythm was good,” US coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “The real piece that was missing was scoring a goal. I told them at halftime ‘guys, you can absolutely compete here. You can go for a win.’ Obviously it was difficult after their goal. In these types of games, if you make one or two mistakes you get punished. It was still impressive how they came back. They pushed forward and were getting close. We made life very, very difficult for France, and they realized after 30 minutes there is a team that has a go at them. Obviously you want to score a couple of goals sooner or later, so I wish there was one or two.”
-- GAME REPORT --
Date: Nov. 11, 2011
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: Stade de France – Paris
Kickoff: 3 p.m. ET
Attendance: 70,018
Weather: Cloudy, 50 degrees
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
France 0 1 1
USA 0 0 0
FRA - Loïc Rémy (Marvin Martin) 73rd minute
Lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard; 2-Steve Cherundolo, 4-Clarence Goodson, 5-Carlos Bocanegra (capt.), 3-Timmy Chandler; 8-Maurice Edu (18-Edson Buddle, 77), 6-Kyle Beckerman (16-Jermaine Jones, 66), 10-Clint Dempsey; 11-Brek Shea (17- DaMarcus Beasley, 71), 7-Danny Williams (15-Fabian Johnson, 71), 9-Jozy Altidore
Subs not used: 12-Bill Hamid, 13-Michael Orozco Fiscal, 14-Michael Bradley
Head Coach: Jurgen Klinsmann
FRA: 1-Hugo Lloris; 2-Matthieu Debuchy, 4-Adil Rami, 5-Laurent Koscielny, 3-Jérémy Mathieu; 14-Jérémy Ménez, 18- Alou Diarra, 17- Yann M'Vila (11-Maxime Gonalons, 60), 7- Franck Ribéry (21-Loïc Rémy, 64); 10- Karim Benzema (8-Marvin Martin, 65), 20- Kevin Gameiro (9-Olivier Giroud, 60)
Subs not used: 6-Yohan Cabaye, 12-Mamadou Sakho, 13-Anthony Réveillère, 15-Florent Malouda, 16-Cédric Carrasso, 22-Eric Abidal, 23-Steve Mandanda
Head coach: Laurent Blanc
Misconduct Summary:
FRA – Laurent Koscielny (caution) 78th minute
FRA – Matthieu Debuchy (caution) 80
Officials:
Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Saraidaris (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Dimitrios Bozatzidis (GRE)
Fourth Official: Huseyin Ocak (GRE)
I know the game was onn european soil. I know france hasnt lost in their last 15. I know Klinsman is still in the “infancy” stages of his tenure as coach. I know the US didnt play terribly today and infact played organized. I have usually held my criticism of the coaches. I even defended Bradley and even commended him for some of the things he did for the team. I’m not a Bradley “fan”, but is this what we gave him up for? I don’t know if its the player pool or the coach, but since the turn over I havent seen any innovation or life being breathed into the team. When Arena took over you saw a change for the better. When Bradley took over you saw aggression come into the team and you could see a change from the slumping team of Arena. Klinsman comes in and there is nothing to be seen months into his tenure. Im not saying get rid klinsman, but up till this point I am not impressed. I hope someone actually responds to this telling me where Im wrong so I can start seeing the positive changes being made.
I didn’t think Klinsman was a good coach for Germany or Bayern. He lacks urgency in his style he doesn’t impress upon the players that they must go for the win from kickoff. He needs to start the game with two forwards up top we have seen it time after time whether under Bradley or Klinsman that Jozy performs much better with a 2nd forward. But the most important thing someone needs to tell the players is its ok to shot on goal when in or near the box! I can understand he is still growing this team, but at least try some different attackers. I also think not having Torres has hurt the attack a bit since there seems to be no one to conduct the US attack. There is also no clear leadership on this team right now. I know Dempsey, Boca and Howard are the leaders but who is inspiring this team? I’m not crazy that Klinsman want shake things up after all these loses. He keeps trying the same thing and he keeps getting the same result. I almost feel that Klinsman would have been better suited to be in charge of the youth teams.
I would like to see something unique from Klinsmann to do like 1st Kyle said and make a break. Arena beat Germany and established Chris Armas who ended up seeing his national team contributions limited through injury. Like you said, Bradley established a new urgency.