The UNFP player of the year awards

Awards 2006-2007

Best Player Ligue 1 : Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyonnais)

Best Female Player Ligue 1: Sonia Bompastor (Olympique Lyonnais)

Best Young Player Ligue 1 : Hatem Ben Arfa (Olympique Lyonnais)

Best Goalkeeper Ligue 1 : Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille)

Best Manager Ligue 1 : Laurent Blanc (Bordeaux)

Best Goal Ligue 1 : Mathieu Valbuena (Olympique de Marseille) during OM-Caen

Ligue 1 Starting XI:

Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille)

Laurent Bonnart (Ol. Marseille) Puygrenier (Nancy) Vitorino Hilton (Lens), Taye Taiwo (Ol. Marseille)

Jérémy Toulalan (Ol. Lyonnais) Benoît Cheyrou (Ol. Marseille) Mathieu Valbuena (Ol. Marseille) Geraldo Wendel (Bordeaux)

Mamadou Niang (Olympique de Marseille) Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyonnais)





( more pictures behind the cut )
UNFP awards of 06/07

They don't call group C "the killer group" for nothing. It's undoubtly the strongest one where only Romania might be an "easy" opponnent. The line-up of the French NT is not avaible yet so I'm going to take a look at the other teams in group C.

Group C:

Netherlands
Italy
Romania
France

Netherlands:

Coach: Marco van Basten

Goalkeepers: Sander Boschker (Twente Enschede), Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax Amsterdam), Henk Timmer (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

Defenders: Wilfried Bouma (Aston Villa), Tim de Cler (Feyenoord Rotterdam), John Heitinga (Ajax Amsterdam), Joris Mathijsen (Hamburger SV), Mario Melchiot (Wigan Athletic), André Ooijer (Blackburn Rovers)

Midfielders: Ibrahim Afellay (PSV Eindhoven), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Feyenoord Rotterdam), Orlando Engelaar (Twente Enschede), Nigel de Jong, Rafael van der Vaart (both Hamburger SV), Denny Lanzaat (Feyenoord Rotterdam), Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid), Demy de Zeeuw (AZ Alkmaar)

Forwards: Ryan Babel (FC Liverpool), Klaas Jan Huntelaar (Ajax Amsterdam), Dirk Kuyt (FC Liverpool), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Robin van Persie (Arsenal London), Arjen Robben (Real Madrid), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic Glasgow)

Italy:

Coach: Roberto Donadoni

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus Turin), Marco Amelia (AS Livorno), Morgan De Sanctis (FC Sevilla)

Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Marco Materazzi (Inter Mailand), Christian Panucci (AS Rom), Andrea Barzagli (US Palermo), Gianluca Zambrotta (FC Barcelona), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus Turin), Fabio Grosso (Olympique Lyon)

Midfielders: Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Massimo Ambrosini (all AC Mailand), Daniele De Rossi, Simone Perrotta, Alberto Aquilani (all AS Rom), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus Turin), Riccardo Montolivo (AC Florenz)

Strikers: Luca Toni (Bayern München), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus Turin), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese Calcio), Marco Borriello (FC Genua), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese Calcio), Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria Genua)


Romania:

Coach: Victor Piţurcă

Goalkeepers: Bogdan Lobont (Dinamo Bucharest), Danut Coman (Rapid Bucharest), Marius Popa (Politehnica Timisoara).

Defenders: Cristian Sapunaru (Rapid Bucharest), Dorin Goian (Steaua Bucharest), Sorin Ghionea (Steaua Bucharest), Cosmin Moti (Dinamo Bucharest), Cosmin Contra (Getafe), Gabriel Tamas (Auxerre), Stefan Radu (Lazio), Razvan Rat (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Midfielders: Florentin Petre (TSKA Sofia), Paul Codrea (Siena), Razvan Cocis (Lokomotiv Moscow), Cristian Chivu (Inter Milan), Mirel Radoi (Steaua Bucharest), Ovidiu Petre (Steaua Bucharest), Nicolae Dica (Steaua Bucharest), Banel Nicolita (Steaua Bucharest), Ciprian Deac (CFR Cluj), Adrian Cristea (Dinamo Bucharest).

Forwards: Adrian Mutu (Fiorentina), Ciprian Marica (VfB Stuttgart), Daniel Niculae (Auxerre), Marius Niculae (Inverness Caledonian Thistle), Florin Bratu (Dinamo Bucharest)

France: (squad list is not yet avaible)

Coach: Raymond Domenech

Group stages:

June 9th 18:00 Romania - France
June 9th 20:45 Netherlands - Italy
June 13th 18:00 Italy - Romania
June 13th 20:45 France - Netherlands
June 17th 20:45 France - Italy
June 17th 20:45 Netherlands - Romania

Quarter-finals:

June 21st 20:45 Winner of Group C - Runner-up of Group D
June 22nd 20:45 Winner of Group D - Runner-up of Group C
( Group A, B and D )

( 6 pics, nsfw )

Hilarious vid of the classic rivals PSG and OM.

A little introduction picspam (+40 pics, most w/o watermarks) of Samir Nasri.



( Allez! )

Welcome to the French Football Asylum!

I changed the tag permissions so that all members can create and change tags.

I created some football feeds.

france_offside or offside_france The Offside blog about French football. Yes, these two are the same, they only have different names. ;)

offside_footie The Offside football blog general.

Enjoy!

Instead of doing something productive I searched the internets for the last couple of ages hours minutes to find pictures of the new French football kit. But alas, I couldn't find any information that new kit even exists.

( New French Jersey for 2008 )

( The old World Cup jerseys )

( Monsieur Thierry Henry )

( Allons enfants de la patrie! )

The UNFP player of the year awards

Awards 2006-2007
Best Player Ligue 1 : Florent Malouda (Lyon)
Best Young Player Ligue 1 : Samir Nasri (Marseille)
Best Goalkeeper Ligue 1 : Teddy Richert (Sochaux)
Best Manager Ligue 1 : Gérard Houllier (Lyon)
Best Goal Ligue 1 : Ilan (Saint-Etienne): A beautiful bicycle kick against PSG (as voted by the CANAL+ audience)
All Star Team Ligue 1 : Richert (Sochaux) – Sagna (Auxerre), Cris (Lyon), Hilton (Lens), Abidal (Lyon) – S.Keita (Lens), Nasri (Marseille), Malouda (Lyon), K. Keita (Lille) – Elmander (Toulouse), Savidan (Valenciennes).

Best Player Ligue 2 : Yoan Gouffran (Caen)
Best Goalkeeper Ligue 2 : Stéphane Cassard (Strasbourg)
Best Manager Ligue 2 : Francis De Taddéo (Metz)
All Star Team Ligue 2 : Cassard (Strasbourg) – Beria (Metz), P.Diop (Metz), Abassé (Dijon), Hengbart (Caen) – Proment (Caen), Cardy (Metz), Gouffran (Caen) – Lesage (Le Havre), Féret (Reims), Gueye (Metz)

( Read more... )

How do I watch a match?

Well, this is for everyone with a fast internet connection. You have to download a p2p client (it's better to have more than one, the popular ones being sopcast, PPmate and lately TVants)

- Go to rojadirecta.com or LIVEtv to find your channels or download the clients.

- If you click the "match" link, your P2P client will open automatically and the game will load in a few minutes.

+++

- For those willing to pay: UEFA provides a streaming service, too. I didn't use this service, so I can't say much about the reliability or quality. UEFAs services runs on Media Player and they charge up to 5 € for the match (plus highlights, interviews etc). You can pay with your credit card only. The commentary is in English and for certain matches in French. There are also free match highlights available.

- Free matches are provided by Eurosport. The quality is good.

( resources )