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France Provisional Euro 2012 Roster: 5 Players Laurent Blanc Overlooked and Why
Published: May 16, 2012
With the tournament in Poland and Ukraine some three weeks away (the first match is on June 8), national team managers are beginning to chisel down their squads. Blanc will also whittle his list down to 23 ahead of the May 29 deadline.
Enter France, who after that disastrous tournament in South Africa—they managed just one point in the group stages while humiliating themselves with the whole world watching—have enjoyed a revitalization of sorts under Blanc, who famously led Les Bleus to glory as a player at World Cup '98 and Euro 2000.
They finished first in their qualifying group, losing only once—a shocker in their opening match against Belarus at the Stade de France—and beat out second-place Bosnia and Herzegovina by a single point.
(The two teams had met in the last qualifying match, which fittingly took place at the Stade de France. France tied Bosnia, thus atoning somewhat for their mishap in that first match against the Belorussians.)
They have not lost in 18 matches, and have claimed the scalps of several traditional world powers during that run with wins against England at Wembley (November, 2010), Brazil at the Stade de France in February 2011, and Germany in Bremen this past March.
Blanc has successfully changed the team dynamic from that World Cup catastrophe, bringing in new players at nearly every position outside of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was named captain for the Euros; Franck Ribery, who normally starts at left wing; and Patrice Evra, who looks likely to start at left-back this summer.
Many of that new breed are in the provisional roster&mda...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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