This French national squad is coming off of a poor showing against Nigeria, where they only managed one goal against the Super Falcons. They spent more time defending the African champion's counter attacks then they probably wanted to. It took a '56 goal by Marie-Laure Delie to Lift les bleues past Nigeria.
It's about to get nerdy again
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The French squad is coming into this tournament having lost starting goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi to an ACL injury. Her replacement in the starting position is Celine Deville who plays for Montpellier. The 29 year old Deville has managed to accumulate 42 caps while with the senior squad but this will be by far her biggest test yet. Deville is captain at her club team so look for her to be focused and on her game today.
Team Captain Sandrine Soubeyrand brings her 37 year old body out for one last kick about and could get victimized by a younger faster Canadian midfield. 3 years ago she passed the legendary Lilian Thuram as the most capped French international player. Male or Female. So there are a lot miles on those legs. Head to head the French midfield averages 3 years older but only 3 games more of experience. The younger faster Canadian midfield will try and exploit their European opponents inability to keep pace on the wings.
The French are quite young and inexperienced up front but they seem to have a prodigy on their hands in 23 year old Marie Laure Delie. She was co-top scorer in the 2007 UEFA Women's -19 Championship. She has continued her merciless goal poaching rate and has 22 goals in 21 games leading up to this tournament. Since starting this tournament she is already 1 for 1 having notched the lone goal that proved to be the winner against Nigeria. France's forwards average 24 years old and 35 games of experience coming into this game. The Canadian defense average 2 years older and twice as many games of experience. The Canadians will not give France nearly the time or space that Nigeria offered, and we should not make the same defensive miscues. Other then Delie, nobody else in France's World Cup squad has more then 20 goals. So if she is shut down the Canucks should be able to keep France off the board.
With goals in mind if you look at Canada after Christine Sinclair nobody on the squad has more then 13 goals. So her playing today is essential for a victory. Well at least it used to be. Several times this year Carolina Morace has rested her star and the team has managed to pull through with a victory. Look for Canada to have regrouped and dealt with any nerves that were present in front of the 73 000 Berliners on Sunday. France's defensive line will be organized by Sonia Bompastor of Olympique Lyonnais. She will be leading a relatively inexperienced defensive unit with her 129 Caps. Bompastor recently played here in North America with the Washington Freedom. So Canada will know what to expect from the defender. Her new squad Lyon are the defending UEFA League Champions and are well represented in this side. Look out for 20 year old defender Wendie Renard who played in more games this year for Lyon than Bompastor or national team defensive partner, and Lyon captain Laura Georges. Renard will be hard to miss she's a tall drink of water at 6'1. Even with Renard's height the defense as a whole only averages 5'7, so if Canada can get balls over or around her on set pieces and corners, they should be able to get balls on Tancredi's head. Canada's forwards average 2 years younger then the French defenders and 9 games more of experience. Too bad that experience has not barred fruit like the way it has in France.
From what my math tells me France's forwards all score at better than a goal once every four games. Unfortunately for them Canada are strong defensively and held the power house Germans at distance forcing them to take long range shots. At the other end of the pitch if Christine Sinclair does not play, nobody on Canada scores at a clip of under 4 games between goals. This could be a very tight game and Canada know this match means life or death so expect high drama.
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