The Official French Ligue 1 Thread

[edfmx86]

Gutted for Falcao. Time for Jackson and Ibarbo to step it up though. I still think they can make some noise.

[magik9113]

That really sucks. And I was really close to jump the Columbian bandwagon, thanks to J-Mezzy.

You can still be. We got a pretty decent squad. As big of a loss as Falcao is, striker is our deepest position. We can't afford to lose James or Cuadrado though, we would be done for

Mezzy is right...
Serie A has been filled with Colombians and they are legit. Ibarbo is a very good winger and can play striker. Muriel is a good striker specially now that he's lost weight
There may not be a better dribbler in the world than Cuadrado. His dribbling style is a mix between Ronaldinho and Messi, i kid you not.
Zuniga is a speedy outside back/mid, as is Amero (i prefer Zuniga). Zapata is good starting center back. all of them very important players for the respective teams in Serie A.

[J-Mezzy]

Thanks Magik. I think we will be okay too.

Interesting fact, Ronaldo injured his knee on Jan 22 and he still made the wc and led it in scoring. Hopefully history repeats itself.

Also, Atletico players wore t shirts in support of Falcao. That's really great considering he only spent 2 years there. Class organization.

[J-Mezzy]

Class. That kind of support for an ex teammate is impressive. Wish he would have stayed there.

[J-Mezzy]

Falcao doctors say he has 50% chance of playing in the WC.

[J-Mezzy]

Every team that Falcao has played for has worn T-shirts supporting him. The dude is beloved everywhere that he's been on. Speaks volumes of his character imo.

[J-Mezzy]

Despite Renieri's best efforts, Monaco is only 2 points back from first.

[Foye]

Falcao doctors say he has 50% chance of playing in the WC.

It's risky, though. Coming back early from a torn ACL is never good. Chance he tores it again is huge.

[J-Mezzy]

Falcao doctors say he has 50% chance of playing in the WC.

It's risky, though. Coming back early from a torn ACL is never good. Chance he tores it again is huge.

I agree, but it is his decision. I was watching a special on Colombia's road to the WC and ever since 2010 all Falcao kept saying is how it is his life dream to play in a world cup. He is 27 years old and Colombia, even with the loads of young talent we possess right now, is not guaranteed to qualify for the next one. It took us 16 long years to make it back to the WC. I think that our federation and our coach will let him be on the team if he feels he is ready. If anything, he will get an extra week and a half of resting and training in the first round and we will use him as a super sub in the later rounds.

I keep telling you guys, the national team and the world cup is the most important thing to South Americans (both players and fans). Europeans are all about club glory and a lot of fans don't care too much for the NT. Whether we are right or wrong, our players are judged by what they do with the NT and they want nothing more than to make us all proud.

If he is anywhere close to being ready come June, he will be there.

[J-Mezzy]

Monaco lucky to draw today. James is sooooo good, I hope he moves on to a better club soon. He's a star.

[b-ball forever]

Lol, J-Mezzy sure loves his national team

Hopefully Falcao recovers as quickly as possible, but if he isn’t at 100% and gets playtime over a healthy player he might hurt the Colombia team more than he helps em, so hopefully he’ll make the right decision. Might be best to bring him off the bench at first if he’s good to go for the world cup. James Rodriguez has been more important to Monaco than Falcao this season, and it should be the same on the national team.

Would be cool for Colombia to have a nice run at the world cup, mainly for “Super Mario” Yepes’ national finale as far as I’m concerned. Dude was a monster and one of the best CB’s out there in his prime.

Back to Ligue 1 : Monaco will play PSG at home in front of a sellout crowd on Sunday. It’s the first time their stadium will be full this season, which is disappointing considering they already have one of the smallest stadiums in Ligue 1. They have the 2nd lowest average attendance in the league, only Ajaccio does worse there.

If Monaco manages to win that’d put em only 2 points behind PSG, but I think that they’ll play for a draw instead, even with Cavani injured. Maybe Berbatov will get some action. I think they shoulda kept Lacina Traore instead of loaning him out, having a big target like that up front would be useful.

[J-Mezzy]

Lol, J-Mezzy sure loves his national team

Hopefully Falcao recovers as quickly as possible, but if he isn’t at 100% and gets playtime over a healthy player he might hurt the Colombia team more than he helps em, so hopefully he’ll make the right decision. Might be best to bring him off the bench at first if he’s good to go for the world cup. James Rodriguez has been more important to Monaco than Falcao this season, and it should be the same on the national team.

Would be cool for Colombia to have a nice run at the world cup, mainly for “Super Mario” Yepes’ national finale as far as I’m concerned. Dude was a monster and one of the best CB’s out there in his prime.

Back to Ligue 1 : Monaco will play PSG at home in front of a sellout crowd on Sunday. It’s the first time their stadium will be full this season, which is disappointing considering they already have one of the smallest stadiums in Ligue 1. They have the 2nd lowest average attendance in the league, only Ajaccio does worse there.

If Monaco manages to win that’d put em only 2 points behind PSG, but I think that they’ll play for a draw instead, even with Cavani injured. Maybe Berbatov will get some action. I think they shoulda kept Lacina Traore instead of loaning him out, having a big target like that up front would be useful.

I do love my national team bro, only right behind my wife and kids for me. Falcao will surely make it there barring any set backs. The dude is determined to not miss what could be his only opportunity but I agree, he should start off on the bench

James has been more important to our national team as well. He is an elite player in my book, but most people don't know him so he doesn't get the credit he deserves. Yepes was a beast in his prime, such an underrated player. He was a top CB and the Ivan Cordoba and Yepes pairing had to be one of the best in the world.

I forgot they played PSG Sunday, must watch for me.

[J-Mezzy]

Game time guys. Tune in and watch the French super classic.

[Foye]

Abidal almost threw the game away there lol.

[J-Mezzy]

Not James' best game, but he still was a key piece to the result. Ibra was nowhere to be found today apart from 2 decent free kicks.

[Foye]

Menez is a terrible ball movement killer.

[J-Mezzy]

PSG will definitely win the league now and Monaco is a sure bet for a CL spot. Monaco will need a new coach if they hope to make any noise in the CL. Today was Ocampos's first really good game of the season and Rinieri took him out at the half. He was Monaco's best player in the 1st half...

[b-ball forever]

Not a bad game. I was worried that Monaco might hold out and play for the 0-0 draw, but they did a reasonable job attacking with 5 offensive minded players starting up front (Rivière, Germain, James, Ocampos, Moutinho) and only Toulalan in the defensive part of the mid-field.

Overall PSG played more fluid, controlled the game more, and got more goal scoring chances, but it was still close overall and PSG didn’t deserve a win either.

Pastore finally scored his first league goal of the season early with a good reflex header after Alex’s deviation. Then in the 2nd half Fabinho’s shot was deflected by Thiago Silva into his own goal.

Both keepers Subasic and Sirigu played very well with some key saves.

For PSG, Motta did well both defensively and with his passing, Matuidi and Alex were solid defensively, while Pastore (who stole Lavezzi’s spot tonight after his major slump) had maybe his best game of the season. Zlatan didn’t show up for once. He’s been dominating the league again otherwise so this was just an off game by him.

For Monaco, Toulalan had another great game as the solo defensive mid with his agressive pressing, wing backs Fabinho and Kurzawa helped out a lot offensively on the sides, and Ocampos had a solid all-around game. Rodriguez was quiet this time, but he did well to find Fabinho on the right despite having 3 PSG defenders around him on Monaco’s goalscoring buildup. Moutinho had an uncaractarastically poor passing game, he needs to pick it up if Monaco wants to gain much needed fluidity. Abidal had his worst game of the season, dunno what he was thinking at the end there with back hold play in the box. Berbatov showed off a few interesting moves in the little time he got.

So both face offs between PSG and Monaco wound up with draws this season, which is promising for Monaco’s chances next year.

[b-ball forever]

Menez is a terrible ball movement killer.

Lavezzi, Pastore, and Menez have been very disapointing overall this season, Lucas Moura is the only offensive mid-fielder playing well for PSG. The rest of the team is playing great tho, good thing Ibra and Cavani are there to pick up the offensive slack, and Verratti/Matuidi/Motta always control the midfield lower down. Cabaye also in the mix now won't hurt.

If Cavani doesn't return on time for the first leg champions league game against Leverkusen things could get ugly offensively. Then again, Lavezzi and Pastore usually play a lot better in the CL than they do in Ligue 1, so it might not be that bad...

[Tone-]

PSG will definitely win the league now

Of course they will, they have endless ressources, they can buy whoever they want... That's pretty easy!
Only Monaco can fight, but that's gonna be hard without Falcao.