Watching charity matches is always a little surreal. Part footy match, part spectacle, part day trip away from the retirement home. I don't think I've seen any game that captured this surreality more than yesterday's charity match between "Friends of Zidane" and "Friends of Ronaldo" (the Brazilian one, not the pretty one) to [. Click to continue reading...

France coach Raymond Domenech under attack from Gregory Coupet

France coach Raymond Domenech does not protect his players and is responsible for a bad atmosphere in the team, says goalkeeper Gregory Coupet.

From Telegraph.co.uk

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As everyone's probably already heard, Fabio Grosso went down in the 18th min of Italy's 2-1 win over Cyprus. Fabio left the game with an injury to his flank. The diagnosis is two fractured ribs. It's believed he will be out of the Lyon line-up for at least one month. That amounts to Grosso missing at least (6) matches.

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Wow, a huge upset in the first round of European World Cup qualifiers as Austria beat France 3-1. When you look at those lineups, there is no way that France should not at least have come out of Vienna without a draw, and even that would have to be considered an upset. I am sure that the pressure is now squarely on Raymond Domenech, but it really should be on the French FA for keeping Domenech after the debacle that was the French performance at Euro 2008. Click to continue reading...

Almeria
In: Esteban Solari (undisclosed, Pumas), Pablo Piatti (undisclosed, Estudiantes La Plata), Michel (undisclosed, Flamengo), David Moreno (undisclosed, Real Madrid), Esteban (free, Celta Vigo), Julio Alvarez (free, Numancia), Hernan Pellerano (undisclosed, Velez Sarsfield), Chico (undisclosed, Cadiz)
Out: Felipe Melo (€13m, Fiorentina), Veljko Paunovic (free, FK Partizan), David Rodriguez (loan, Celta), Ruben Pulido (free, Real Zaragoza), Mario Bermejo (free, Xerez), Francisco (free, Alicante)

Athletic Bilbao
In: Jose Garcia Del Olmo (undisclosed, Eibar)
Out: Asier Del Horno (loan return, Valencia), Daniel Aranzubia (free, Deportivo), Unai Exposito (free, Hercules), Iban Zubiaurre (loan, Elche), Toquero (loan, Eibar), Aritz Aduriz (undisclosed, Mallorca)

Atletico Madrid
In: Tomas Ujfalusi (free, Fiorentina), Johnny Heitinga (€10m, Ajax), Florent Sinama Pongolle (undisclosed, Recreativo), Gregory Coupet (undisclosed, Lyon), Paulo Assuncao (free, Porto), Ever Banega (loan, Valencia)
Out: Falcon (free, Celta), Mista (free, Deportivo), Braulio Nobrega (undisclosed, Zaragoza), Cuellar (free, Murcia), Roberto Jimenez (undisclosed, Recreativo), Raul Llorente (free, Alaves), Josne Manuel Juardo (loan, Mallorca), Mario Suarez (undisclosed, Mallorca), Ze Castro (loan, Deportivo), Jose Antonio Reyes (loan, Benfica), Cleber Santana (loan, Mallorca), Diego Costa (loan, Albacete), Jacobo (free, Alaves)

Barcelona
In: Seydou Keita (€14 mil, Sevilla), Daniel Alves (€32 mil, Sevilla), Gerard Pique (undisclosed, Manchester United), Martin Caceres (€16. Click to continue reading...

Auxerre
In: Jeremy Berthod (undisclosed, Monaco), Cedric Hengbart (undisclosed, Caen), Moussa Narry (undisclosed, Etoile du Sahel), Dariusz Dudka (undisclosed, Wisla Krakow), Amadou Sidibe (undisclosed, Djoliba Bamako)
Out:

Bordeaux
In: Yoann Gourcuff (loan, AC Milan), Yoan Gouffran (undisclosed, Bordeaux), Diego Placente (undisclosed, San Lorenzo)
Out:

Caen
In: Pablo Barzola (undisclosed, Caen)
Out: Yoan Gouffran (undisclosed, Bordeaux), Benoit Castil (loan, Vannes), Stephane Sanson (undisclosed, Reims), Cedric Hengbart (undisclosed, Auxerre)

Grenoble
In: Daniel Moreira (loan, Rennes)
Out:

Le Havre
In: Nicolas Dieuze (undisclosed, Toulouse)
Out:

Le Mans
In: Anthony Le Tallec (undisclosed, Liverpool)
Out: Daisuke Matsui (undisclosed, St. Click to continue reading...

Bojan...scored more often as a youth than Darren McFadden


Grégory Coupet - Atletico Madrid - Goalkeeper

Coupet is 35 and French national team goalkeeper, so hardly an unknown. However, it will be interesting to see how he performs in his first season outside France. Coupet was a major part of the Lyon success story and has seven league winners medals, although he is probably most famous for this double save against Barcelona. Click to continue reading...

Via tigres.com.mx
MONTERREY, 19 de Julio.- Los Tigres de la UANL dejaron un buen sabor de boca, al venir de atrás y sacar el empate de 2-2 al Atlético de Madrid, en lo que fue el último partido de preparación para el conjunto felino.
El trofeo "Hotel Camino Real" fue para el visitante, al terminar en empate el juego, pero los 30 mil aficionados que asistieron al Estadio Universitario se llevaron buena impresión, sobre todo en la segunda parte. Click to continue reading...

Euros are over. Moving forward. (Again. It's hard to forget something like that, isn't it?) But let's take a look at how the transfer season is going.

First, Samir Nasri is a Gunner at last! We all knew it was going to happen, right? And then it didn't. And didn't. And didn't.

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Lyon had their first summer friendly this afternoon against Nimes in Albertville. Goals were scored by Juninho (10), Yannis Tafer (40), and Anthony Mounier (63). This was Claude Puel's first match in charge, and for many of the players, their first match in an OL jersey.

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Nothing major to report on the transfer front. Most of the info from Inara's last transfer post is still up to date. Here's the latest:

OUT:

Gregory Coupet: Greg's transfer to Atletico Madrid has been finalized.

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Disclaimer: I know that it's been a week now since Hatem Ben Arfa left Lyon for Marseille. Both John and Magnusson have covered this topic very thoroughly, so most of you are probably tired of hearing about it.

But I just can't let this go.

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A collection of transfer rumours and facts that are doing the rounds -Harry Kewell makes move to Galatasaray,Paul Robinson maybe going to West Bromwich Albion,Italian defender Andrea Dossena goes to Liverpool,Portsmouth are going to take Peter Crouch for £10m,22-year-old James Milner from Newcastle is going to Aston Villa,Richard Dunne will be staying on at Manchester City,Marvin Emnes signed up for Middlesbrough, Steven Taylor stays with Newcastle United,Atletico Madrid signed French international goalkeeper Gregory Coupet,Ronaldinho won't be sold at a discount,Messi's going to Serie A,Cristiano Ronaldo is going to Real Madrid,no he's not,yes he is,no,yes,no,yes,sez who.

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The transfer window is open. Players are on the move. What does this mean for our France boys and their club situations? Let's take a look at a few of our gents and where they'll be playing next season.

We all know that Gregory Coupet is out the door for Lyon, right? Or maybe not.

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The latest news from this week...Due to the amount of material covered, I didn't post links to the original sources like I normally do, but if you want them, let me know.

OUTGOING:

FRED: Is it just me, or does Fred spend an inordinate amount of time making life difficult for the rest of us?

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GREGORY COUPET, LYON & French International goalkeeper, has signned for ATLETICO DE MADRID. Yesterday (see below post) SFS commented that the Frenchmen was seen in Madrid last Thursday talking... Read all the news, results, details & comments in English on Spanish Football & Sports Click to continue reading...

I've totally been avoiding writing about this because part of me still believes that it's only a nightmare...But man, out of the eleven OL players in Euro 2008, only one will be showing his face in the quarterfinals.

I have nine other identical pictures just like this.

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Steve's Stats: Analysis of Goalkeeper Performance at Group C for 17 June 2008
by Steve Amoia for Keeper Skool

The Group of Death will say farewell to two teams today. Holland has already won the group playing the best football at the Euro, and the fate of Italy and France is out of their hands.

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Farewell then, France. Last night had been an evening that promised to hit a crescendo of tension, excitement and drama, but in the event the evening in Zurich all went off like a firework display in a monsoon, with a French selection and performance that gave Italy a relatively comfortable ride through to the quarter-finals, whilst in Berne the Dutch comfortably found a way past a Romania side which, three games in, finally showed up the shortcomings that many had suspected would lead to them being one of the tournament's lame ducks before so much as a ball was kicked. Click to continue reading...

It will be the tale of the two keepers. And who will be more effective in keeping the ball away from the crypt. If that is the case then you would take Buffon over Gregory Coupet in a heartbeat. Coupet's heedless charge led to the Robben goal and his delayed reaction could have stopped Van Persie.

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France's defense, and goalkeeper Gregory Coupet, were hammered by the Netherlands for 4 goals. France actually played fairly well in stretches, and created many chances to score, but on 4 occasions, France couldn't keep the Dutch out. Malouda was beaten badly for the opener, letting Kuyt head a goal into the back of the net. Click to continue reading...

Is this the day that Lyon end a 35 year dry spell in the Coupe de France?

Is this the day that Lyon win their first ever double?

Is this the day that Lyon finally rise above one of the worst injury crises in their history?

Is this the day that Lyon finally make us believe?

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This is probably the worst kept secret over the last few days. Gregory Coupet has often been linked with a move abroad in the last few years. However, he never really wanted to leave...until now. We all knew something was up when rumors spread like wildfire after Coupet allegedly told two supporters yesterday that he was leaving.

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The latest transfer news involving players. I'll have a post up later on Perrin and possible managers tomorrow.

Outgoing:

It's always the same old story with Sidney Govou. He starts talking about leaving, but he always ends up staying. This year is no different.

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First thing. Before you do anything else, would you do me a favor? Click on this link. (You don't even have to read it. Just click. And if you have a spare second, click it again.) It's a Player Profile for Karim Benzema that I wrote for the main Euro page. I made a formatting error that kept it from getting picked up by google when it was first written.

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Don't think about it too hard. Take it all with a grain of salt. The 35-year old French international recently signed a contract with Lyon until 2010. That would make him 37 if he were to come over on a free transfer. "It's a desire Greg has"...meaning, at least it's not forced on him by [...] Click to continue reading...