Bonne Chance à la France!
Posted on 18. Jun, 2012 by Hichem in Geography, News, People, Sports, Vocabulary
Bonjour les amis!
The Euro 2012 games have been so far full of excitement, and the performance of les Bleus quite remarkable, especially against l’Ukraine, the co-host of the European competition.
The next face à face for les Bleus will take place tomorrow against a demoralized Swedish team, who has now rien à perdre (nothing to lose) in this competition, despite a very decent game played recently against England.
Even if France secures its ticket to the next phase, the game with Sweden will still be an important one, since it will decide whether les Bleus would then face la Croatie, l’Italie, or l’Espagne.
In the meantime, let’s resume our “Meet the French Squad” tour, in the thread of posts which began with “Euro 2012: Allez la France!“
Défenseur: Gaël Clichy
Sometimes, it takes a French eye to spot French talent. And no sir, that is no cliché to say.
In fact, make that a “Clichy“, as in the famed “Place de Clichy” in Paris—or as in the name of the French defender Gaël Clichy.
While he was playing for Cannes, Gaël managed to attract the attention of Arsène Wenger, Arsenal‘s French manager well-known around the world for his remarkable flair for outstanding players.
Gaël was talented enough to be part of the so-called “Arsenal Invincibles” (2003-2004.)
Since last year, he plays with Manchester City, together with Samir Nasri, the jeune garçon (young man) who saved France from the clutches of defeat against England in the very first game of the competition!
Milieu de terrain (Midfielder): Yohan Cabaye
The second French goal was scored by Yohan Cabaye, the first International goal of his career.
Notice how the Arabic-speaking commentator says: “Coucou, il y est” after the first goal, and then “Deuxième coucou des Français” after the second goal.
Yohan Cabaye played for seven years with Lille, next to Debuchy, before moving to Newcastle United FC last year.
He is said to be of Vietnamese descent, and was quoted as saying that he would like to “visit the country of his origins and hopes to possibly contribute to the development of football there.”
Cabaye is probably the player of les Bleus who looks the most like Rémi Gaillard—another skilfull French player!
Milieu de terrain (Midfielder): Mathieu Valbuena:
Mathieu was born in Bruges. But attention! Don’t confuse it with the Belgian city of the same name, the one known (together with Amsterdam) as the “Venice of the North.”
In fact, Valbuena’s native Bruges is located in the South West of France. The city’s name seems to come from the local Aquitanian word for “bushes.”
Other than that, Mathieu must enjoy jumping a lot, since he has been playing with Marseille for six years now (To understand why, read our post “Qui ne saute pas n’est pas Marseillais!” (“Whoever Doesn’t Jump is Not from Marseille!”)
À Suivre (To be Continued)
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