http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHx5CVoJA78

Scores of you who are joining le blog français are undoubtedly super excited to watch en direct (live) your national team play in this special competition, or at least should have une équipe favorite –or more- that you will be cheering for.

La France has managed to make it into Uncle Mandela‘s hottest event of the Summer. The last time it failed to pass the qualifiers was back in 1993, when the co-équipiers of Jean-Pierre Papin had their American Dream “broken” by a surprisingly persevering Bulgarian team, and couldn’t subsequently make it into Uncle Sam‘s hottest event of that Summer 1994.

This year, the World Cup qualification was achieved for les bleus, but not without a spicy dose of controversy: Thierry Henry‘s hand will, malheureusement, stay forever etched in the minds of Irish fans, even though “Titi” (that’s his nickname) has several times announced his support for replaying the match entirely.

That rematch proposal never happened, et pour cause ! Many observers see a “FRI€“- (money) related issue: The FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) has indeed way more to gain, with its roster of giant sponsors, to allow the qualification of a country of 65 million people (read “potential consumers”), France, rather than a mere 6 million of global financial crisis stricken Ireland… But that is another subject, bien entendu.

La main de Titi (Titi’s hand):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs8WWBXGiXg

The opening day of the competition will be this Friday, June 11th, and will feature two games:

Le Mexique contre le pays organisateur du tournois, l’Afrique du Sud (Mexico vs. the organizing country of the tournament, South Africa.)

The second game of the day will pitch la France against Uruguay.

The Uruguay match will not necessarily be un petit picnic for les bleus. The last time the two teams played against each other in a World Cup was back in 2002. The score ended on a goalless draw, 0-0, even though l’équipe de France was missing a key player for almost the whole game, after he received un carton rouge (a red card.) That key player was none other than -you guessed it-

* Gardiens de but (Goalkeepers)

• N°1 : Hugo Lloris (L’Olympique Lyonnais)
• N°23 : Cédric Carrasso (FCG Bordeaux)
• N°16 : Steve Mandanda (L’Olympique de Marseille)

* Défenseurs (Defenders)

• N°3 : Eric Abidal (FC Barcelone)
• N°22 : Gaël Clichy (Arsenal FC)
• N°13 : Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
• N°5 : William Gallas (Arsenal FC)
• N°6 : Marc Planus (FCG Bordeaux)
• N°4 : Anthony Reveillère (L’Olympique Lyonnais)
• N°2 : Bacary Sagna (Arsenal FC)
• N°17 : Sébastien Squillaci (Séville FC)

* Milieux de terrain (Midfielders)

• N°19 : Vassiriki Diaby (Arsenal FC)
• N°18 : Alou Diarra (FCG Bordeaux)
• N°8 : Yoann Gourcuff (FCG Bordeaux): Possibly replaced by Abou Diab, though the news is still not confirmed as of this writing.
• N°15 : Florent Malouda (Chelsea FC)
• N°14 : Jérémy Toulalan (L’Olympique Lyonnais)

* Attaquants (Forwards)

• N°21 : Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea FC)
• N°9 : Djibril Cissé (Panathinaikos)
• N°11 : André-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse FC)
• N°10 : Sidney Govou (L’Olympique Lyonnais)
• N°12 : Thierry Henry (FC Barcelone)
• N°7 : Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern Munich)
• N°20 : Mathieu Valbuena (L’Olympique de Marseille)