|
It looks like I spoke
too soon about Robert Pires' France call-up.
Earlier reports said that Pires was in the squad for the friendly
against Slovakia in Paris on Wednesday, but today the 20 man list
has been
announed properly and it's totally Bobby-less.
He does have some hope left as Raymond Domenech will be taking
an extra 3 players to Germany. On the other hand, if he was
ever going to bring Pires back into the fold, now would be
the time, surely?
There's disappointing news for Jens Lehmann, too, although
rather less so. For him, it's business as usual.
Jurgen Klinsmann has announced the Germany squad for their World Cup
warm-up friendly against Italy, in Florence next Wednesday, and
for the first time since last summer it includes both the main
rivals for the goalkeeping job: our Mad Jens and Bayern Munich's
Oliver Kahn.
In a press conference today, Klinsmann said
that Jens would have to be happy with a place on the bench for this one, so long
as Kahn is fit.
Assuming that Klinsmann continues his rotation policy, Lehmann will
then play the next game, against the USA on March 22nd.
But Kahn has a thigh strain picked up while warming up for Bayern Munich's
Champs League game against Milan on Tuesday, so Lehmann may get
a chance to show what he can do at the higher level (no offence to any
American readers). If not, we will hope with him that a not-quite fit Kahn makes
some classic blunders against the Italians. | 
