Vieira to miss first 2 qualifiers
http://www.sportinglife.com/football...ra-Vieira.html
France's newly-appointed captain Patrick Vieira is expected to miss out on his side's two 2006 World Cup qualifiers against Israel and the Faroe Islands because of a lack of physical fitness.
Vieira, who picked up a thigh injury during Euro 2004 and missed out on Les Bleus' 1-0 defeat to eventual winners Greece in the quarter-finals, has been nursing the problem for the past two months.
His boss at Arsenal Arsene Wenger made it clear on Saturday following the Gunners' 5-3 hammering of Middlesbrough that he would not make him play again before September 11.
France coach Raymond Domenech, who was counting on his new captain for their first World Cup clashes on September 4 and September 9, would therefore be taking a risk if he was to call him up before he plays for the Gunners.
The absence of Vieira, one of the most experienced players and a former 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 champion, would be a severe blow for Domenech who has been trying to re-build a team following the retirements of Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Bixente Lizarazu and above all star playmaker Zinedine Zidane.
Against Bosnia-Herzegovina in a friendly on August 18, France played well in the first half before losing their way in the second and conceding a disappointing 1-1 draw.
After the friendly Domenech admitted there was still a lot of work to achieve to transfer the inexperienced players of the new generation into great champions.
"There is still a lot of work to do," Domenech said last week.
"The road will be long. It's hard to change a generation from one day to another."
Despite the difficulties Domenech knows how important clinching maximum points against Israel and the Faroe Islands will be for his young side and French football as a whole.
"The match against Israel will be decisive," he added. "We must win it not to put ourselves in trouble.
"We cannot re-build a team and have zero points. Ideally it would be great to get nine points.
"To keep going forward we must win."
Domenech will announce his squad ahead of the two World Cup qualifiers on Thursday afternoon at the French Federation.
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If they were playing Israel away from home I wouldn't have gave them much chance of a win but they should beat them at home. Vieira has never performed to his best for France anyway.
