France Coach wants to Pleasure you and Make you Smile
Raymond Domenech reminds me a bit of my crazy uncle. On the surface he seems like a nice guy but deep down he is just odd enough to make the holiday meals an adventure. Speaking to reporters on French television this weekend, the France coach essentially said he is more concerned with his team’s style than with its results. “What I dream about is that at the end of each match, the fans leave the stadium with a smile,” Domenech said. “Not necessarily because we’re going to win, but because they have felt something.”
Would he be satisfied if France played boring football but walked away with the trophy?
“Sometimes you can go all the way, without giving any pleasure,” he said. “You ask yourself is it not better to have one or two matches which last in the memory?”
I’m all for coaches advocating a beautiful style of play, but I would have to think that watching my team win the World Cup would last in my memory just a bit longer than watching them lose in thrilling fashion.
What do you think? Do you agree with Domenech that style matters or is it all about the results?
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Comments
By Phil | May 1st, 2006 at 11:36 am 
I’d rather see my team win ugly than lose pretty. The best of both worlds is to win pretty. I think France doesn’t play a very elegant style and they are going to lose early.
Posted from 
United States
By Bense | May 1st, 2006 at 11:51 am Results. Full stop. Don’t care if a team plays ugly and wins. Except for Italy, who gave up playing at least interestingly 15 years ago.
Posted from United States
By Lyle | May 1st, 2006 at 11:58 am He’s so French. This is exactly why Germany leads France in World Cup and War victories.
Posted from United States
By Knut Karnapp | May 1st, 2006 at 12:55 pm Isn´t that italian style? Winning every match like 1-0 and therefore being successful even though having played bad football? I don´t think France has to worry that much, Zidane will lead ´em to glory once again. May be not the title overall but France will shine in Germany.
Posted from 
Germany
By Bense | May 1st, 2006 at 2:26 pm The bad thing about the French is, they have lost sort of any war in their history, but claim themselves winners. Man, France is the onliest nation in the World having lost to Italy twice.
And why are there no Frenchmen around here, defending their honor? Parce-que il n’y a pas des francais que parlons d’anglais *g*…
Posted from United States
By Euler | May 1st, 2006 at 3:15 pm You guys are mean to the French people! I know what is to lose pretty (82) and to win ugly (94).
Shure is nice to have a legendary team like Zico’s but Romario lifting the trophi is priceless.
Results are more important, naturally.
By kapcro | May 1st, 2006 at 5:06 pm Generally, nobody remembers pretty playing losers. Everybody knows the winners, ugly wins or not.
Posted from United States
By Billy the frog | May 1st, 2006 at 7:50 pm maybe Domenech is SO french, but some of you are SO american too…
We’re talking about football, and YOU only talk about wars… France doesn’t have lessons to learn from a country who’s lost his 2 latest wars (Iraq and Vietnam) and who’ll maybe make a hat trick with Iran or North Korea
but i dont care, i don’t really give a #### about your vision of France or french people, but it would be great if you could stop your “cliche” and beeing so childish and racist, football is (sometimes) about joy, fun, skill, beauty, and you make it bad and violent
ps: Oh, I’ve only realized now that “Bense” was from Germany, not USA… apprends à parler correctement français au lieu de te la raconter sur un forum, c’est quand même nous qui vous avons défoncé la chatte en 45, pas vous !!
Posted from 
France
By Bense | May 2nd, 2006 at 11:18 am Come on, it was just a joke. That’s sarcasm. I really like the French. Except for a few things, they are good neighbours. Much better than the Dutch 
Posted from United States
By Pip's | January 21st, 2008 at 7:48 pm Ok lets just play bad football forever, teach the up and coming kids to play in a dull style, because we’ll still enjoy wasting our money on watching boring rubbish. I totally agree with Domenech. I would much rather pay money to watch good football and walk away with a buzz and proud feeling about my Team. I’m a French fan because they play interesting and enjoyable football. Go Domenech!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
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