Christmas Comes Early

In their last game of the year, Les Bleus won 1-0 against Greece in an international friendly on Wednesday. Henry scored the winning goal, making his total so far 39 goals in 91 games. He is now two short of Michel Platini's French scoring record, which is 41 goals in 72 caps. Henry was typically modest: "This gives me a lot of pleasure but there's still two more," he said. "As I have said many times, Platini did it much quicker than me and just to be compared to that type of player is already amazing." But still -- yay.

As great as that news is, it's not the best news. Italy drew with Turkey 1-1 in their friendly yesterday. And that Turkey goal? An own goal by Materazzi!!! HAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHA. My only regret is that the game wasn't a qualifier. But apparently he did it as captain and I'll take what I can get. I hope he cried.

(I can't believe I'm putting this third.) A few hours before the France-Greece friendly (and the hommage to the Golden Generation) the president of the Greek footfall federation honored Zidane for his man accomplishments. Pretty cool and the same day as Materazzi's own goal. Coincidence or act of God? Didier Deschamps, captain of the '98-'00 French team, was similarly honored. Photos of Zizou's visit to Bangladesh here.

In other news --

Cyprus 1- 1 Germany.
Pretty amazing, and good for Cyprus. I love seeing underdogs win (unless they’re playing France).

Ireland 5-0 San Marino.
Poor guys. Let’s give them credit for trying.

Israel 3-4 Croatia.
Israel beaten for the first time at home in seven years and 13 successive World and European qualifiers without loss since 2003.

Russia 2-0 Macedonia.
Russia now leads England in their group. Speaking of which…

Holland 1-1 England (friendly)
I don’t get England, I really don’t.

Spain 0-1 Romania (friendly)
Ditto Spain.

Ivory Coast 1-0 Sweden (friendly)
Ljungberg is apparently no match for Drogba.

Switzerland 1-2 Brazil (friendly)
Belgium 0-1 Poland
Finland 1-0 Armenia

Portugal 3-0 Kazakhstan
I heard rumors that Cristiano Ronaldo would be named captain for this (which, though I love him, I don’t agree with – he’s too young) but didn’t see an armband in match photos, so who knows. And how Armenia and Kazakhstan fall into Europe remains a mystery.