Austria beat France 3-1???

Wow, a huge upset in the first round of European World Cup qualifiers as Austria beat France 3-1. When you look at those lineups, there is no way that France should not at least have come out of Vienna without a draw, and even that would have to be considered an upset. I am sure that the pressure is now squarely on Raymond Domenech, but it really should be on the French FA for keeping Domenech after the debacle that was the French performance at Euro 2008.

Domenech has never made good decisions for this team and must be fired immediately. The only reason he survived was that Zidane found inspirational form during the 2006 World Cup and led the team to the final. Domenech insisted on playing Fabian Barthez who clearly was past his prime, and as a result we were able to watch the frown on Gregory Coupet's face as he sat on the bench knowing that he should have been playing.

There is so much young talent now that is emerging in the French game and they need someone (perhaps Didier Deschamps as I've written before) to lead them to much better results. The longer they stick with Domenech the greater are the chances that France won't qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Full credit though to Austria, now led by Karel Brückner, the former manager of the Czech Republic team, and their captain Andreas Ivanschitz, an emerging force in European soccer. This truly is a great victory by the much maligned Austria team, who supposedly didn't deserve their place at Euro 2008, but continue to do their best to silence all of the doubters.