Day 20: They Showed What They Were Merde Of

What? Where’s the football gone? Come back!

Well, it’s the first rest day of the tournament as the remaining eight teams prepare for the quarter-finals. So I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on one of the biggest stories of this World Cup so far – France.

Before I start on the serious analysis, let me start with HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I mean, come on, it’s pretty funny. Rarely do you get to see a team self-destruct quite so spectacularly.

It all started in 2004 when Raymond Domenech was surprisingly appointed manager of the French national team following their exit from that year’s European Championships at the hands of eventual winners Greece in the quarter-finals. He had been in charge of the under-21 side for the past eleven years. Their qualifying campaign for Germany 2006 was stuttering, with France struggling against such footballing luminaries as Israel, Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland. They were in real danger of not qualifying at all, but then Domenech aggressively begged retired greats Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram, and Zinedine Zidane to bail them out. Inspired particularly by Zidane, France managed to scrape through. At the World Cup that followed, France reached the final and might well have won if Zidane hadn’t had his infamous moment of madness, but none of it was down to Domenech. The players, with very little respect for their manager, who had little ability to influence a game and omitted talented players like Robert Pires because he was a Scorpio (according to Domenech, Scorpios “can’t be trusted”), held a revolution around the leadership of Zidane to get as far as they did. The result looked good on the manager’s CV but it wasn’t his achievement.

After that successful campaign, Domenech led his side into Euro 2008 qualification. Zidane had returned to retirement, but when Claude Makelele announced that he too was retiring from international football, Domenech disgracefully said no. “As long as he can walk, he will play,” said the loon, “I have the right to pick him.” This disgusting treatment of a player who had given long years of great service to his country and now wanted to be able to prolong his professional career at club level indicated Domenech’s desperation and inability to get the best out of the players who were actually available to him. Domenech kept calling him up and Makelele, to his great credit, played on.

At Euro 2008, France were drawn in an admittedly tough group with Italy, the Netherlands and Romania, but performed poorly. The team was old, slow and uninspired, and finish bottom of the group. They looked hopeless and leaderless, and Domenech should have been sacked there and then. The players blatantly didn’t believe in him but the French Football Federation pointed to the World Cup final two years previous and kept him on. And so the malaise continued into the World Cup qualifiers.

France were again poor in that campaign and finished second behind Serbia, who looked comfortably more assured, competent and determined. They then faced that infamous playoff with Ireland, and but for two missed Irish chances and a disgraceful example of cheating from a self-styled ambassador of the game in Thierry Henry, they would have never made it to South Africa.

When they did reach the finals, their group wasn’t the easiest in the world but considering the playing resources at their disposal, France should have made it out on paper. However, it became clear in the first game, a limp performance in a  0-0 draw with Uruguay, that the same problems that had always been under Domenech’s management were still there. There was no belief and no clear game plan. Time went by but Domenech didn’t act to change things for the better. And it just got worse from there. When France lost horrendously to Mexico, Nicolas Anelka berated his manager to kick off the release of all the pent-up discontent in the camp. Apparently Anelka’s situation was resolved inside the camp and it was agreed it would stay until the details of the story were leaked to the press. As soon as the FFF got hold of it they decided to expel Anelka from the squad, which upset many French players including the captain Patrice Evra, who talked of a “traitor” in their midst.

In the next training session Evra was involved in a huge row with the fitness coach Robert Duverne, presumably because he thought that he was the man who had leaked the story, and then we were shown the bizarre sight of Domenech reading a written statement by the playing squad saying that they would be boycotting training. All semblance of discipline and unity was completely lost, as was any lingering illusions that Domenech was in control of his side. He dropped several players, including Evra, for the final match against South Africa, needing a miracle to qualify, but another poor performance saw France lose to the hosts to leave with just one flattering point. The players never gave any other impression on the pitch other than that they couldn’t wait to be shot of the manager and start the new era under Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc, who was confirmed before the tournament to be taking over after proceedings in South Africa were closed. Domenech himself ended his reign by refusing to shake South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira by the hand, claiming Parreira had offended him when several months previously he had commented on the Henry handball incident. It was a petty, depressing sight that summed up his awful, incompetent tenure that somehow became the longest period in charge of the French national team of any manager in their history.

Now in the aftermath of the debacle, Thierry Henry, still nominally the captain but who played almost no time at all on the pitch, personally requested a meeting with his country’s President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to discuss the issues involved in the team’s exit. That this should be taken to the government is quite insane but I imagine that it will have little consequence for the Blanc era – Henry is a player who will have to be jettisoned by the new manager, having been past his best for a few years now and heading most likely to the MLS this summer, his exit from Barcelona confirmed last week.

Moving forward to the future, France will have the shadow of this World Cup hanging over them for a long time. It’s been a seriously embarrassing and depressing circus that will have affected some players more severely than others and major changes will be needed to lift the nation. Luckily, Blanc seems an excellent appointment, having brought Bordeaux right back to the top of French football playing really beautiful, exciting football in the process, and working closely with Yoann Gourcuff, the midfielder who was underused by Domenech and got harshly sent off in the South Africa match. He’s a player of boundless talent who really can be this new team’s Zidane, and together with Franck Ribery France already have two players to build a team around. There’s also Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri, two excellent young players inexplicably left at home by Domenech in favour of makeweights like Sidney Govou, and also Philippe Mexes, who for many years has been an absolute rock at the heart of the Roma defense and was controversially almost never picked by Domenech and who missed out on both the past two World Cups. Hugo Lloris didn’t have a great tournament here but he is a top class goalkeeper, and there are plenty of other young talents like Lassana Diarra and Mathieu Valbuena who can make a name for themselves on the international stage. I have no doubt that Blanc is the right man for the job, and in Brazil in 2014 France should be back where they belong – competing with the big guns.

Day 7: …and Aquariuses Can’t Manage

Argentina 4 – 1 South Korea

Greece 2 – 1 Nigeria

France 0 – 2 Mexico

Groups A and B really took shape today as one former World Cup-winning team all but booked their spot in the second round, one former European Championship-winning side came from behind to stay in the hunt for theirs, and another team who had won both in the last twelve years were practically spectators as their own chances all but vanished right before their eyes.

The first of those, of course, was Argentina, who survived a wobble in the first period of the second half to seal what was eventually a comfortable victory over South Korea. Despite a lot of hard work and effort from Huh Jung-Moo’s side, Maradona’s men, particularly Leo Messi, ran riot throughout the first half and were given the goal they deserved after about fifteen minutes when Park Ji-Sung’s poor marking in the penalty box allowed Messi’s clever free-kick to drift over him and off the shin of the unsuspecting Park Chu-Young, who couldn’t really have done anything about it. Gonzalo Higuain then scored the first of his hat-trick by tucking away a routine header after more poor defending from South Korea saw two defenders in red trying to cover four attackers as Maxi Rodriguez’ cross came in. With the defence overstretched, Higuain’s job was really done for him. In fact, even though he scored a hat-trick, Higuain wasn’t really the most effective player on the pitch, his other goals coming from a tap-in after Messi did brilliantly to set up a chance and hit the inside of the post, and then another fantastic Messi run before Sergio Aguero put it on a plate for the Real Madrid striker. What Higuain did well was being in the right place at the right time, but all the work was done for him and any player would have scored those goals. That’s not saying he had a bad game, just that history will say that this was his day, but in reality, it was Messi, and, in the first half, Tevez and Rodriguez, who should take the plaudits for this win.

South Korea showed some signs of rallying in the first part of the second half, their lucky break provided by an awful Martin Demichelis error in the dying seconds of the first half, and if Yeom Ki-Hun had put away the great chance that opened up for him while the score was still 2-1, things might have been different. But in fairness they did not deserve a point from this game, never really looking like they could cope with the Argentinian forwards. They will be upbeat about their chances of progression, though, with Nigeria next up for them and Greece having to play Argentina.

Greece face a really tough test to make the second round having to play Messi et al in the final group game but they are at least in with a shout, which is not what I was expecting to say about half an hour into their match with Nigeria. Having conceded a rather hilarious goal in which Peter Odemwingie successfully duped the Greek goalkeeper Tsorvas into diving to meet the header but in fact left Kalu Uche’s cross alone to let it drift into the far corner of the net, Greece were just as awful in the first thirty minutes as they were against South Korea, with no drive or coherence at all and looking like one of the worst teams I’d ever seen at a World Cup. Then one moment of madness went their way – only Nigeria’s Sani Kaita will know why he aimed a kick at a Greek player on the touchline – and they were playing against ten men with an hour to play. Suddenly the Greeks decided they had a shot and pushed forward a bit. The equaliser was lucky, though, Dimitrios Salpingidis’ shot deflecting harshly off a defender, but after it went in you couldn’t really see Nigeria getting back into it.

The balance of results today though means that nobody is out of it yet in Group B. Even Nigeria can still scrape through if they beat South Korea by two or three goals and Greece get the spanking from Argentina that I think everyone expects them to on this form, but for my money I would still expect South Korea to qualify. They may not be able to cope with Messi in full flow but, frankly, who can? They still have more quality and composure about them than Nigeria and should do enough to make it through to the second round.

Who they’ll face depends on how Mexico and Uruguay fare in their final match against each other next Tuesday. That is now the game that decides everything in Group A after Mexico completed an easy win over hopeless France tonight in Polokwane. Mexico, feeling that they’d let themselves down only coming away with a point against South Africa in the opener, were stronger and more ruthless today, and would not have been flattered by a higher winning margin. Their goals came from their three substitutes as Javier Aguirre used his squad wisely – the first a run off the last defender timed to perfection by Javier Hernandez, leaving him one-on-one with Hugo Lloris miles away from the French back four, and he rounded the keeper and slotted in coolly to give Mexico their deserved lead. Pablo Barrera, on for Carlos Vela who looks to have damaged his hamstring and could be out for a while, brought about the second with a blistering run on about 76 minutes that left Patrice Evra for dead and drew a straightforward penalty from Eric Abidal (not the first time Abidal has been exposed like that at a major tournament). 37-year-old Cuauhtehmoc Blanco dispatched it with aplomb, out of Lloris’ reach.

It was no more than Mexico deserved and set up a mouthwatering clash with Uruguay to decide the group winner – a draw would qualify both and see Uruguay top the table on goal difference, but the incentive to avoid Argentina in the second round should give both teams reason to go for the win. It would still be difficult for France or South Africa to qualify even if the that match isn’t a draw because of goal difference, so an exciting game should be in store.

France, though, were absolutely awful, and asking why you really cannot look further than Raymond Domenech. He once again showed tonight nothing short of complete managerial ineptitude. After a first half in which his team were lucky to come in on level pegging, their forward players having failed to combine or even really get any meaningful time on the ball, Domenech made a substitution, bringing on Gignac for Anelka, but it changed nothing at all because it was like-for-like and the same problems remained – Franck Ribery, France’s best hope of making anything happen, couldn’t make any impact in the centre but was left there to rot all through the game, Sidney Govou continued his awful World Cup isolated and ignored on the right, and Gignac was given no service at all. Florent Malouda at least seemed to be sort of trying but was having no luck and yet the tactical system, quite plainly not functioning in any way, was never changed. Where Aguirre showed talent for utilising his substitutions, Domenech couldn’t have used his worse – the first might as well not have been made as it changed nothing, the second saw Mathieu Valbuena replace Govou but he only had about three touches all game and also did not change the system at all anyway, and the third wasn’t even bothered with. Fifteen minutes to go, France were 2-0 down playing one striker up front who was crying out for more support, Domenech did nothing as Thierry Henry and Djibril Cisse simply stood behind the goals and watched as their team were sunk without so much as a whimper.

French fans will be utterly delighted when they are put out of their misery on Tuesday because it will mean the end of Domenech’s horrific reign over the national team, during which he has brought chaos, disharmony and confusion to a squad chock full of amazing players, demonstrating for literally years the complete inability to change a game if things aren’t going his way, which, funnily enough, they usually weren’t. I suspect that as soon as Laurent Blanc takes over at the start of the new season you will see France flourish again and people will say “how on earth did this team do so badly at the World Cup?”. I also suspect that Raymond Domenech will never work in football again. Who’d hire him now?

Man of the Day: Unquestionably Messi, who perhaps was still not yet at his frightening best but was comfortably the most effective player on the pitch against South Korea. Honourable mentions to Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama (not least because I forgot to give him this “award” on Day 2) and Javier Aguirre.

Tomorrow Germany, on a high, should see off Serbia unless they can recover from a highly disappointing first game, the USA should beat Slovenia, and England…well, who knows? It is only Algeria…