Old Warriors

It has been eight years now, since that memorable evening when Emmanuel Petit slotted a left-foot strike past Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel and all of France erupted hysterically in celebration of their first World Cup triumph. In these golden years of French football, a previously unheralded squad had beaten the odds and vanquished the world in style. A 3:0 thrashing of pre-tournament favorites Brazil in the final, coupled with a brilliant 2:1 victory over Italy two years later, confirmed France's newfound status in world football.

This time in Germany, "Les Bleus" are outsiders once again. Just as in 1998, they have been grouped with a European outfit that has not qualified in 12 years, an African debutant, and an experienced team hailing from Asia. But the similarities do not go much further. No longer are Les Tricolores playing on home soil; no longer are we seeing the eager, victory-lusting squad that had once claimed invicibility. Instead, those decorated and embattled veterans of the '98 campaign are here in Germany to have one last go. Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Fabien Barthez, David Trezeguet, Theirry Henry, and Lilian Thuram are all about to write the last chapter in the rise and fall of France's glorious empire.

Raymond Domenech has succeeded in uniting the French team. The bickering Robert Pires, Nico Anelka, and Ludovic Giuly have been left out for purely disciplinary reasons, and he has managed to create the deepest squad to grace the World Cup: The defense is second only to England's solid quartet - add Makelele and Vieira as a defensive shield and you have a veritable fortress; in attacking midfield "Les Bleus" possess an aging but still-sharp maestro in Zidane; and Domenech is spoiled in attack, as he is able to choose from Henry, Trezeguet, Louis Saha, or Sylvain Wiltord. And after finally finding comfort in their 4-4-2 formation against Denmark, with Saha pairing Henry in attack and Sagnol and Abidal moving along the wings to support the attacks, "Les Bleus" once again look like serious contenders for the world crown.

What France lacks, however, is a fast, bold playmaker a la Michael Ballack or Frank Lampard. Seldom do any of the players go on long, mazy runs, or carve the opponent's defense with brilliant passes, and because of this they lack creativity and France's game becomes predictable. Zizou is old, and so his build-up play is slow and unaffective. His passing is still there, along with the masterful control, but no longer does he boldly embark on solo efforts. This lack of creativity could without doubt be the hubris of Domenech's outfit.

The answer to this problem is the new gem of French football, Franck Ribery. Not so much Ronaldinho-creative, nor with the vision of a Zidane or a Pirlo, but Ribery is not afraid to run at defenders with the ball at his feet. In recent games (his only three international caps) he has proved that he can give the squad the necessary spark, and the "supersub" position suits him well. In the last two games, Ribery has been instigator of 3 out of the 5 goals scored.

Lesson Learned

France arrived in Korea/Japan aiming to defend its world title. Just a year before the tournament kicked-off, Zidane and co. had proved that they were still the team to beat by winning the Confederations Cup, beating co-hosts Korea 5:0 and Brazil (one more time!) 2:1. Yet the circumstances for 2002 could not have been worse for France. On paper their opponents looked somewhat easy: but Denmark's wounds were still fresh from two defeats (2:1 in '98 and 3:0, Euro 2000) and nothing would have been sweeter for the Danes than to knock the world champions out of the first round: Senegal, having qualified for the first time in their history, possessed a strong, dynamic squad that had nothing to lose; and Uruguay, biggest losers from South America since 1950, were looking to impress after missing out on both USA '94 and the 1998 World Cup.

At the same time, expectations for "Les Bleus" to send everyone packing and win for the second time in a row were tremendous. A long and grueling European season did not help to the cause, either. Robert Pires, who had arguably had the best season of his career, cruelly missed-out due to a career-threatening injury. Even those who did make the trip to the Far East, such as Zidane and Djorkaeff, were on the verge of being sidelined. The last thing needed was to lose the opening game 1:0 off a goalkeeping error against ex-colony Senegal. France caught the plane home faster than anyone else.

This tragic ending to ambitious aspirations was not felt only by the world champions, but also by heavyweights Portugal, Argentina, and Italy.

This time in Germany, however, four years after falling victim to the underdogs, these nations have already shown that they have learned their lesson. Argentina never lost control of the game against the Ivory Coast and ran away 2:1 winners. Portugal could've had more goals but spurned numerous chances and had to settle for 1:0 against their own ex-colony. Italy comfortably beat Ghana 2:0, and constantly wrought havoc on the Black Stars' weak defense. There were no shocking repeats of Senegal's heroics, no case of USA going 3:0 up before half-time against la creme de la creme of European football (in fact, they were blown away 3:0 themselves against the Czech). This only shows that awareness amongst the big guns has grown tremendously. Were "Les Bleus" to trip against Korea and Togo, France would need some serious soul-searching.

France 0:0 Switzerland

France's opening game was deja vu. It again consisted of France keeping majority of possession but missing clear-cut chances, and the Swiss taking few but good opportunities from set-pieces. However, this could easily have been avoided had Domenech kept faith to the 4-4-2. Perhaps the repercussions of Cisse's absence were still being felt. Perhaps it was the heat, perhaps it was the bad conditions of the pitch, as Henry claimed.

Yet the 4-2-3-1 used in qualifying had never really worked well. Henry is not the type of striker who runs alone with the ball. He always needs someone with him. At Arsenal, his goal ratio is overwhelmingly greater when Adebayor or Van Persie are at his side, than when he wanders alone waiting for a Fabregas long ball.

And so for some odd reason, Domenech threw a tried and tested formation to the wind and instead opted to play Ribery in the starting eleven, another fatal mistake. The youngster often suffered from match anxiety due to his inexperience at international level, as evidenced in his poor back-pass to Henry when he only had the Swiss goalkeeper to beat. Ribery gave thrust to French attacks, but the finish was not there. Malouda's ability to create space, coupled with his cool finishing (goal against Mexico), was sorely missed.

Most intriguing of choices by the manager was without doubt the substitution of Saha late in the game. After an energetic first ten minutes of the second half, France seemed to run out of steam and began giving away possession. That was exactly when Saha should've been substituted-in, to give France more drive, more control, more dynamism in attack. But the switch came only after Zidane looked tired and unable to feed the offense with his smart passes, like he had done so countless of times earlier in the game. By then the game was over, and Vikash Dhorasoo's late  miss only rubbed salt in French fans' wounds.

My man of the match: Claude Makelele (FRA)

Looking ahead

"Les Bleus" have to regroup and focus on their clash against Korea. Assuming the game against Togo will be an automatic three points, it will be this game that will determine leadership of Group G, or even qualification as runner-up.

If Domenech reverts to the magic 4-4-2, this squad may go far in Germany. Beat Korea, beat Togo, beat Ukraine in the knock-out stages, then add a little bit of luck....who knows what could happen next?

Even with a quarterfinal or semifinal loss, Zidane, Henry, Thuram, Barthez, Trezeguet and Viera would close a great episode of French football. Succeeding them would be a new generation of talented "Bleuets", a group that has already proved itself amongst the elite of great talents in Europe. In four years' time, in Africa 2010,  the likes of Jeremy Toulalan, Lassana Diarra, Rio Antonio Mavuba, Jeremy Berthod, and Florent Sinama-Pongolle will carry the standards of France. And of course, perhaps some of our beloved sons of '98, the last survivors of those glorious days - Henry, Vieira, Trezeguet - will still be around to lead them by example.