French sing Les Bleus

It was supposed to be France’s redemption. And the French appeared to be on their way to regaining lost pride after veteran Zinedine Zidane drew first blood with a seventh minute penalty to give Les Bleus a 1-0 lead over Italy in the World Cup finals in Berlin last Sunday (yesterday morning, Manila).

In the last World Cup four years ago, France was the humiliated defending champion who failed to survive the first round after losing 1-0 to lowly Senegal, drawing with Uruguay in a scoreless tie and bowing 2-0 to Denmark.

France’s moment of glory came in 1998 when Zidane headed two of the Team’s three goals in a crushing victory over Brazil for the trophy.

French coach Raymond Domenech, 54, took over the national reins from Roger Lemerre after widespread clamor for a change in the wake of the 2002 debacle and a dismal showing at the 2004 European championships. Domenech is a protegee of Aime Jacquet who coached France to the World Cup title in 1998.

Domenech’s master stroke was convincing Zidane and two other veterans to return to the fold for one more World Cup. Zidane, 34, Claude Makelele, 33, and Lilian Thuram, 34, had previously announced their retirement from international play but were persuaded by Domenech to join Les Bleus in the World Cup qualifications.

Making it to Germany wasn’t easy for France and qualification was only sealed after a 4-0 romp over unheralded Cyprus and Switzerland’s failure to beat Ireland in their group eliminations.

Zidane, born in Marseille of Algerian parents, was once football’s most expensive player when in 2001, he joined Real Madrid for over $60 Million. Known as Zizou, he was described by editors of the book "Superstars of the World Cup" as "probably the most technically accomplished player of his generation, the heartbeat of the most successful team of the late 1990s and early 2000s (and) a lethal goal scorer from open play."

There was a lot of speculation as to why Zidane came out of self-imposed retirement for his third World Cup. "Whether Zidane’s decision to return to the international scene was because he missed it, the sponsors demanded it or somewhat bizarrely as some newspapers reported, he had a "revelation," the fact is that he inspired Les Bleus to World Cup qualification with a series of superb personal displays," wrote Julian Flanders and Adrian Besley.

As for Zidane, he explained his decision this way— "I realized that I don’t have a lot of time left as a top professional footballer and think I should make the most of it."

Zidane, Makelele and Thuram were called the "Three Musketeers" and their job was to relive France’s glory days in the twilight of their careers. Domenech surrounded the threesome with an array of stars like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet and Franck Ribery.

Curiously, the three veterans play for different clubs in different countries. Zidane is with Real Madrid in Spain, Makelele with Chelsea in England and Thuram with Juventus in Italy.

At the start of the World Cup in Germany, France didn’t look particularly impressive, just managing to advance to the round of 16 after playing Switzerland to a scoreless tie, drawing with Korea, 1-1 and beating lightweight Togo, 2-0. But in the knockout playoffs, Les Bleus shone brightly as France blasted Spain, 3-1, ousted Brazil, 1-0 and took out Portugal, 1-0.

Against Italy, France was confident of victory. At the 2000 European Championships, Trezeguet scored in extra time to lift France to a 2-1 win over the Azzurri in the finals at Rotterdam. The French were convinced a repeat was in the bag in Berlin.

Italy, however, proved tougher than expected. Marco Materazzi, who scored a goal in Italy’s 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic in the preliminaries, equalized with a header in the 19th minute.

Then, with nine minutes left, Zidane did the unthinkable. He headbutted Materazzi in the chest and got a red card for it. It wasn’t the way Zidane had planned to make his exit from international competition.

The disgrace was certainly not a fitting end to his storybook career in the World Cup.

As it turned out, the match ended in a 1-1 tie and the outcome was determined by a penalty shootout. Because of Zidane’s exile, he was scratched from the lineup of French kickers. No doubt, he would’ve scored one for France. By the way, Zidane sat out the preliminary game against Togo on a disciplinary suspension.

France’s hopes dimmed when Trezeguet, the hero of Les Bleus’ win over Italy in the 2000 Euoprean Championships, missed his penalty kick, the team’s second in the sequence. That opened the door for Italy to win the shootout, 5-3.

The Azzurri deserved to bag the trophy. Italy was clearly the tournament’s best offensive and defensive team. Of its 12 goals booted in (excluding the penalty shootout), 10 players scored with only Materazzi and Luca Toni marking twice—an indicator of a balanced attack. And the Azzurri technically gave up only one goal the entire tournament, to Zidane on a penalty, as the 1-1 draw with the US was an own-score.

And so the World Cup’s 18th edition of 32 qualifiers has come to a climactic close. Organizers claimed a global TV audience of some 60 billion watched the 64 matches staged in 12 state-of-the-art venues allover Germany.

No sporting event can captivate billions of people of all races and creeds quite like the World Cup.