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Wednesday, July 5, 2006
A second chance for France
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zinedine Zidane converted the spot kick that sent France back to the World Cup finals Tuesday in a 1-0 victory over Portugal, and he rightly deserves ample credit for his inspirational play in this tournament.
He is the “talisman,” as the Brit papers like to call icons — a term once wasted on the disgraced Wayne Rooney. But this French team, pulling itself not just from the oblivion of early elimination in Germany but also in ‘02, is about so much more than that. It’s about the young, energetic midfielder Ribery, the sure-footed defensive player of a backline led by the aging Lilian Thuram and Willy Sagnol that was so dreadful four years ago, and by the emergence of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira as influential players. They have struggled so often for France, and for them to come through now is nearly as important as Zidane’s last-ditch heroics. And as dodgy as he always is, keeper Fabien Barthez came up with a huge save as France nearly gave the game away in stoppage time.
The chance to erase the mostly sour memories since ‘98 will come in Berlin Sunday against a sturdy Italian team that will have its hands full controlling Zidane. But he’s far from the only concern as France can now savor its maturity as a global soccer power. It wasn’t a fluke that netted Les Bleus the Cup on home soil eight years ago, and it was hardly a fluke in setting down Spain, Brazil and Portugal in order.
