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Soccer

GROUP C: France vs. South Africa

By HELENE ELLIOTT
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SITE: Marseille

TIME: noon. TV: ESPN2, Channel 34 RADIO: KWKW (1330, Spanish)

* ABOUT FRANCE: The home team can’t satisfy its critics or avoid controversy. The latest flap centers on Stephane Guivarc’h and David Trezeguet. Guivarc’h apparently will be the target man, even though Trezeguet was more productive in warmup games.

* ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA: The South Africans have a fair amount of speed and talent. Team captain Lucas Radebe is a leader and usually plays central defense but showed presence during a stint in midfield. Benni McCarthy, a 20-year-old striker who plays in Holland for Ajax Amsterdam, is among the world’s rising stars.

* OUTLOOK: On sheer talent, France should win. However, Guivarc’h and Trezeguet have little international experience and their response under stress is unpredictable.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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