French Resistance Softens With Win
The mistral winds--cold northerlies--blew through this ancient port city Friday night, carrying off into the chilly night swirls of confetti, streamers and bedsheet banners.
The violent gusts also should have dispersed whatever doubts cynical French fans had harbored about the character and skill of their World Cup team.
In its first World Cup appearance since 1986, the much-questioned French team began Group C play with a convincing 3-0 victory over South Africa before 55,077 at Stade Velodrome.
Christophe Dugarry, who replaced injured striker Stephane Guivarc’h in the 26th minute, brought the peckish crowd solidly in line behind the host team with a well-taken header in the 35th minute off a corner kick by hometown hero Zinedine Zidane.
Two second-half goals, each deflected into his own net by South African defender Pierre Issa--who plays here for the French team Olympic Marseille--applied icing to what long-suffering French fans considered a delectable cake.
But if their chants and cheers echoed through the night, the words of French Coach Aime Jacquet were short and curiously clipped.
“We beat a very good South African team, which forced us to go deep into our resources,” Jacquet said. “We fulfilled our obligation to the Marseille fans. I’d like them to feel confident in us, even if they are deceived by certain press.”
Jacquet’s every move had been second-guessed and rehashed by French reporters, who theorized that his selection of the inexperienced Guivarc’h and Dugarry and the team’s overall lack of flair would be its undoing. That was hardly the case Friday, when the French controlled virtually every aspect of the game.
Zidane, who grew up in a housing project in the northern fringe of Marseille and was a ballboy here in 1984 when France won a semifinal game en route to the European championship, was solid in midfield, besides taking the inward-bending corner kick that set up Dugarry’s goal.
France’s defense stifled heralded South African striker Benni McCarthy and left goalkeeper Fabien Barthez little to do. South Africa, in its World Cup debut, took only four shots and had only one corner kick.
“Obviously, they were very fit and running hard, so we owe them a lot of respect,” said Philippe Troussier, the Frenchman who coaches South Africa. “We’re glad to have given them a fair amount of opposition. . . . The French team is very well organized. The difference between our young team and the French team showed.”
It showed when Dugarry leaped over defender Mark Fish to nod home the first goal, sending it just inside the right post and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Hans Vonk. And it showed again when Issa got between Youri Djorkaeff’s shot and Vonk, inadvertently deflecting the ball into the net in the 77th minute.
With South Africa pressing forward to get back in the game, it was merely a matter of when--not if--France would score again. Issa again got in the way, this time unable to sweep away a shot by Thierry Henry, but it mattered little by then.
Jacquet said the winds, which exceeded 70 mph, cramped the French team’s style, and both teams, indeed, had problems with balls in the air.
“We knew they would be a difficult team to handle, and because of its defensive discipline, [South Africa] posed lots of problems,” Jacquet said. “Our spirit and our desire to win were stronger.”
That hasn’t always been the case. France failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup after shocking losses to Bulgaria and Israel, and some skeptics said it would not have made it this time, either, if not for getting an automatic berth as the host nation. Troussier, however, would disagree.
“We knew that to go into the second round, [getting a point or more out of] the French game would be a bonus for us,” Troussier said. “Now we’re in the position we always thought we’d be in. We’ve got to beat Saudi Arabia and Denmark. The World Cup is not finished, as far as we are concerned.”
As far as France is concerned--the team and the nation--the tournament has only just begun.
“We will savor this victory,” Henry said. “But we won’t rest on our laurels.”
