France Recaptures a Piece of Glory
European champion France returned Saturday to the scene of its greatest triumph--the Stade de France outside Paris where it won the World Cup in 1998--and immediately put all the failures of 2002 behind it.
Two goals by Steve Marlet and one apiece by Patrick Viera, Sylvain Wiltord and Sidney Govou earned the French a convincing 5-0 victory over Slovenia in front of a crowd of 77,619 to begin defense of the European title they won in 2000.
The match featured the 100th international appearance by France’s captain, defender Marcel Desailly.
“It was important for the [team’s] confidence to snatch a success of this kind,” said France Coach Jacques Santini. “The new players and the old ones are getting to know each other.... Obviously, we have taken a great step toward our goal [of remaining European champion]. But there is still a long way to go.”
The game was one of 20 qualifying matches Saturday for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, and all five of the continent’s powers that were playing came through unscathed.
Battered, but unscathed.
England, for instance, had to rely on second-half goals by David Beckham and Michael Owen to overcome Slovakia, 2-1, in Bratislava, where two English fans were shot and wounded by security guards in a pregame incident outside a bar. And police had to resort to baton charges to subdue English fans intent on attacking Slovak fans who were aiming racist taunts at England players Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole, both of whom are black.
“We’re trying to kick [racism] out of the game, but it seems to have come back in,” Beckham said.
England Coach Sven Goran Eriksson also criticized the minority of Slovak fans involved and said he supports the recent crackdown on racism by UEFA, European soccer’s governing body.
“I agree 100% with UEFA, who are doing everything possible to fight against that,” the Swede said. “In the year 2002, it shouldn’t be possible, and I know about that because I come from a club [Lazio in Italy] where we had that problem, unfortunately. We tried [to stamp it out] but it was difficult.”
Turkey, which finished third at Korea/Japan ’02 and now ranks among Europe’s elite, had to come from behind to win, beating Macedonia, 2-1, in Skopje, Macedonia.
The home team took the lead in the second minute on a goal by Vlatko Grozdanoski and should have scored more, but the Turks, inspired by goalkeeper Rustu Recber, fought their way back and tied it on Okan Buruk’s goal and won it on a goal by Nihat Kahveci.
Italy was not quite as fortunate. It, too, came from behind but managed only a 1-1 tie against Yugoslavia in front of 50,000 in Naples.
The Yugoslavs took a surprise lead on a counterattack in the 27th minute, with Predrag Mijatovic steering the ball past goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who later kept the Italians in the match with a series of fine saves.
Alessandro Del Piero tied it 11 minutes later on a 25-yard free kick that deflected off the defensive wall.
“We didn’t create space for ourselves to attack,” said Italy Coach Giovanni Trapattoni. “They played well on the counterattack, they pressed us, and whenever we went forward we left spaces behind us.”
Spain, meanwhile, had no such difficulty as it rolled over Northern Ireland, 3-0, in Albacete, Spain.
Two goals by Ruben Baraja and one by Guti were ample proof of Spanish dominance.
There were a few upsets among the continent’s lesser teams.
Poland, for instance, was beaten, 1-0, in Warsaw by Latvia, which got its goal on a 20-yard shot by Juris Laizans.
“We did not take advantage of two or three great scoring opportunities, played nervously and too often as individuals, not a team,” said Poland Coach Zbigniew Boniek. “This unfortunate result complicates our group, which is very evenly matched.”
Romania also was upset at home, losing, 1-0, to Norway on an 84th-minute goal by midfielder Steffen Iversen in the wind and mud in Bucharest.
“We got more than we originally expected,” said Norway Coach Nils Johan Semb. “We came here for one point and managed to get the maximum.”
Gica Popescu, Romania’s captain, explained the loss this way: “We played against two very strong opponents -- Norway and the damned pitch.”
It was the electricity that was the problem elsewhere.
The lights went out in Georgia, or more specifically, at Lokomotivo Stadium in Tibilisi, and as a result Georgia’s game against Russia was abandoned at halftime with the score 0-0 when the power failed for the second time. The match will be rescheduled.
Other results went as expected, with Scotland finally giving Coach Berti Vogts a victory when it shut out Iceland, 2-0, in Reykjavik on goals by Christian Dailly and Gary Naysmith.
Portugal Unimpressive
Portugal, which qualifies automatically for Euro 2004 as the host nation, looked in less than top form when it was held to a 1-1 tie by Tunisia in Lisbon on Saturday.
The Portuguese scored early, with Pauleta finding the back of the net after four minutes, but the North Africans, in their first game under former France coach Roger Lemerre, tied the score three minutes before halftime on an Ali Zitouni goal.
Fluid Answers
Interesting to see the remark made the other day by former German international Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, now the chairman of Bayern Munich.
Commenting after Bayern’s Brazilian striker Elber had his driver’s license suspended for a month when he was found with a blood-alcohol level of 0.5 grams per liter, Rummenigge said Elber would not be fined and had a question for reporters.
“Do you know what 0.5 is?” he asked. “Everybody in this stadium has that.”
Masked Men
There is no concealing the fact that South American soccer is a bit different, no matter what sort of masks it dons.
In Bolivia last week, Carlos Ramaciotti, the coach of Argentina’s Gimnasia La Plata, provoked an uproar when he made his players wear surgical masks while training for a Copa Sudamerica game against Bolivar to be played in the world’s highest capital, La Paz.
Ramaciotti said he wanted the players to be familiar with the “drowning sensation” they would feel when playing at 12,001 feet in the Andes. The Bolivians took this as an insult and Bolivar took it out on Gimnasia, winning, 4-1.
In nearby Ecuador, meanwhile, there is the strange case of Otalino Tenorio. It seems that whenever he scores a goal for his club team, Emelec, Tenorio delights fans by racing along the sideline wearing a Spiderman mask that he keeps stuffed inside his shorts.
No further comment is needed.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Euro 2004 Qualifying
Standings after Saturday’s games (group winners qualify, second-place teams advance to playoffs, Portugal qualifies as host country):
GROUP ONE
*--* W L T GF GA Pts France 2 0 0 7 1 6 Israel 1 0 0 2 0 3 Slovenia 1 1 0 3 5 3 Cyprus 0 1 0 1 2 0 Malta 0 2 0 0 5 0
*--*
GROUP TWO
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Denmark 1 0 1 4 2 4 Norway 1 0 1 3 2 4 Romania 1 1 0 3 1 3 Luxembourg 0 1 0 0 2 0 Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 1 0 0 3 0
*--*
GROUP THREE
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Austria 2 0 0 4 0 6 Netherlands 1 0 0 3 0 3 Czech Republic 1 0 0 2 0 3 Moldova 0 2 0 0 4 0 Belarus 0 2 0 0 5 0
*--*
GROUP FOUR
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Latvia 1 0 1 1 0 4 Poland 1 1 0 2 1 3 Sweden 0 0 2 1 1 2 Hungary 0 0 1 1 1 1 San Marino 0 1 0 0 2 0
*--*
GROUP FIVE
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Scotland 1 0 1 4 2 4 Germany 1 0 0 2 0 3 Lithuania 1 1 0 2 2 3 Faeroe Islands 0 1 1 2 4 1 Iceland 0 1 0 0 2 0
*--*
GROUP SIX
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Spain 2 0 0 5 0 6 Ukraine 1 0 1 4 2 4 Armenia 0 0 1 2 2 1 Northern Ireland 0 1 0 0 3 0 Greece 0 2 0 0 4 0
*--*
GROUP SEVEN
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Turkey 2 0 0 5 1 6 England 1 0 0 2 1 3 Liechtenstein 0 0 1 1 1 1 Macedonia 0 0 1 2 3 1 Slovakia 0 2 0 1 5 0
*--*
GROUP EIGHT
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Bulgaria 2 0 0 4 0 6 Belgium 1 1 0 1 2 3 Estonia 0 0 1 0 0 1 Croatia 0 1 1 0 2 1 Andorra 0 1 0 0 1 0
*--*
GROUP NINE
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Italy 1 0 1 3 1 4 Wales 1 0 0 2 0 3 Finland 1 1 0 3 2 3 Yugoslavia 0 0 1 1 1 1 Azerbaijan 0 2 0 0 5 0
*--*
GROUP 10
*--* W L T GF GA Pts Switzerland 1 0 1 5 2 4 Russia 1 0 0 4 2 3 Albania 0 0 1 1 1 1 Ireland 0 1 0 2 4 0 Georgia 0 1 0 1 4 0
*--*
