Marcus

Singing Les Bleus – Why did France exit the World Cup so early and is it a shock?

Let us start with France. Blimey, where to start. Well, Raymond Domenech is a mad man. An international manager who distrusts Scorpios such as Robert Pires and reacts to going out of a major tournament by proposing to his girlfriend live on national television. It was announced before the tournament that he would be replaced by Laurent Blanc after the tournament and it seems that was not soon enough for the French team. The Anelka debacle and team walk out at training do not mean that a team are not world class, but it does point towards some mismanagement.

Let’s face it, the decision to replace him after the tournament does not instil faith in him and some of his selections have been baffling. Telling Henry he will not start any games and replacing him as captain was strange, not picking Samir Nasri or Karim Benzema seemed odd and replacing Benzema with Djibril Cisse, a man who had not scored an international goal in five years and whose international competitive goals had mainly came against the Faroe Islands, was bizarre. Albeit that Benzema was out of form and Cisse had scored plenty in the Greek league, but would Capello have taken Matt Derbyshire instead of Wayne Rooney if the two had seasons like Benzema and Cisse? No. A lot can be blamed on Domenech, but I would instead lay the blame on one Zinedine Zidane.

The best player of his generation and a man who could almost win a game single handed. But this was the problem; he being so incredible built up France as a top team when in reality it was Zidane’s brilliance that dragged France through to World Cup finals. It’s fair to say that in the France glory years he was surrounded by Thierry Henry at the top of his game, the best holding midfielder in the world in Claude Makalele, and Lilian Thuram, but the team was not world class without Zidane pulling the strings.

After winning the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship in 2000, they exited the group stage at World Cup 2002. Why? Now I’m not Columbo, but Zidane was absent in their first two games and barely fit for the last game. France were great because of Zidane. Now Zidane has gone, the French are no longer great. Just one more thing, since his retirement and including 2002’s missed games, France have won no group games out of eight at major championships.

France were woeful but it should not have come as a surprise.