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France looks for double World Cup champs trying to duplicate feat at Euro 2000
Posted: Tuesday June 20, 2000 12:02 PM
It would be quite a feat. Roger Lemerre's France has a chance to become only the second country after Germany in 1972 and 1974 to win back-to-back European and World titles. It has been quite a turnaround for a nation which spent the post- Platini/Tigana/Giresse era drowning in a sea of underachievement and bad blood. Between 1988 and 1996, France qualified for just one international tournament, Euro 92, where it was summarily ejected in the first round. From Euro 96 onwards though, it has gone from strength to strength, losing to the Czech Republic on penalties in the semis that year, then winning the World Cup on home turf in 1998. Now, with Holland having so far disappointed, with Italy still not pleasing the purists and with Spain doing its usual disappearing act, it is very much the frontrunner to take home the gold. The knock on France at the World Cup was that it was brilliant everywhere except for up front - and it still won the title. Now, Lemerre has three top drawer strikers to choose from -- Nicolas Anelka, David Trezeguet and Thierry Henry. The rest of the lineup is the familiar cast of characters from France 98. You might say: "Well, if they've been playing better than anyone else in the tournament, if the squad is the same as the one which was good enough to win the World Cup, plus they have quality strikers, doesn't it stand to reason that they will win Euro 2000 as well?" Possibly. Anything can happen. But it's far from a done deal. Before the tournament, I predicted that France might not even make it out of Group D. That was more because I thought Holland was going to steamroller everybody else and that the Czechs were going to be the surprise team in the group. OK, so it didnšt happen. On paper, France looks formidable, but if you look closely there are more than a few cracks. The back four is as impressive as they get. Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly and Bixente Lizarazu (or Vincent Candela, who might actually be better than the Bayern Munich wingback) read like something which has emerged from a centerforward's worst nightmare. Still, it doesn't change the fact that Blanc, never the fastest to begin with, turns 35 this year. His sense of position and leadership remain exceptional, but, if you're Lemerre, you don't want him left one-on-one with a speedy forward Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez remains an enigma. There are two schools of thought. The first maintains that he is a goalkeeping genius, unorthodox perhaps, but nevertheless sensational. They ask that you judge him by his results, and the statistics tell us that he conceded only two goals from open play at France 98. Sure, the sight of him scampering off his goal-line wild-eyed is one of the least reassuring sights in the modern game, but he does get the job done. Besides, if he wasn't one of the best goalkeepers in the world, why would Manchester United have paid US$12.5 million for his services? The other camp retorts that Manchester United is also the same club which gleefully shelled out US $7.5 million on Massimo Taibi, so the fact that it spent big bucks on Barthez means little. His detractors believe that he is nothing more than a buffoonish liability, whose frenzied style isn't just an aesthetic flourish, but a function of the fact that he is no idea what he is doing. The jury is still out. Admittedly, he has gotten the job done, but how much of that is a result of the fact that his back four has been virtually impregnable over the past few years? I hesitate to critcize Barthez because so far he hasn't made too many costly errors, but then I see him play and I wonder "What the heck is this guy doing?" Sooner or later, his luck will run out. Sooner or later, he will be exposed and it could cost France dearly. The midfield, while fearsome on paper, isn't what it once was either. Zinedine Zidane is still untouchable and Patrick Vieira is very close to being recognized as one of the truly great defensive midfielders in the game. But Emanuel Petit and Didier Deschamps are both coming off lackluster seasons. They seem to have season tickets to the French Eleven. No matter what they do, they always start. Deschamps has lost a step defensively and his offensive contribution has dwindled to close to zero. Right now, he's playing on raw emotion. Petit is not as consistent as he once was and has developed an annoying tendency to drift in and out of games. The strikers are long on speed and talent, short on experience and tactical nous. Henry and Anelka are still very raw. They will kill you on breakaways and punish your mistakes, which is what they did to Denmark and the Czech Republic. But pit them against a sound defensive team and it could be a different story. Breaking through packed backlines is going to be difficult for them. France has little width, Vieira and Petit are central midfielders who play on the flanks, they're not going to run to the by-line and cross the ball. Which means that when it comes to service from the wings, Lemerre must rely on his fullbacks, Lizarazu (or Candela) and Thuram. And it's worth remembering that while Thuram may be the best defender in the world, he's still a recycled central defender. How do you stop France? Keep it tight at the back, don't get pulled forward, take away the breakaway option. Both Anelka and Henry need space to operate, if you create congestion in your half of the pitch, you can stifle them. The only French players with the skill and vision to realistically unlock a packed defense are Zidane and Youri Djorkaeff and it remains to be seen whether Lemerre will play both at the same time like he did against Denmark. Put a nasty, vicious man-marker on Zidane and keep your fingers crossed. If you can take him out of the game, you reduce Francešs offensive options even further. You force them rely on dead-ball situations. They'll still be very dangerous, the likes of Blanc, Petit and Thuram are outstanding in the air and Zidane is a constant threat on free kicks, but at least you will have contained much of their firepower. All this could be pointless. France might still romp past everybody. But it is far from invincible. In fact, a little bit of homework should enable a canny opponent to have more than a prayer against the world champions. London-based Gabriele Marcotti writes a weekly column on international soccer for CNNSI.com. To submit questions or comments to Gabriele Marcotti, click here.
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