Henry on the spot

France beats Colombia 1-0 to start title defense

LYON, France (AP) -- France had to rely on a contentious penalty call to struggle past Colombia 1-0 Wednesday night, a sputtering start to the defense of its Confederations Cup title.

Thierry Henry shook off the frustration of continuous close marking with a powerful penalty blast in the 39th minute, yet the narrow victory and lackluster second-half play was a disappointment for a team trying to forget last year's World Cup -- where it was eliminated in the first round without scoring a goal.

If Colombia's strikeforce had been half as efficient as the defensive line, it could well have scored a major upset. French goalie Gregory Coupet had to deny a charging Victor Aristizabal with a smothering save in the dying moments.

Colombia, the South American champion, kept coming forward and Ruben Velasquez hit the bar in the 89th minute.

Still, France joined Japan, a 3-0 winner over New Zealand, atop the Group A standings.

The decisive controversy came in the 37th minute. Sylvain Wiltord snaked his way through on the right, ran into the penalty area and tried to pass past Velasquez. Wiltord immediately claimed a hand ball, but referee Lucilio Cardoso waved play on until the linesman started waving his flag for an infraction. Replays showed the penalty could easily not have been given.

"We didn't see much. The referee was not well-placed and it had to be pointed out by his assistant," said French coach Jacques Santini.

Vehement protests of the Colombian players didn't matter for the Portuguese referee.

"Our biggest sin was complaining about the refereeing," said Colombian coach Francisco Maturana.

Up to that point, the match proved to be everything which was predicted -- good offense against impenetrable defense.

At first Zinedine Zidane, still playing with Real Madrid, didn't seem to be missed. But as play went on, his sparkle and genius were sorely lacking on a team where few of the youngsters made a big impression.

From the back, Inter Milan's Ivan Cordoba rallied his Colombia like a veteran, belying his age of 26, and with a series of timely interventions, he kept the pressing European champions at bay. Together with Mario Yepes, he frustrated Henry to the level of recklessness around the half hour.

Suddenly, the elegant Arsenal striker turned ugly and went, studs first, into the thighs of Yepes. If that wasn't bad enough, he floored Corboda moments after Cardoso had tried to cool tempers.

Henry was lucky to escape with only a yellow card, especially since he scored the decider minutes later.

Colombia, which failed to qualify for last year's World Cup, came out charging after half-time, but as good as its defense is, as uninspired proved its forward line, rarely giving surprise goalie Coupet a scare.

When Velasquez broke through on the right in the 59th minute for a great chance, he only managed to shoot into the sidenetting, indicative of Colombia's ability to find the goal at the time.

In the 78th minute, Elson Becerra got a yellow card when Cardoso ruled the forward tried to fake a penalty incident.

French coach Jacques Santini sprang a surprise when he sidelined Robert Pires, the midfield genius who was the best player of the Confederations Cup two years ago, and goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.

Pires came on after one hour, briefly seemed to make a difference with some weaving runs but quickly fell back in the slumber which seemed to envelop the whole team late in the game.

Summary

France 1 Colombia 0 - result

Confederations Cup, Group A

Scorer: Thierry Henry 39pen

Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 38,500

Teams:

France: 23-Gregory Coupet; 15-Lilian Thuram, 8-Marcel Desailly (captain), 2-Philippe Mexes, 3-Bixente Lizarazu; 11-Sylvain Wiltord, 18-Benoit Pedretti, 6-Olivier Dacourt, 17-Olivier Kapo (7-Robert Pires 61); 9-Djibril Cisse (22-Sidney Govou 76), 12-Thierry Henry (20-Steve Marlet 84)

Colombia: 1-Oscar Cordoba; 23-Gonzalo Martinez (6-Gerardo Vallejo 90+2), 3-Mario Yepes, 2-Ivan Cordoba (captain), 20-Gerardo Bedoya; 21-Jairo Patino (16-Eudalio Arriaga 66), 15-Ruben Dario Velasquez, 18-Jorge Lopez, 10-Giovanni Hernandez; 9-Victor Aristizabal, 7-Elson Becerra

Referee: Lucilio Cardoso Cortez Batista (Portugal).

 

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Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.