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The best team won
France's defense overwhelms Brazil's flash
Posted: Wednesday September 16, 1998 07:09 PM
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French Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez and Ronaldo (center) tumble through the air after colliding during the World Cup final Ross Kinnaird/Allsport |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- Perhaps the more talented squad did not win
Sunday night, but there is no doubt the better team captured the
World Cup title. France played as a single unit -- seamlessly and
flawlessly -- doing everything it needed to do to beat Brazil and take
away the trophy that Brazilians think is their birthright. There was the
French defense, playing as it has all tournament. It shut down Ronaldo,
Bebeto, Denilson and whomever else tried to make a run at the goal. To
single out just one defender would be unfair for the unit. Just take a
look at the job it did over seven matches, yielding two goals in seven
matches. That's phenomenal, and should be what this World Cup is remembered
for -- not Brazil's supposed failure. Let's face it, Ronaldo and Company
were not all they had been cracked up to be, never playing as a unit for
more than periodic stretches at most. That's not how a World Cup is won.
In 1994 when Brazil took the title, it did so playing what its
supporters labeled "Defensive Football" that was not pretty to watch. Well,
look which style won out at France '98.
Everyone, including us here at the 91st Minute, jumped on the artistic
bandwagon, gushing about the talents of Ronaldo, Denilson and Roberto
Carlos, while putting down the workmanlike skills of France's squad. The
results more than served as a wakeup call and reminded everyone what it
takes to win a World Cup -- a commitment to winning through team football
based on defense. The last three World Cup champions have all possessed
these qualities. Maybe they weren't the flashiest teams, but France,
Brazil in '94 and West Germany in '90
understood the key to winning the World Cup was stopping the other squad
with an unrelenting defensive style. You can count on one hand the
number of good chances Brazil got against France, and only one came in the
first half when the game was still in doubt. Even when the French lost
central defender Marcel Desailly to a second yellow card in the 67th minute
nothing changed. France never once let its guard down or lost its
composure, forcing Brazil to take outside lanes that would get cut off in
the corners and never led to clear shots at the gold. The title was
quite an accomplishment for a country which did not even qualify for the
World Cup in 1990 or 1994, and France's win was certainly good for football
-- Brazil has served at the top for a while and football needs a new
champion to carry the banner for a while. Funny thing is, few people,
Frenchmen included, thought that France would be the ones to dethrone the
King. But Zinedine Zidane and the rest of the French team believed, and now
they've got four years to carry the crown.
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