Well, they cheated to get there, but now they’ve departed in disgrace, with coach Raymond Domenech not even having the courtesy to shake his counterpart‘s hand at the final whistle.
What a pity though that South Africa couldn’t get the goals they needed to progress to round two. Still, at least they, unlike the French, went out on a high.
Meanwhile, Uruguay have won Group A without conceding a goal, and with their round of 16 opponents likely to be South Korea, Nigeria or Greece, look to have a great chance of making it through to at least the quarter-finals.
6 comments:
Sounds like the hammer of soccer justice couldn't fall on a more appropriate group than the French team.
I would try to explain the group stage tiebreakers to my fellow Americans, but saying "Win and we're in" has been getting a better response.
What an implosion.
Let's hope they filmed a fly-on-the-wall documentary about it..
I have no sympathy for the spoilt, petulant players or Domenech.
I do feel sorry for any French players who actually tried, the French fans and also Irish players and fans.
It must be hard enough to swallow Henry's handball. Even harder when the team who take your place don't seem to want it.
I thought the ill-discipline of the French team was inspirational.
There is too much working-class- Tory respect for the Manager in this country.Lets hope the covered-up mutiny by English players has had some influence on tactics .Seems like Capello has not picked Joe Cole just to show he's in charge.Typical of management, only ever any good when they work by consensus.
Perceptive comment on telly : from Kevin Keegan!He said that Capello seemed to have met the malcontents half way.It looked like that v Slovenia: Rooney (still looking out of sorts) not isolated but in tandem with Dafoe; a crosser on the right wing (Milner) rather than a dribbler (Lennon);Joe Cole on but only for a face-saving 20 mins though his time-wasting in the corner with Milner was a thing of beauty at the end.Capello was less of the uninvolved, unemotional observer as well.All changes wrought by a quick burst of industrial democracy.
And we were wearing the red shirts of revolution rather than the white shirts of obedient conformity.What colour against Germany also white shirts?
(And how injured at full-time was Ozil ,my tip for man of the tournament before it started?The British commentator failed to mention it;too busy bellowing authentic patriotic gibberish.)
Remember Keegan stood down as England manager because he felt he was n't doing a very good job.I f only this were more general: the UK is beset with managers insisting on doing it "My Way" (their vainglorious anthem),out of
total self-regard,willing to endanger the whole enterprise to get personal respect (or rather fear).
So England got knocked out by a superior German team. Psychologically this nation is superior across a whole range of human endevour.
England's moping a whining supporters get on my nerves: it was a mediocre team from a second rate nation which has a narcissitic and inflated opinion of itself.
Well done Germany.
Well done Germany for thrashing England 4-1. My only regret is it wasn't 7-1 just to get rid of this tedious bloody myth that England is always near and yet so far.
They were rubbish and we knew it. The match with Algeria was painful, so much so I started shouting for Algeria to stuff them.
Second rate team. Second rate nation and football team living off past glories.
Now we KNOW we are rubbish, perhaps we can also reform the country in to one worth living in and not based on debt booms and living beyond unreal expectations.
Karl Naylor
PS A new blog opens next week as I move back to the UK. God help me. So I'll be writing a lot more on London, the UK and related issues.
It's Called "London Calling"
-Karl Naylor
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