Obsessedsportsnut's Blog

one of the biggest stories of this year is the total collapse of the French National Team.

To recap everything…

1. France played to a tie against Uruguay in a lackluster first game. Things weren’t that bad, and France had a chance to rebound in the next couple games to advance.
2. France loses 2-0 to Mexico in the 2nd game. Star forward Nicolas Anelka is subbed at halftime. Allegations come out after the game that Anelka had a nasty verbal exchange with coach Raymond Domenech at halftime.
3. Following the loss, Anelka was kicked off the National Team and sent home.
4. The team stood by their star player, fought back, and refused to take the field for their next practice session.
5. Captain Patrice Evra then got into a verbal argument on the field with trainer Robert Duverne. Duverne then quits on the spot.
6. The team director (kind of like the GM), Jean-Louis Valentin, quits as well in disgust
7. In the 3rd game, Domenech stripped Evra of the captains armband, and dropped him from the squad. The French end up losing to South Africa 2-1.
8. Domenech refuses to shake the hand of the South African coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira

What happened? Where did things go bad? Wasn’t France supposed to be one of the top teams in the world? Aren’t they supposed to be the #9 team in the world?

Well to really understand everything that happened, you have to go back to 2004, when the French Federation sacked coach Jacques Santini after France was eliminated from the Euro 2004. Two things followed from this…

1. Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, and Claude Makelele all retired from international football to concentrate on their club teams. These three players are some of the greatest players in French history, and ended the so-called “golden era” of french football that included the 1998 World Cup win and 2000 Euro win.

2. Raymond Domenech was hired as the replacement coach, who’s sole objective was to the reach “at least’ the 2006 World Cup semifinals.

With the retirement of some of the best French players, Domenech had a relatively inexperienced team since none of the younger players had much playing time on the international level. Because of this, the French national team struggled to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Domenech then “forced” Zidane, Thuram, and Makelele out of retirement. Many analysts criticized Domenech and thought that these three players were too old to compete competitively in the tournament. Also Domenech was constantly criticized for his squad selection and constantly puzzled fans and players for his decisions to either play (or not) certain players.

However, as we saw with the Boston Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen this year, never rule out older, experienced players. Well…players who are healthy at least. Zidane, Makelele, and Thuram, stayed healthy, and they lead France to a spot in the Finals where they eventually lost in the Finals to Italy.

It was a remarkable and surprising showing by the French, who pretty much stunned the entire world.

However once again, Zidane went into retirement. Makelele and Thuram agreed to play for Domenech at the Euro 2008, but they were really too old to play at a high level anymore. Coupled that with the fact that Domenech couldnt find a replacement in the midfield for Zidane, the best player in French history, France couldn’t even advance out of their group in the tournament. Makelele and Thuram finally retired, and Domenech really had trouble on his hands.

Domenech was unable to find players to adequately replace the “old guard”. Yes Franck Ribery was supposed to be Zidane’s replacement in the midfield, but Ribery has a long way to go to be even half of what Zidane ever was.

Ever since 2008, the French national team has just been flat out horrible. They struggled mightily in qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa, and it took a handball goal by Thierry Henry to “defeat” Ireland in the playoffs.

In the buildup to the World Cup, France struggled tremendously as well. On May 30th, France was only able to tie #55 Tunisia 1-1. Less than a week later, France lost to #84 China 1-0. In both of these games, France was fielding their top team.

Throughout the past 4 years, Domenech has slowly lost control and respect of his team, due to his erratic decision making, indecision, and lack of respect for his players. What happened in South Africa was the culmination of 4 years of a bad regime and it finally blew up into one of the biggest stories of South Africa.

In closing, one final note about the FIFA rankings. Yes France is ranked #9 in the World, but you have to take into account how FIFA calculates its rankings.

The thing about FIFA rankings is that they dont accurately reflect the current state of the team. They actually take into account all games over the past 4 years. Therefore, France’s World Cup appearance in the 2006 finals added a ton to their rankings formula. Take away that appearance, and France would probably be ranked around the same spot as Uruguay and Mexico. If you ask anyone to rank the top teams based on current form, I dont think people would have France at #9.