The Hindu : France wins, but fails to impress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

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Sport - Football

France wins, but fails to impress

Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Thierry Henry of France scores the winning goal from the penalty spot against Colombia during their Group A match in the FIFA Confederations Cup in Lyon, France on Wednesday.

PARIS JUNE 19. It wasn't too impressive, but France managed to begin the defence of its Confederations Cup title on a winning note.

Reversing the score from the last time the country began its defence of a major international trophy — a 0-1 loss to Senegal in the opening match of last year's World Cup — France defeated Colombia 1-0 on Thierry Henry's powerful penalty blast in the 39th minute.

Earlier on Wednesday, Japan managed to shut out tournament underdog New Zealand 3-0.

The tournament heats up on Thursday with defending World Cup champion Brazil facing Cameroon and World Cup quarterfinalist United States playing third-place finisher Turkey.

For France, the tournament is an opportunity to restore respect at the international level after it failed to score a single goal in South Korea last year.

Coach Jacques Santini's squad finally found the net on Wednesday with the help of a dubious foul.

In the 37th, France's Sylvain Wiltord snaked his way through on the right, ran into the penalty area and tried to pass past Ruben Velasquez. Wiltord immediately claimed a handball, 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,'' France coach Jacques Santini said.

Vehement protests from the Colombian players didn't matter to the Portuguese referee.

Shunsuke Nakamura and Hidetoshi Nakata led the way for Japan. Nakamura scored twice and fellow Italian league player Nakata found the net once.

Along with France, the other favourite to win the eight-nation competition is Brazil.

The South Americans made news on Wednesday when they decided which striker would start in the place of the absent Ronaldo, who is finishing his club season with Real Madrid.

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira settled on Parma's prolific scorer Adriano, who finished fifth with 15 goals in the Italian league this past season.

Parreira was also considering Fabiano, a 22-year-old forward with Sao Paulo. But Fabiano was diagnosed with a thigh injury on Wednesday and ruled out.

On Wednesday, South America's defensive leaders nearly shut out France.

If Colombia's strike force had been half as efficient as its defensive line, the South American champion could well have scored a major upset.

With a series of timely interventions, Inter Milan stopper Ivan Cordoba kept the pressing European champion 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 Cordoba moments after the referee had tried to cool tempers.

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

Still, France joined Japan atop the Group A standings.

For Japan, the story was in midfield, where Nakamura and Nakata helped the co-host of last year's World Cup set off national celebrations by reaching the second round.

``It was critical for us to start well and have one win beside our name right away,'' said Nakamura, who scored in open play for the first time in more than a year.

Nakamura found the net just 11 minutes in, chasing a long pass from Nakata before firing a wide angle shot that went just inside the post.

Nakata, the team's captain and Adriano's teammate at Parma, notched Japan's second goal in the 64th, easily piercing New Zealand's defence to blow the ball past goalkeeper Mike Utting.

Nakamura, who recently helped Reggina stay in Serie A during his first season in Italy, made it 3-0 with a header.

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