"Everyone in the whole world is mocking us now. I'm furious, because we're not playing football anymore."
--Franck Ribery
Hmmmmmm. Franck Ribery was one of the conspirators in this French coup, so I'm not sure what he's going on about. If His Highness had focused his energy on playing and not trying to run the show, maybe he would have been more effective on the pitch.
New reports suggest that Patrice Evra accused Robert Duverne of being the traitor who told the press about the Anelka/Domenech bustup at halftime. I agree with Evra that whatever transpired in the dressing room had no business filtering into the mainstream, but I'm not sure Evra and company have grasped the overall picture yet. EVERYONE IN THE MAINSTREAM ALREADY KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO LOSE.
Is this a veiled attempt to divert the attention from their pathetic play? Because it didn't work.
What concerns me is that France will refuse to play their last match against South Africa or worse...be on the pitch but not play well (which would be hard to discern from their previous encounters). That could upset the validity of the group stage table. None of the Group A teams have qualified yet. Uruguay and Mexico are atop the leaderboard with 4 points each. Uruguay is in the top spot because their goal differential is +3, whereas Mexico has a +2. France are sitting in third with 1 point, the same as 4th place South Africa, but their differential is a -2, and South Africa have given up 3 goals.
The tricky part of this is that both France and South Africa could go through if Uruguay beats Mexico. They would have 4 points, but both would have to make up a goal differential (depending on how many goals Uruguay scored on Mexico).
If France decided to be arses and not play hard (which as I said before would be hard to disprove), then South Africa might move on instead of Mexico.
The scenarios are unlikely, but not impossible.
France has big problems. They have lost their trainer and director of football, their coach is an outcast, they've sent a player home, their country think they're fools, the footy press think they're clowns.
My prayer is that they don't go through so we won't have to hear about this anymore.
C'est finis.
"Tous ensemble pour un nouveau rêve"
All together for a new dream...
yeah, whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment