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[Blwe_torch]

Stylish France conquer Brazil
By : James Mossop in Frankfurt, 02/07/2006
 


Vintage France: Thierry Henry puts the ball past Dida to seal victory
Brazil (0) 0 France (0) 1

Don't panic, Big Phil Scolari, but be afraid. Be very, very afraid, because the man they call Zizou is coming to traumatise your Portugal team in Wednesday's World Cup semi-final. It will be the first time since 1982 that the last four teams are European.

Zinedine Zidane, at 34, played every trick, made every pass count and laid on the goal for Thierry Henry. At the end Brazil slumped to the ground like broken men. The World Cup favourites were out at the quarter-final stage, defeated by a French team of such flair and industry they deserved to win.

Who wins the World Cup now? On this balmy night in Frankfurt the French were irresistible and those who had come to experience the Brazilian magic of the team's household names went home, instead, with their heads full of the romantic football of Zidane and his colleagues.

A date with Brazil was always a thing of souvenirs. They wear five stars, one for every World Cup title. Their rivals never fail to talk about them with absolute respect although Thierry Henry, the France and Arsenal striker and thrice Footballer of the Year, modified his take on the Samba Boys beforehand.

He followed his own fitting tribute to them by adding that he would be no more excited about beating them in competition than he was when France played Switzerland in their first game. His words seemed as droll and languid as his play but even that can be deceptive because his instinct puts him yards ahead of most teams. I suspect he enjoyed this somewhat more than a goalless draw against the Swiss.

Most people looked upon this quarter-final as a banker for Brazil. But there was plenty of crowing from the French cockerel before Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo whistled them into action. They can always tell of the 1998 final in Paris when Les Bleus defeated Brazil to put a lone star on their own shirts.

Brazil followed that by winning 11 World Cup games; a record, ended in style by Zidane's impressionists.

To be aware that England could have been playing the winners in the semi-final peeled away a special dimension and merely added to the lingering misery of Gelsenkirchen. The French would have shown England the door.

Those people who expected Brazil to sweep France aside with a flourish were obliged to swallow their opinions. France have their artists, too, and the fleet-footed trickery of Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Kaka was equalled by the haughty, sublime skills of Zidane, Henry and Patrick Vieira.

A moment of exquisite football just before half time brought the crowd to its feet as the flow of the movement gathered only to be halted by a desperate foul with Juan. He took out Vieira as he ran onto a pass of immense vision from Zidane who had driven a diagonal pass between Brazil's central defenders.

There was another defender covering, or Juan would have been shown red instead of yellow. Zidane took the free-kick and as he hammered his shot into the wall, Ronaldo stuck up his hands in protection and was penalised. The free-kick moved 10 yards forward and, as Henry placed the ball, Zidane nipped in quickly and had another go.

Brazil eventually cleared, but the relief did not last long, with Vieira shaving the Brazil post with a header after another dipping, curling Zidane free kick.

Brazil's frustration was clear. They had difficulty putting moves together with any of their old cohesion and no one needed reminding that, for all their gifts, the team of 2006 are not to be compared to other wonderful Brazilian sides - that of Pele, Tostao and Rivelino or the subsequent one on of Socrates and Zico.

Their early play here had some fizz about and Ronaldo's low cross which Kaka failed to convert was one of only a couple of first-half chances. Anyone who has watched Brazil over the years has enjoyed a succession of imaginative sides. This one looked tired.

Instead, the energy and the celebrating belonged to France after 57 minutes and the personnel involved were almost predictable. Zidane, out on the left, delivered another fiendishly accurate free kick that eluded everyone except Henry, stealing in at the far post to score by stealth.

The samba drums were muted. Carlos Alberto Parreira, the Brazilian coach, was rebuked for an agitated excursion from the confines of the technical area and his teams effort's to increase the pace was being thwarted by a mixture of Gallic flair and industry orchestrated by Zidane.

His close control, his vision, his turns away from defenders, and those times when he caught the ball on his thigh added up to a show of towering entertainment.

He was the man-of-the-match by a distance and his was probably the best individual performance of the whole tournament.
 
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

[toney]

I predict that history will repeat itself and Brazil will win the next world Cup.