France’s Firepower May not be Enough to Overcome Italy

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

BERLIN, Germany — We approach soccer’s great four-yearly climax with some trepidation. Italy and France should give us, in Sunday’s World Cup final, the very best that the sport can offer. Will they be able to deliver?

I fear not. Neither team was expected to get to the final. That they have done so has much more to do with the generally poor level of soccer throughout the tournament than any special merits of either France or Italy.

The strength of both teams lies in defense.The Italians have conceded only one goal in their six games (and that was an own-goal scored by Cristian Zaccardo for the Americans), the French have let in only two goals.

Goals have been in short supply throughout the tournament – at the time of writing, 141 have been scored in 62 games for an average of 2.27 per game. Only the 1990 World Cup did worse, with 2.21 per game.

The lack of goals should not come as a surprise, as the sport has been allowing defensive play and players to dominate games for at least the past two decades. Occasional rule changes to favor attackers have done little more than delay the decline in scoring.

Even as the stark results of suffocating defensive play are undermining the liveliness of the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter is quite prepared to treat it as a minor hiccup, something that doesn’t make that much difference.

“The soccer isn’t that bad, but there aren’t enough goals,” is his opinion. It would be better to admit that the soccer “isn’t that good,” as such an opinion would fit in more accurately with the rest of Blatter’s opinion: ” … and when there are too few goals, the public isn’t very enthusiastic. The essence of the game is goals.”

Yet here is a tournament in which there has not been a single outstanding attacking player. Searching for a tournament MVP, it is the defenders who stand out. Argentina’s key player was centerback Roberto Ayala, while for Brazil — traditionally the most attack-minded of teams — defender Lucio was the most consistent performer.

On Sunday we shall see two more outstanding defenders, France’s Lilian Thuram and Italy’s Fabio Cannavaro. Thuram is surely playing his last big tournament, and French coach Raymond Domenech has provided the 34-year-old with a defensive formation that provides him with support from his central partner William Gallas, plus a defensive midfielder in front of him, Claude Makelele. But recognizing the contribution of his teammates in no way belittles Thuram’s play; he has performed splendidly at the heart of the French defense.

But not, I think, as splendidly as Cannavaro has done for Italy. Just one example: with Italy leading 1–0 at the end of the semi-final against Germany, it was Cannavaro who stripped the ball (not for the first time in this game) from German forward Lukas Podolski and raced confidently forward to set up the second Italian goal.

Yet Cannavaro has been leading an unsettled life in the middle of the Italian defense. His regular partner, Alessandro Nesta, was injured in Italy’s third game and has not played since. Andrea Barzagli and Marco Materazzi have been filling in, but the changes have not in any way impaired Cannavaro’s majestic performances. He has been simply insuperabile,unbeatable. The final will also be a special day for Cannavaro, as it will mark his 100th game for Italy.

But if we’re to allow sentimental touches for Sunday’s game, then we must look at France’s Zinedine Zidane. One of the sport’s truly great players for the past decade, Zidane has lately been playing poorly for his club, Real Madrid. His pre-World Cup announcement that he felt good about his form and about the French team was greeted with widespread skepticism. But in the win over Brazil, Zidane was suddenly Zidane again, making light of his 34 years, bamboozling the Brazilians all over the field, dominating the game.

He has already announced that Sunday’s final will be his last game for France, a retirement that maybe merits a world title to go with it? Sentimentally yes, but I think the Italians are likely to upset that notion.

They will do so because, defensively, they are the better team. Against them will be a French formation that plays (as do so many teams here, Italy included) with only one true forward. Logically, that forward should be David Trezeguet, a natural goalscorer above all else. But Domenech prefers to use the wonderful Thierry Henry as his lone striker. In the French scheme of things, Henry is used primarily as a counter-attack weapon, where his speed and control can be decisive.

Italian defenders usually handle counter-attacking teams well. All the Italians play professionally in the Italian Serie A, where they get plenty of experience defending against counter-attacking tactics.

The Italians have scored 11 goals (three more than the French), but they have no obvious goal-scorer! Luca Toni scored twice against Ukraine, but the other nine goals have been scored by nine different players — three of them coming from defenders.

But goal scoring is going to be difficult in this final.The last time these two countries met in the World Cup, in 1998, the score was 0–0, with France winning in a penalty kick shootout. Several of the players who played in that game will be on the field on Sunday — Thuram, Trezeguet, Henry and Fabien Barthez for France, and Alessandro Del Piero for Italy.

Plus two others: Zidane and Cannavaro. On Sunday, only a super-human performance from Zidane will guide the French to victory. Without that, I think that Cannavaro — and it is guaranteed that he will have another superb game for Italy — will be the captain who raises the World Cup trophy here in Berlin.

pgardner@nysun.com


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use