Real and Imagined Penalties

7/5/06: France 1 – Portugal 0

What is about this French team that I find so uninspiring Is it that the French defense whoses praises I have already sung continues to, well, shut down other teams with the effectiveness of an Italian like catenaccio ? Is it that Zidane’s moves are so subtly spectacular and nothing really stands out except his masterfully way of controlling a game. Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t see how it is that he continues to be such an influence, yet he is or otherwise this French team would have gone packing long ago.

The qualities of the French team are definitely not skin deep, and one must probe very far to find what is it that makes this team click. In their semifinal against Portugal they shut down another team, albeit a team with a potent attack that just couldn’t seem to score more than 1 goal in the second round phase. That ended up being the Portuguese’s undoing, but they definitely had their chances.

What made the difference in this game was Henry’s decision to play like he does at Arsenal. He attacked players using his patented shiftiness, his incredible dribbling ability in tight spaces, and his willingness to look for that far post. He was vintage Henry in moments of the game, none more important than when he won a penalty kick after faking out Carvalho out of his shorts near the top of the penalty box. The ever so cool Zidane took one of the shortest runups of a PK I’ve ever seen and barely, and I mean just barely, put it past Ricardo, the penalty kick stopmeister. Aside from that it just didn’t appear that France did much more. Is it just me or are the only players that look like they are exerting themselves are Malouda and Ribery, the latter looked exhausted when he was taken out. RIghly so because he did literally tons of running. Maybe it’s the din of watching so many games, but I just couldn’t see that France even tried anything more. It’s almost like once they got the goal, they just concentrated full efforts on stopping Portugal.

Portugal for their part, attacked mostly through Cristiano Ronaldo. This young player, one of the best in the world right now, continued his penetrating runs all over the field. His problem was that he literally tried to do it all himself and literally would outrun his teammates and find himself sandwiched around 2 to 3 French defenders. When he couldn’t run through them, he simply threw himself in the air in the hope of gaining a PK which never came.

Portugal’s best chance came late in the game off of a Ronaldo free kick. The dipping ball handcuffed Barthez and the rebound was right there for Figo to equalize. Maybe it was that he had to fight off his own man, maybe it was fatigue, but Figo head just above the post. Had he converted this chance, I sincerely believe Portugal would have won this game since they completely owned the initiative in the second half.

But it wasn’t to be. France go on to the Final game, somehow winning but demonstrating very little.