SOCCER/Togo - 0 France - 2: So with one bound our heroes were free. Les Bleus facing le first round guillotine for the second World Cup in succession needed to win by two clear goals over Togo last night to creep into the knockout stages.
Having ratcheted the tension to unbearable levels by failing to score in the first half they got down to business after the break and by full-time had shown their detractors a clean pair of heels.
It was the elderly musketeers Patrick Vieira and (minutes later) Thierry Henry who gave the French the chance to relax and to rediscover some of the old elan. That is the French difficulty though, everything good about their play these days is old. And at times last night, as Togo frustrated their old colonists, France looked very old indeed.
For a while last night there was a frisson of shock in the air. The French came out with a little swash to their buckle, storming the Togo goal in the first five minutes before enduring a sobering slap in the face when Moustapha Salifou burst down the left and thumped a fine shot goalwards. All of Fabien Barthez's agility was required in pegging it away.
Things adhered to that pattern for the first half. French pressure alleviated by the odd breakaway in which the splendid Salifou was usually instrumental. Togo had more than one ace up their sleeves too. Kossi Agassa gave a remarkable display of athleticism and instinctive goalkeeping through the first half and when finally he was beaten it seemed like a personal affront.
There were times in the first half when the French did everything right, including the lethal final pass, but getting the ball past Agassa was as easy as punching it through a small hole in a wall. After 14 minutes Florent Malouda found himself in one of those positions where he just had to score. Agassa saved. Minutes later Franck Ribery fed David Trezeguet. Same old story.
One sequence was rendered irrelevant by an offside flag but bears retelling anyway. Henry thumped a shot from the edge of the area, Agassa saved brilliantly but the ball bounced to Trezeguet lurking in the six yard box. Bam! Agassa got his body behind it again but the ball had such momentum it flew up and seemed destined to cross the line only for a gloved hand to reach out from nowhere and scoop it to safety.
In the history of French football Agassa, who plays with Metz, was about to write his name large.
In the French dugout Raymond Domenech was becoming visibly more agitated. With such a misfiring team most managers would have accepted that the challenge of beating Togo by two clear goals as the price of a ticket to the second round was a fair deal. Domenech makes work of everything, though, and he can sense that whatever happens in this World Cup, bar winning it, he won't be going home to a French version of Everybody Loves Raymond.
It would be nice to say that without Zinedine Zidane the French were lacking their creative guru but the truth is that Zindane has given such a pallid impression of himself lately that France looked a little the livelier for not having to channel every ball through him. The great man's absence did highlight, however, one aspect of the development of French football since the glory period of 1998 to 2000. They have failed not only to produce a succeeding generation of great players but failed basically in finding merely adequate players. Of last night's starting 11 only two players, Malouda and Ribery, were born after 1980. On the subs bench just two more. The malaise which has hit France will linger.
Only Ribery and Malouda look destined to become fixtures in the national side during the lean years to come. Both played well last night even if they could share the guilt for some atrocious misses.
The breakthrough for France took 55 minutes to come and it required some youthful invention.
Ribery, who had just thundered another fine opportunity over the bar, found himself with space to run into down the left. He went at the Togo defence and laid off a judicious inside ball to Vieira.
The gangly midfielder has looked jaded for a while but somewhere in the recesses of his mind the old instinct came back. He turned and scorched a shot to the corner of the net.
The French fans, who in fairness had never quite given up on their side, rented the skies with a roar of relief which segued into song and chant. On the field the tempo picked up accordingly and it took only a couple of minutes for the second goal to materialise.
Vieira was involved again, this time rising high to head a splendid little knock down into the path of Henry whose finish put an exclamation mark at the end of a fine passage of play.
Togo go home with their heads held high and with most people's award for the best goal celebration of the tournament, the hoppity rabbit dance hasn't been equalled let alone bettered. And France roll on to Hanover on Tuesday and a big night in the company of Spain. Somebody's pretensions are going to be laid cruelly bare that night.
SUBSTITUTIONS
TOGO: Olufade for Coubadja (58 mins) Dossevi for Adebayor ( 75mins). Subs not used: Agboh, Akoto, Atsou, Erassa, Malm, Obilale, Tchagnirou, Toure, Assemoassa. Booked: Aziawonou, Cherif-Toure, Salifou.
FRANCE: Wiltord for Malouda (73 mins), Govou for Silvestre (76 mins), Diarra for Vierra (80 mins). Subs not used: Boumsong, Chimbonda, Coupet, Dhorasoo, Givet, Landreau, Saha. Booked: Makelele. Goals: Vieira 55, Henry 61.
Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay).
