by Guy Lerner
July 12, 1998
Brazil 0 France 3
Conspiracy theories abound as to how the match that everyone wanted from the
start came to be in the biggest moment in world sport. The hosts against the champions - a
battle of guile and skill against passion and support. A more interesting discussion would
theorise the means by which these two bastions of football made it so far in the first
place. After all, how could a team with no defence (Brazil) and a team with no attack
(France) be considered the two best sides on Earth? The answer is rather simple and
awkward to explain: that's football. The game has no logic, at least consistent logic.
Sure, you could probably predict that the top ten teams in the tournament (the traditional
giants including Italy, Brazil, England, Holland and Germany, among others) would sail the
first round. With a touch of understanding and insight into the game, you could probably
even get close to narrowing the last eight, and if you were really clued-up (or lucky, or
both), you'd get the last four on the button. But football rarely imitates life. There is
no justice in football (England lose to Argentina, need I say more). When justice does
seem to have surfaced, it disappears just as quickly (Holland lose to Brazil, natch).
Football is unpredictable - sometimes gloriously rewarding and romantic, sometimes tragic
and unfair.
This is the beauty of the game.
The fact that France managed to keep out the best and sneak a goal or two itself, and that Brazil scared the opposition witless with its flair is reason enough for this day. It's the same unpredictability that lost many punters many millions when Brazil took to the field a shadow of the side we have watched demolish the likes of Denmark and Chile, and (gulp) Holland. Many words will be written about how Zagalo could allow his mentally unfit star, Ronaldo, to play in a game he was clearly not ready for. Or how the French public miraculously cast aside its indifference to come out in song for its heroes. Irrespective of the raging debates, France took the game to Brazil, and the champions, depleted as they were, has absolutely no response.
For a while, it seemed as if France's shocking display in front of goal (especially Stephan Guivarc'h's laughable efforts) would see the Brazilians through on fortune alone. But the frail Brazilian resistance had to crack, and it did after 27 minutes. In another display of misdirected skill (read foolish showmanship), Roberto Carlos decided saving a corner with a bicycle kick would balance his ineffective runs down the flanks. Needless to say, he was wrong, and from the set piece, Zinedine Zidane captured the headlines France had been waiting for. The goal came from his head, an unfamiliar feat for the midfield maestro, but it took the wind out of Brazil's sails and into France's resolve. The story was all but told a minute into injury time, when Zidane wrote his name in World Cup history with a second headed goal from the opposite corner. In both cases, Brazil's defence was horribly exposed, and the offender (Leonardo) was substituted early in the second period.
The degenerating form of Ronaldo, the young man with the breathtaking fiancé that was meant to lead his team to glory, was a cruel psychological blow to a team that lived on reputation and profile. Without Ronaldo, Brazil's attacks were few and far between, and France made the most of it's opponent's handicap. The interval saw a rejuvenated Brazil force its way into French territory time and again, but time and agin its attacks came to nothing. The turning point for me was Ronaldo's blasted shot into Barthez's midriff, a 'save' that had the writing on the wall for the men in yellow. Long before the final whistle, Brazil knew it was beaten, and the roars of the patriotic crowd must have been almost unbearable. It is justice, beauty, romance (take your pick) that man of the match, Manu Petit, should seal the most emphatic of victories for France with a deft goal past Tafarel in the last minute of play, sending his nation into a frenzy that has not yet subsided. Brazil, beaten, can consider itself lucky not to have suffered any more that it did, as a team in form would surely have cremated the scoreline. Instead, France is the world champion, at least until 2002, when the show heads east to Japan and Korea.
Copyright © 1998 by Guy Lerner
"Go Inside" is a David Boles Trademark