France v Sth Korea: Surely, surely, the ongoing saga of French stage fright in front of the posts will end tomorrow night in the Zentralstadion. It has all come unstuck for the generation of footballers who were such a unifying force in France from 1998 to 2002. They have not scored a World Cup finals goal since that magical night in Paris, all of eight years ago, when they became world champions.
The attempts of Zinedine Zidane and the other waning heroes of those years to kick-start a revival looked flat and despairing in the 0-0 draw with Switzerland.
Thierry Henry has laid the blame for his failing to score a reasonable chance against the Swiss squarely at the feet of the young Franck Ribery.
Zidane has publicly urged coach Raymond Domenech to abandon his 4-2-3-1 system and play 4-3-1-2, with Louis Saha or the old hand David Trezeguet keeping Henry company up front.
It all smacks of a once-great team fighting against the dying of the light. If so, we neutrals should hope they prevail tonight, for the tournament would surely be lessened by another early exit by France.
South Korea are no great shakes but marry wild unpredictability with organisation under coach Dick Advocaat, who in contrast to the ultra-conservative Domenech went with four forwards to turn things around against Togo. A result here would leave them nicely primed for a second-round berth and in Lee Chun-soo, their bullish, peroxided leader, and the lively Lee Eul-yong, so impressive the last day, they have the speed of thought and limb to trouble the more senior of the French citizens.
France (4-3-1-2)
Barthez; Sagnol, Thuram, Gallas, Abidal; Vieira, Makelele, Malouda; Zidane; Saha, Henry.
Coach: Raymond Domenech
South Korea (4-3-3)
Lee Woon-jae; Song Chong-gug, Choi jin-cheul, Kim Jin-kyu, Lee Young-pyo; Park Ji-sung, Lee Ho, Lee Eul-yong; Lee Chun-soo, Ahn Jung-hwan, Seol Ki-hyeon.
Coach: Dick Advocaat
