France aiming to regroup

CAPE TOWN: France coach Raymond Domenech insists his team have nothing to worry about despite a drab 0-0 draw with Uruguay in their opening World Cup game on Friday.

While Domenech admits he was frustrated not to grab all three points, he said there was no reason to press the panic button.

“It’s frustrating when it goes like that, when we push and push and say to ourselves, ‘It has to go in’,” he said. “But we were also saying to ourselves, ‘let’s hope we don’t suffer an unlucky counter-attack’ because that would’ve been very disappointing given the level we played at in this match.”

Domenech chose not to reinstall the country’s all-time top scorer Thierry Henry to the starting 11, and also controversially left out Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda as well amid rumours of a spat. While the duo came on in the last 20 minutes, even they were not able to press home the advantage of playing against 10 men.

Captain reckons France could have won

“We could’ve won,” said Patrice Evra. “We really wanted to take the three points. I’m proud of the team as I think we put in a good performance. It’s the first match and we needed to win it, but I’m very confident for the rest of the tournament. We controlled the game and we really deserved to win.”

Attention now turns to their next game against Mexico on Thursday in Polokwane, a crunch encounter that both sides need to win.

Domenech said he would review the Uruguay clash carefully and then decide on whether he needs to make changes.

“I obviously need to think about that and can’t give you an answer straight away,” he said. “I need to take stock and we’ll take our time, watch the match again and on that basis see what can or should be done.”

Desailly sees no reason for pessimism

French legend Marcel Desailly says there was no reason for pessimism despite his country’s lacklustre form.

The former national captain – who was sent off in the 1998 World Cup final when France beat Brazil – said he was confident Domenech’s under-pressure team would turn the corner.

“We have a talented team and all they need to do is get on the right track,” he said.

“The players are in really good shape and it’s now up to the coach to get the tactics right. There’s no reason for pessimism. Things are going to work out fine. I think this generation is even more talented than ours was. They just haven’t had the chance to show it yet.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2010.