"Matchtemps-Forts
90+3
"Humiliée et pathétique, la France termine dernière de son groupe et achève le Mondial sur un match une nouvelle fois catastrophique. Rapidement réduits à 10, les Bleus n'ont rien pu faire face aux Bafana Bafana, eux aussi éliminés malgré la victoire."
roughly translated: "Humiliated and pathetic, France finishes last in its group, completing the tournament with a once again catastrophic performance. Quickly reduced to ten, 'les bleus' could do nothing with Bafana Bafana, who were also eliminated despite the win."
The odyssey of the French squad has been riveting - much in the way that we find the viewing of car crashes irresistible. Soccer coverage on France 2's Tuesday, June 22 evening news [Journal Télévisé - 20H] took up 20 minutes of the ninghtly telecast, abbreviated to 24 minutes to accommodate the live broadcast of the Greece-Argentina game.
Below is an audio excerpt of the program's reporting, a remarkably dramatic bit of sports journalism.
La fin du bal
[Graphic from L'Equipe. Caption: "La défaite contre l'Afrique du Sud (1-2) a scellé le sort de l'équipe de France dès le premier tour de cette Coupe du monde, et marqué la fin d'une aventure aussi rocambolesque que ridicule. Mais elle met aussi un terme au mandat de Raymond Domenech. Peut-être la seule bonne nouvelle de l'histoire. (Photo Presse-Sports)"
roughly translated: The 2-1 loss to South Africa sealed the fate of the French Team in the first round, and marks the end of an adventure both bizarre and ridiculous. But it also ends the tenure of coach Raymond Domenech, perhaps the one good outcome of this story.]
And across the channel, the misfirings of the French and the in-country press coverage hardly went unnoticed on Fleet Street:
ReplyDeleteWorld Cup 2010: 'La Fin d'Un Monde' – French press give England a taste of what awaits if they lose this afternoon