What Do France Need to Change to Have a Successful World Cup?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 4, 2014

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Since their FIFA World Cup success of 1998 and their UEFA European Championship triumph in 2000, France have lurched between crisis and near success on the international stage, particularly when it comes to the mondial.

In South Korea and Japan 2002, Les Bleus badly under-performed and finished bottom of Group A with just one point from their three games when they had been expected to put up a staunch defence of their title.



Then, four years later, they were only beaten on penalties by Italy in the Germany 2006 final in Berlin after recovering from a shaky start. However, 2010 in South Africa was a return to controversy, with the events in Knysna overshadowing another poor showing that resulted in an early exit.

Les Tricolores are never far away from imploding when it comes to international tournaments and it is this mentality that needs to be changed.

Much has been made of the players’ disconnect with French football fans since the triumphs of the classes of 1998 and 2000. Bleacher Report’s guest columnist Andy Brassell even touched on the failure of the supposed golden generation of 1987 in an informative piece just this week.

That group of players was supposed to come to the fore at the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, but many of its key members have been damaged by massive expectations on their shoulders and the dislike that they have evoked in recent years because of their behaviour.

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema is one of the few from that selection still to be considered a regular for Les Bleus, but even he is not beyond criticism after some woeful recent international form.



Samir Nasri of Manchester City is another, although he has been in and out of the French setup since an ugly spat with a journalist at the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.

Left out of the squad to face the Netherlands on Wednesday, the 26...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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