Final analysis - Romania vs. France
The group of death! France set to take on the world. Well, actually it was a fairly disappointing match, but the Romanian defence did their job, with the entire team covering 110,526m… Far more than the French who generated the miserly team total of 104,360m.
Karim Benzema, before he was taken off, was France’s most industrious player, as was Romania’s Cocis. Nicolita took up the mantle, and ended up covering well over 12km in the match - and it is the Romanian defence that will take all the plaudits. Alan Hansen may have rated it ‘the worst game he has ever seen’, but as a former steward at Swnasea City, I simply could not agree.
World Cup Blog had it right questioning the French strikeforce, with Ian Rose suggesting “Their first weakness? Scoring. Despite having an incredible array of attacking options that includes Franck Ribery, Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry and the young phenom Karim Benzema, the French have struggled lately to score goals from open play.” How right he was!
But fear not - for now we’re on to the most anticipated game of the tournament… Italy vs Holland in 45 minutes. Bring it on!
It really was a disappointing game. Romania killed all the fun, the played with 5 defender in the penalty zone, and 3 supporting them from outside, which lead to a very closed game!
On the other hand, France didn’t satisfy the fans. So I guess a draw was fair for both teams.
I hope France would make it to the second round, although I doubt it, considering the spectacular way Holland played today!
By Hazim Lallo, on June 9th, 2008 at 11:16 pm