The Hindu : Sport : Henry hangs on to the memories

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 21, 2006

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Henry hangs on to the memories

Michael Walker

"You don't forget about people like Zidane or what they did eight years ago"

Berlin: As Thierry Henry trudged away from the Zentralstadion in Leipzig late on Sunday night his famous smile made one brief appearance, for a friend, as he prepared to climb on to the France team bus. But by the time Henry was on board the look on his face was as it had been from about half-time onwards against South Korea: a mixture of frustration, self-pity and grim acceptance. And that summed up an entire camp.

Harsh reality

Henry had been complaining moments before departure about the 31st-minute refereeing decision that denied France a goal from Patrick Vieira's head — and was quite intense about it — but soon slipped into a more philosophical perspective: "We used to have those kind of things going for us when we were on top of the world. When you are not there any more, they seem to go against you."

Third in Group G behind Switzerland and the Koreans, France is most definitely not top of the world, nor does it feel like it.

France '98 team

Few would anticipate a French win against Spain. Zinedine Zidane, Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram, Vieira and Henry may have been part of la belle époque France '98 team that also captured Euro 2000 but they are also essential to a side that won five games in qualification: two against Cyprus, two against the Faroe Islands and one against the Republic of Ireland. Perhaps only Henry of the handful above will be there when France takes on Italy, Ukraine, Scotland and others in attempting to qualify for Euro 2008. In the aftermath of Sunday night Henry moaned that this discussion is even on the agenda during a tournament.

Unforgettable

Then he added: "Whatever you say, these people touched the World Cup and there is nothing anyone can do to take that away from them. Certainly anything from now will not cloud that memory. The memory of what they did in 1998 will always remain, just like the one from 2002 will. You don't forget about people like Zidane or what they did eight years ago. There certainly shouldn't be a cloud over how people remember them because of anything since. You cannot talk about their memory being tarnished or whatever."

That Zidane is being spoken of as a "memory" says plenty, though Willy Sagnol, in a rant against critics last week, said these players were still "haunted" by the Senegal defeat in the opening match of the last World Cup. So "ghosts" might be as appropriate as memory.

The focus

The focus has been on Zidane as he was booked for the second consecutive match and misses Friday on his 34th birthday. But, just as sad, was the sight of Vieira labouring in midfield and then whacking a great chance a furlong over the bar in the last minutes. There are times when Vieira must wonder where his legs have gone in the past 12 months. He, too, has a birthday on Friday — his 30th — but 13 years of non-stop, battle-scarred football has taken a toll. Vieira's mind, however, remains sharp and his opinion honest.

"I didn't complain at the time of my header because I wasn't completely sure," he said. "I am not sure if the referee's position was good enough but that's the way that it is sometimes. We should have killed them off and we know that. That is why we cannot complain too much about the referee. If we were scoring goals and making chances, then we wouldn't have to complain about the referee. We should complain about ourselves instead."

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