The Fall of France

Ok, so I won't make any WWII jokes, because clearly the French loss yesterday marks the absolute collapse of French Football. Reading the reaction to the team's implosion through the French Press has been fascinating. On some levels, it's similar to what Canada went through when the men's hockey team underperformed at the 2006 Olympics - only ten times worse, since a) Canada at least won a match, b) no one got sent home, and c) the French have a peculiar love affair with drama. French media are already calling it "L'affaire Anelka", as if it were on par as the sordid Dreyfus Affair, but then again, this one has traitors too.

All the hoopla surrounding France did make me yearn for some kind of dramatic comeback wherein the team would find their missing esprit de corps in their must win final game of the round robin and then go on to reach the finals. Too bad, like the French, I'm a romantic at heart and love sporting events with good narrative arcs. I can always root for the English, I suppose.

For those of you keeping score at home, my predictions for the round are currently sitting at 50%. I predicted that France, Mexico, Argentina, and Nigeria would all advance. While the French were just miserable, Nigeria tried to make through by playing in what has arguably been one of the tournament's best games so far. Their match against South Korea found both teams needing to take something away; Nigeria needing a win, S. Korea needing at least a tie, and resulted in lots of end-to-end play, drama, penalty kicks, and near misses.