A tale of two coaches: Raymond Domenech (L), Jurgen Klinsmann (R)
Both Jurgen Klinsmann and Raymond Domenech have gone through the wringer as their coaches of the German and French teams, respectively. Controversies have dogged these two coaches since they started their jobs.
Klinsmann was dismissed as a party boy, stirred up a Jens Lehmann- Oliver Kahn crapshoot at goal, and was berated on concentrating too much on attack and less on defence by Michael Ballack. On the way, he has had to endure criticism from Der Kaiser, Magath, and Hoeness.
Raymond Domenech was accused of being too aloof, announced Fabien Barthez as goalie and incurred the ire of Gregory Coupet, tinkered around with the team till the last minute. He has also been accused of accepting money from a cell phone company for an interview. And like Klinsi and the Bayern Munich cabal, he has had to contend with Michel Platini, the most powerful man in French soccer.
Michael Ballack was ruled out of the opener against Costa Rica and Djibril Cisse, is out of the tournament with a broken ankle. So many question marks and such striking similarities between the two teams before the World Cup.
Yet, the responses of the two teams could not have been more different. Germany played lights out soccer against Costa Rica, came out smoking and won 4-2. Their midfield and attack looked sharp with the defence just a bit off.
And today, we saw a seriously dysfunctional French team play Switzerland. All I can say is that they were lucky that they did not lose. They were terrible. Zidane showed flashes of brilliance but he is too old as is Claude Makele. Patrick Viera was terrible and Henry made some runs, none too effective. You could see that they just lacked any teamwork with Zidane, Thuram, and Viera bickering on the field. This will be a quick exit for the French team.
What a pity because after Brazil, France as a team have the most talented individual players.