Group G France V SwitzerlandRemember that time not so long ago when we thought France creaky and vulnerable and figured it was between ourselves and the Swiss to get to the World Cup finals? Well here we are in Germany and nobody derides the French or the Swiss, the two sides who are the favourites to get out of Group G. They meet today in Stuttgart in a game which is a yardstick of what Brian Kerr had achieved before the knife between the ribs ended his tenure.
A year ago the French and Raymond Domenech, the seemingly hapless but unflappable manager, were struggling. The players were unhappy, the results were poor, it looked like Domenech wouldn't be long for the world of international management.
Now his side come here with their tails in the air. Three credible friendlies produced wins over China, Mexico and Denmark, and more than that Domenech's team seemed to rediscover some of the old (Warning: national stereotype cliché coming up) panache.
For the movers and shakers in world football, qualifiers are for struggling through. Tournaments are for winning. The rate of the French evolution has been stunning and back home the hard-to-please French press are actually purring.
The bad news was limited to the elimination of Djibril Cisse through injury. The good news was the goal-scoring form not just of Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet, comrades since their underage days, but of Sylvain Wiltord also.
Most of the side who take the field this evening will be familiar but there are one or two tweaks who make the difference. Claude Makelele plays the defensive midfield role to conservative perfection but it is Florent Malouda of perennial French champions Lyon who has been catching the eye on the left side of midfield, and two years younger at 23 Marseille's Frank Ribery on the other side, who have injected huge energy into the French campaign.
Ribery hadn't played before the recent friendlies but his three cameos have created a clamour for his full debut. Sixty nine per cent of those surveyed by L'Equipe want to see the youngster start, even though such an elevation would come at the expense of old favourite Patrick Vieira. Marseille, chuffed by the development of their player, have stuck the sort of price tag on him that ensures he will end up at Chelsea.
Will Domenech be swayed? At press conferences this week he tended to just smile mysteriously. His problem is that without some injection of youth he will be putting out a team who are old in World Cup terms. Their average age of 29 is about two years beyond the average age of the last five winning sides. Playing Ribery on the right in a diamond frees Domenech of the 4-4-2 system France have often laboured with and places Zinedine Zidane just behind the front two where he has played his best football for Les Bleus. If Ribery doesn't start expect him to be introduced and to have made a place for himself before France go home.
It was part of our collective arrogance we felt entitled to do Kerr in for not qualifying from a group with the Swiss in it. The Swiss, though, will be interesting to watch and the pity is injury has deprived them of their young striker Johan Vonlathnen.
Kobi Kuhn, the venerable Swiss manager, brings one of the youngest squads to Germany and it will be players like Philippe Senderos (of Arsenal) and Valon Behrami (Lazio) who will back the Swiss in their belief this World Cup is the beginning of something big for football in their country.
The Swiss (like the French) have got here through a concentration on youth development. Senderos and Behrami as well as Bayer Leverkusen winger Tranquillo Barnetta came through successful youth teams. Ironic that losing out to them should have cost Kerr his job. Behrami is struggling to shake off a persistent injury and may not start but Vonlathnen's absence and worries over Marco Streller means a probable opening for exciting striker Daniel Gygax.
France should have enough but as their two qualifying clashes suggested a draw would be a good bet.
Probable line-ups
Referee: Ivanov Valentin (Rus)
FRANCE (4-3-1-2)
Barthez: Sagnol, Gallas, Thuram, Abidal: Ribery, Makele, Malouda: Zidane: Henry, Trezeguet.
SWITZERLAND (4-4-2)
Zuberbuhler: Degen, Muller, Senderos, Magnin: Barnetta, Cabanas, Vogel, Wicky: Frei, Gygax
