Under an inspiring captain, with each elimination game they grew stronger.

In the final, they made first goal, making them the high-percentage favorite. They dominated regulation and extra-time play. As the opposition faded they became ever more dominant. How? How did Les Bleus have it all and still lose the World Cup final. Yes, yes, we know, the Itallians made all their PKs and forward David Trezeguet missed his shot. That's the simple explanation. But why? What dark forces moved M. Trezeguet's ball mere millimeters off target and doomed France? We think the below report provides the clue to France's certain defeat.

CHIRAC HOPES TO CASH IN ON FOOTBALL SUCCESS

PARIS JUly 8, 2006 (Guardian) - President Jacques Chirac will don his football scarf and head to Berlin on Sunday in the hope that a French World Cup win could boost his flagging popularity ratings.

Record crowds have poured on to the streets to celebrate the success of Les Bleus, as the team is known. Wednesday's semi-final saw the highest television viewing figures since records began, and the finance minister, Thierry Breton, said he hoped the feelgood factor would boost the economy. [A WC win is a cinch compared to devising effective government policy.] The daily Libération pondered whether Zinédine Zidane's team could cure French malaise like "a bubble of champagne in an ocean of Prozac". Le Figaro said a victory could inspire a new "state of mind".

An ocean of Prozac! Seems a tad mopey, la Libé.

Politicians are keen to exploit the optimism after months of gloom following riots in the suburbs, protests against employment reform and political [And this. And this. And this.] and industrial scandals. When France won the World Cup at home in 1998, Mr Chirac and the socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, netted the highest approval ratings of their terms and a surge of consumer spending - especially on cars - boosted the economy. Mr Chirac, now more unpopular than ever, is keen for a photo opportunity with the team.

Most of those cars have since been torched, so things are looking up, if not for Jack, for car sales at least.

But hopes that France's race problems can be solved by its "black, blanc, beur" (black, white, Arab) team are limited. In 1998 the multiracial team was feted as the great hope of a country that needed to tackle race discrimination, but many commentators suggest not much changed. Even the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, admitted this week that last year's riots in the poor, immigrant suburbs showed the issue was "much more complicated" than a football team.

Dom is aces at the obvious. Then again, sometimes not.

When Mr Le Pen suggested during this tournament that the coach had gone overboard on non-white players and the French did not feel represented by them, the footballer Lilian Thuram said: "Mr Le Pen is not aware that there are black, blond and brown French people. It's like looking at the US basketball team and being shocked that there are black people in the USA." Thuram has also criticised the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, for his comments about cleaning up the poor suburbs with a power hose. French papers reported that the team did not want Mr Sarkozy to visit their changing rooms at the World Cup, and he has not yet attended a match.

Riot police will be on the streets on Sunday to keep watch over post-match revelry. More than 400 people were arrested after France's semi-final win.

Yes, our supposition is that it was the pernicious photo-op presence of Jack that doomed Les Bleus. They fought off his bad juju at the Brazil match, but Jack's juju is powerful stuff. [Sigh.] Nothing good or positive can long prevail against it.

PFFT (What is this?): Really bad juju 5 | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

J'ai ce foot en horreur….
Mais plutôt que d' ironiser sur le foot français , "Pave" se devrait d' éclairer ses lecteurs sur la très inquiétante dérive de l ' Irak.
Le quotidien libéral français "Le Figaro" nous expliquait sous la plume de l'ex-otage Malbrunot que le bourrage de crâne en terre yankee était au summum.
Ainsi le Pentagone DIVISE PAR DIX le nombre réel d' attentats en Irak.Les USA sont devenus ce que l ' URSS était hier "le pays du mensonge déconcertant" (Anton Ciliga).
Misérable destin pour un pays qui vantait sa "presse libre":aujourd'hui il a même sa Pravda ;Fox….
Bagdad est totalement hors contrôle des Yanks , eux qui prétendaient dominer le Monde ne sont même plus capables de tenir une ville du tiers-monde.
Douloureux retour de bâton pour ceux qui ont trahi l' Europe en faisant le jeu des musulmans ,d' Anfa au Kosovo en passant par Suez:l' arroseur est arrosé.
La dernière ressource de Bush est (selon Malbrunot) de gonfler les actes djihadistes alors que c'est la résistance du Baas qui lui porte les coups les plus durs:ainsi un piège diabolique à base d' un cône de cuivre lui permet de perforer les humvees (il serait d' origine iranienne).
Pire , les Yanks multiplient les atrocités:ici un famille est exterminée pour violer une des enfants , là un invalide est roué est mort.Les My-Lai se multiplient cette fois en Irak.
Le journaliste termine son article en stigmatisant cette armée US venue soi disant apporter la démocratie et la liberté.
Le déclin des USA est entamé pour plusieurs décennies…..
Kenneth Lay disait qu' il était passé en quelques semaines du rêve américain au cauchemar américain:cela va être le lot de tous les Américains....

Good luck ? to your country in Irak !

(mais je crois que ce n'est même plus d'actualité….)

Très juste, bravo pour ce petit mot

[M. duda's advertising of online casino gambling has been excised from this post.

The Management]