The Hindu : Leboeuf saves France the blushes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 28, 2002

Sport

Sport - Football

Leboeuf saves France the blushes

YOKOHAMA (Japan) MAY 27. A 10-0 victory over local juniors was ``good practice'' for Germany's World Cup team.

Close warm-up games against tougher sides left defending champion France feeling it still had time to improve and three-time champion Italy rating itself as almost ready.

Among the favourites, France has the shortest time left for preparations. It plays Senegal on Friday in the 32-team tournament's opener in Seoul.

The French team scored a 3-2 victory over fellow World Cup qualifier South Korea.

The French trailed the Koreans 2-1 at halftime before an 89th-minute goal by defender Frank Leboeuf saved them the embarrassment of going winless in their last three tune-up matches.

After Italy's 2-1 victory over Japanese league champion Kashima Antlers, coach Giovanni Trapattoni stressed the play of Francesco Totti, who had been out for more than a month because of injury.

``He showed us his place between the two attackers at the front of Italy,'' Trapattoni said. Totti had a hand in a goal by striker Filippo Inzaghi.

German coach Rudi Voeller was happy with the early pressure put on his team by a Japanese local junior side in their tune-up on Sunday.

``The Japanese... tried to go forward, it was good for my team to experience that,'' he said.

Germany opens on Saturday against Saudi Arabia.

Four-time champion Brazil had its 3-R offence — Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho — hard at work in training on Monday.

``I am feeling better with every training session,'' said Ronaldo, recently recovered from an injury that kept him sidelined for more than two years.

Most of his shots went wide, however, and coach Luis Felipe Scorali repeatedly shouted, ``Come on, Ronaldo, come on.''

Brazil opens next Monday against Turkey in Group C, which also includes China and Costa Rica.

China's coach, Bora Milutinovic, said he was delighted that Ronaldo was likely to play against his team, because ``big players mean a big World Cup.''

His own worry, he added, ``is that all of our team's players are fit and ready for the tournament so that they can play at their full potential.''

China is among the lowest-rated teams in the tournament, but the Yugoslav coach has a reputation for doing well with underdogs.

Off the field, Japan has refused entry to two British men because one's name was on a list of convicted soccer hooligans, an immigration official said Monday.

He didn't say why Japan was ousting the second man after the two arrived on Sunday on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey.

Trying to keep peace at the World Cup, authorities in co-hosts Japan and South Korea have a list of about 200 people who have been convicted of violence at sporting events in Europe. — AP

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