Advocaat Keeps Eye on Arsenal’s French

No one would disagree with the statement that France, the 1998 World Cup champion, is the best team in Group G.

But after watching the match between Manchester United and Arsenal yesterday, Korea’s National Team coach Dick Advocaat did not look too worried about France.

Arsenal’s French attackers were disappointing against United.

Robert Pires, who at nearly 33 years of age may be past his prime, failed to show the creative influence expected of a veteran. Thierry Henry, the French superstar who was part of France’s disappointing World Cup run in 2002, under performed as well. He was rarely seen during the first half of the game.

But Henry did make a nice free kick 32 minutes into the first half, which was punched out by United goalie Edwin Von der Sar. Von de Sar also blocked an attack from Pires later on in the match.

Arsenal’s coach Arsene Wenger has entrusted midfield to rookie Matthew Flamini since Patrick Viera left for Juventus last year. But Flamini was benched until 35 minutes into the second half.

Pascal Cygan, Arsenal’s defender on the left, has tried hard to keep his place on both the French national team and Arsenal’s main lineup, but still looked unstable.

United’s Louis Saha is recovering from an injury that put him out of the game for 18 months. He will be a menace once he wears the French uniform in the World Cup.

The first task assigned to Saha will be finding a way to stop Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney. These two did not show much in the match against Arsenal yesterday, but they are still the core of United’s offense.

Michael Silvester, a French national, played left defender as well. Since Manchester added Nemaya Vidich of Serbia-Montenegro to the team for seven million pounds, Silvester will find his role reduced.

Coach Raymond Domenech is unlikely to take back Silvester, who has grievances against him. And Silvester’s unimpressive play makes it unlikely that Domench will need to offer a truce.

Still, France has always had a wonderful national team, and many of their players belong to Arsenal.

However, Advocaat might have found a weakness in France’s armor after watching Arsenal play United.