By Myles Palmer
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France 1 Colombia 0
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Henry (pen) 39.
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CENTREBACKS like Philippe Mexes don’t come out of academies.
They come out of wombs.
This kid was born to be a No.5, just as Franco Baresi was born to be a No.6 and Lee Dixon was born to be a No.2.
MEXES could be one of the great zonal defenders.
He has a football brain, like John Terry.
Mexes can read it and lead and compress play and compute the geometry of the zone, the diagonal threats, better than anybody I’ve seen in years and years and years.
He is quick, composed, great in the air, a good long and short passer.
Mexes has improved since Arsenal played Auxerre.
France were lucky to win, after a ragged second half was briefly lifted by the introduction of Pires.
Let’s face it, 4-4-2 does not suit them.
SANTINI started with Coupet-Thuram Mexes Desailly Lizarazu-Wiltord Pedretti Dacourt Kapo- Cisse Henry.
Without a Zidane, a Pires, an assistmeister, I reckoned they would struggle.
HENRY started the game badly but ended it well.
He got into an early feud with the phenomenally hard, agile Ivan Cordoba, the Inter defender.
He made a very rash tackle from behind on Cordoba in 23, and could have been sent off.
One more challenge as wild as that and Thierry would have walked.
Wiltord kicked the ball against a defender’s arm, the linesman panicked, Henry sent the keeper the wrong way. After that Henry improvised well, had some decent goal attempts, and earned a standing ovation from the Lyon crowd when he went off after 84. Velasquez hit the bar soon after that. But the defence held out after a siege continued into the 93rd minute. Wiltord was clueless, Pedretti feeble, Kapo unsuited to the system Cisse is a formidable power player, but still a raw kid. DACOURT remains a nearly-man. Big engine, runs all day, tries so hard to do good things, nearly does them. As the game went on France’s midfield folded,faded, vanished. And Colombia took over. I love a tight game where a goal has real value, because so much energy,skill and concentration have to be expended to score it. Massacres are boring. Tight games are exciting. BUT MEXES WAS THE STORY LAST NIGHT. He is a natural who would be perfect with Sol Campbell. He is only 21 but authoritative enough to play with the best in the world against the best in the world. He slotted in between Thuram and Desailly and did not put a foot wrong. Clearly, Mexes is the best defender France has produced since Gallas. And he might become the best since Blanc. He allows a home crowd to relax. Fans can see that Mexes reads danger, so they think he will deal with it. If you are winning 1-0, you often have a lot of hairy moments near your own goalmouth. MEXES keeps a calm head during the hairy moments. Arsenal need that.Because Arsenal can’t hold onto a lead. They drew 15 games last year, after leading in the most of them. With Mexes, Arsenal could have turned those 15 draws into 8 draws. Mexes is in dispute with Auxerre over his contract. The court will give a verdict today or Friday. A France-Brazil final would see Mexes and Desailly taking on Adriano and Ronaldinho. My pal Kaz Mochlinski phoned last night to talk about a Beckham piece he has to write. Like me, Kaz thinks Ronaldinho is fantastic. I told him that Ronaldinho’s passing in a recent PSG game reminded me of Maradona in 1986. I’m wondering whether Ronaldinho is 80% of Diego Maradona. The Confederatons Cup is a bogus tournament.One of Blatter’s worst ideas ever. It’s only useful as a World Cup rehearsal in the host country the year before. That said, Mexes and Desailly versus the big, left-footed Adriano, and the chunky, electrifying Ronaldinho, might be one of the highlights of the summer. Brazil play Cameroon tonight at 8 on Eurosport. ========================================================= FRANCE: 23-Gregory Coupet; 15-Lilian Thuram, 8-Marcel Desailly (capt), 2-Philippe Mexes, 3-Bixente Lizarazu; 11-Sylvain Wiltord, 18-Benoit Pedretti, 6-Olivier Dacourt, 17-Olivier Kapo; 9-Djibril Cisse, 12-Thierry Henry COLOMBIA: 1-Oscar Cordoba; 23-Gonzalo Martinez, 3-Mario Yepes, 2-Ivan Cordoba (capt), 20-Gerardo Bedoya; 21-Jairo Patino, 15-Ruben Dario Velasquez, 18-Jorge Lopez,10-Giovanni Hernandez; 9-Victor Aristizabal, 7-Elson Becerra Referee: Batista (Portugal). 19th June 2003