jakarta post, thursday, august 31, 2006

zidane is gone but not forgotten as france prepares to start its Euro 2008 qualifying campaign in Georgia on saturday before hosting world champion Italy four days later.

the former number 10 left French fans shocked and dismayed when he was sent off during the world cup final for head-butting italy defender marco matterazi.

zizou failed to cap his outstanding career with a second world crown, but his influence on France appeared greater during the tournament in Germany.

"we badly miss him " said MU striker louis saha. "it's like there is now a little ghost dancing above our heads. we often think about him. " he helped us achieve something during the world cup. he played such a great role when we were there ". "by reaching the final we got back the confidence we badly lacked during qualifying. " we learned to play and live together, to be like a club more like a national team. something was born during the world cup and it now lives on ". olympique Lyon midfielder alou diarra also highlighted zizou' s absence, saying : " it's a bit weird not have him here with us. he is the kind of player you can't repalce. each of us will have to work harder to make up for his absence. " 

without a top-level play maker, France coach raymond domenech knows he can no langer bank on the sophisticated 4-2-3-1 line up used at the world cup and expected to revert to 4-4-2.

the switch will call for a solid defense and domenech has been anxious to hold on to experienced players like central defender lilian thuram and defensive midfielder claude makalele.

"from a psychological point of view, today's situation is different from the one which prevailed after the European champhionships in 2004" domenech said.

"the players are in a upbeatmood. they played in a world cup final,"he said.

domenech is aslo sticking with his experience players in midfiled, rather than trying to find a new zidane.

he picked several young midfielders , such as Olympique Lyon's jeremy toulalan and julien faubert, for the freindly international against Bosnia two weeks ago.

Leu Blues snatched a 2-1 victory thanks to an injury-time winnner by faubert but it was not enough to convince domenech ahead of two difficult qualifiers in Group B.

Pierre Serisier - Reuters/Clairefontaine , France  

* well you always be a hero, zizou * love you all , have a great day :-) ungkhe