BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — The referee waved a red card at the French player, ejecting him from the game for a nasty, elbow foul. His coach buried his head in his hands.
Soon after, South Africa put the French out of their misery with a 2-1 victory, and France’s World Cup humiliation was complete.
Seen as undeserving competitors even before the tournament began, France is going home early, winless and the laughingstock of the soccer world.
They were eliminated Tuesday by South Africa, which became the first World Cup host in 80 years to fail toadvance from the first round but ended with a victory that at least gave its fans some measure of joy.
Even in Paris, fans who gathered near the Eiffel Tower to watch the match on video screens booed their own team and cheered for South Africa.
In November, France made it to the World Cup over Ireland when a referee failed to see Thierry Henry double-slap a ball before teammate William Gallas scored. With no video replay, soccer fans around the world complained that France had made it to the sport’s biggest stage by cheating.
As 1998 World Cup champions and losing finalists in2006, France churns out topquality players who compete for Europe’s biggest leagues and had reason to believe it would at least get beyond the first round.
Instead, its multimillionaire players embarrassed themselves and their nation by rebelling against their coach and the French Football Federation, even taking the extraordinary step of going on strike. The soap opera disputes in the luxurious French camp grew to such dramatic proportions that President Nicolas Sarkozy got involved to try to limit damage to France’s reputation, not just in soccer.
His sports minister, sent to hammer some sense into the rebels, reduced players to tears on the eve of their final game against South Africa, telling them, “You have tarnished theComplete World Cup coverage
arkansasonline.com/worldcup image of France.”
Playing less than 24 hours after that scolding at their hotel in Bloemfontein, France’s players roused themselves in spurts Tuesday, but not enough to secure a victory that might have started to make amends for their off-field behavior.
Instead, France has failed to advance at the World Cup for the first time since 2002.
The match was only 25 minutes old when the referee ejected midfielder Yoann Gourcuff for an elbow that felled Macbeth Sibaya of South Africa.
Reduced to 10 men after Gourcuff was sent off with 65 minutes to play, the French suffered their second defeatin three matches at this World Cup. It also had a 0-0 tie with Uruguay.
“I will say everything I went through as captain,” Patrice Evra said. “The whole of France needs to have an explanation for this disaster.”
URUGUAY 1, MEXICO 0
RUSTENBURG, South Africa - Uruguay won Group A and Mexico advanced after Luis Suarez scored in the 43rd minute to give the South Americans a victory.
Suarez, Uruguay’s most dangerous striker all day, ran unguarded to the back post and headed in Edinson Cavani’s cross for his first goal of the tournament.
The two countries went into the last group game sharing the lead at four points and needed only a draw to advance.
Mexico’s best chance came in the 22nd minute when Andres Guardado fired a leftfooted shot from 30 yards that bounced off the underside of the crossbar.
SOUTH KOREA 2, NIGERIA 2
DURBAN, South Africa - South Korea reached the second round by holding Nigeria to a draw.
Lee Jung-soo and Park Chu-young scored for South Korea after Kalu Uche had given Nigeria the lead in the 12th minute. Ayegbeni Yakubu netted a 69 thminute penalty kick to draw Nigeria level again - moments after Yakubu missed a wide-open net.
South Korea reached the knockout stage away from home for the first time. The only other time South Korea got beyond the group stage was when the team surged to the semifinals in 2002 on home soil as tournament co-host with Japan.
ARGENTINA 2, GREECE 0
POLOKWANE, South Africa - Martin Demichelis and Martin Palermo scored second-half goals to help Argentina beat Greece and earn first place in Group B.
Demichelis scored from short range in the 77th minute after his header bounced off Diego Milito and back into his path. Palermo’s came in the 89th from a rebound after Greece goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas had saved a shot by Lionel Messi.
Just minutes earlier, Messi’s hard, leftfooted shot hit the near post.
The first shot on goal came in the 18th minute when Sergio Aguero picked up a pass by Veron and dribbled past two Greece defenders before his left-foot shot forced Tzorvas into a diving save. A minute later, Tzorvas pushed the ball over the crossbar after an attempt by Veron.
In the closing minutes of the first half, midfielder Maxi Rodriguez and Messi both saw their powerful shots blocked by the keeper.
Sports, Pages 17 on 06/23/2010