Joshua Raymond Holt November 30, 2013 Words - 645 Portfolio Part 3

Cup of Success
One of the greatest events to happen in Frances history was the 1998 World Cup victory. I would say this is one of the greatest sporting events to happen in Frances history. The World Cup was held in France and at the time I dont think anybody expected France to win the cup or even qualified for the World Cup tournament. Reason was because as reported on Planet World Cup website saying The host team hadnt played in a World Cup since 1986. Plus, sports announcers didnt think Frances football team could complete against the likes of Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Paraguay, Italy, Croatia, Netherlands, and even against Brazil in the finals. France made history winning the World Cup for the first time in 60 years Planet World Cup website reported saying The tournament founding father Jules Rimet would have been proud to see his home country organize and later win what had become a monster event since his influential time way back in the 1930s.With this win in the World Cup, France started soaring back to greatness, success, and they are continuing their success and greatness in this day an age. But France had a rough road to becoming a World Cup championship team in 1998. France was placed in Group C with the likes of Denmark, South Africa, and Saudi Africa. France defeated South Africa 3-0, Saudi Africa 4-0, and Denmark 2-1 and in doing so France defeated all three teams in Group C having a record of 3-0. France qualified for the World Cup and France knew a

rough road was ahead to achieve greatness. France next road was the World Cups knockout stage of a round of sixteen and Frances first opponent was Paraguay and France defeated Paraguay 10. After defeating Paraguay, France qualified for the Quarter-Finals against Italy where France tie with Italy 0-0 and the overall tie breaker went to France. France moved on as Italy was eliminated from the World Cup. Italy was Frances first big test of the tournament and France survived their first test. Next for France was the Semi-Finals against Croatia where France defeated Croatia 2-1 and in doing this France qualified for the World Cup for the first time in a long time. Frances opponent in the World Cup game was highly rated Brazil and France was the underdog all year in every game so this point was no different for France. Brazil had tradition of winning World Cups as they won the previous World Cup and were looking for a repeat. Everybody is the sports world was expecting Brazil to win against France and some people opinions were Brazil would destroy France by a least four or five goals. A lot of Frances fans were confident in their national team and others were questioning if France could even hang with Brazil. France went into the World Cup confident and ended up upsetting Brazil with a final score of 3-0. France had the confidence, motivation, and the willingness to win. With this win France become a dynasty to be feared in the soccer (Football) world and continued to represent their country with the best performance possible. Also, believe it or not France came back to greatness in the 1998 World Cup and the success has carried over to future generations.

Work Cited
"A Champion's Comeback: France Rolls Back the Years at Scene of 1998 World Cup Win." Yahoo Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. "CNN/SI from CNN and Sports Illustrated - World Cup '98 - France." CNN/SI from CNN and Sports Illustrated - World Cup '98 - France. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. "Planet World Cup - 1998 - Story of France '98." Planet World Cup - 1998 - Story of France '98. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.