The Storming of the Bastille?

"Vive la France!" or "Vive la ancien régime!"

The World Cup mean different things to different people, and for Idealists like ISA and I, it means the triumph of the Wretched of the Earth*, the ragged poor, the real dregs of society, the colored, improverished and struggling migrant generation of white European Union, the touching moments of Les Miserables*, the lively spirit of the Three Musketeers* and a reenactment of the Storming of the Bastille*.

Ironically though, the victorious Les Bleus is also known as "la ancien regime", Domeneche is sometimes portrayed as the Absolute Despot, who interestingly enlightened his team with visits to the museums, instead of the snooker pool.

Gotta log off. Below are excerpts of sterling summaries of Zidane's coup. Au revoir, mes amies!

World-Silent Zidane aims to say adieu with World Cup win
Thu Jul 6, 2006 12:09 AM BST
By Timothy Collings
MUNICH, July 5 (Reuters) - Zinedine Zidane will say farewell to football and end his extraordinary career at the very top on Sunday when he plays his final game for France against Italy in the World Cup final.
Another age-defying display by the 34-year-old midfield maestro in Wednesday's 1-0 semi-final victory over Portugal at the Allianz Arena secured him and France one more night of glory -- and a chance to repeat their 1998 triumph on home soil -- in Berlin.
Yet, typically, after a display that mixed gritty defending and sheer industry with moments of vision and great skill, he departed the Allianz Arena without comment, leaving coach Raymond Domenech and the memories of another fine performance to do his talking for him.
All for one as France go through to World Cup final
BRENDAN O'BRIEN
Portugal 0 France 1 (Zidane pen. 33)
Cards Yellow: Carvalho 82, Saha 87 Red:
90 minutes in 90 words
Portugal settle faster but the French discover their musketeer spirit and begin to play exhibition football, with Sagnol's pirouette playing like a homage to Zidane in the 22nd minute. Portugal attack well, but the French shepherd them harmlessly aside. Henry turns Carvalho inside-out in the box and is brought down in the 32nd minute. Zidane steps up to take the penalty, and slots the ball home. France then become somewhat complacent during the second-half, allowing Portugal to come at them. Although they live dangerously, the Portugeuse just cannot break through the French defence. Vive la ancien régime
"Zidane has final say for France"
MASSIMO MARZOCCHI
FRANCE earned a place in the World Cup final for the second time in eight years when a penalty from Zinedine Zidane secured a 1-0 win against Portugal in Munich last night.
A tense semi-final failed to produce a clear winner, but France held on in the second half after Zidane had given them the lead in 33 minutes. The 34-year-old, who scored a hat-trick when France beat Brazil 3-0 to win the World Cup in 1998, converted a penalty when his strike partner Thierry Henry was tripped in the box by Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho.
"Zidane holds his nerve to book France spot in final" (sports.scotsman.com)
FRANCE'S renaissance has turned into another golden age, even if it may last only as long as it takes to play the World Cup final against Italy in Berlin on Sunday.
In a semi-final against Portugal in Munich that could not compete with the previous night's epic in Dortmund, it was Zinedine Zidane who produced the penalty-kick winner with as composed an execution as anyone would expect of an authentic giant of the game.
"Exit of fall guy Ronaldo leaves stage to Zidane" From George Caulkin in Munich (timesonline)
"Brazil 0 France 1: Zidane inspires French rebirth" (Independent Online)
"Rematch of 1998 final sees same result as South Americans falter again on European soil"
By Jason Burt in Munich
Published: 02 July 2006
The world came to kneel at the feet of one player at this tournament. Instead it is another, touched by the gods, but apparently deserted by them also as he has grown older, who may once again take that crown.
Zinedine Zidane inspired France into Wednesday's second World Cup semi-final against Portugal with a wonderful, mesmerising performance. In doing so the 34-year-old not only delayed his second international retirement for at least one more appearance but eclipsed Ronaldinho and, with him, Brazil.
THEY may have taken their leave from the World Cup in familiar, insipid fashion, but English football had cause to revel in the result of last night’s second semi-final. While France’s 1-0 victory over Portugal brought pleasure by proxy to followers of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United, there was also grim satisfaction to be taken in the tears of the Premiership’s latest bête noire.
While there were self-inflicted wounds, the bitter circumstances of England’s departure from Germany ensured that support would never transfer to Cristiano Ronaldo or his Portugal team after his involvement in Wayne Rooney’s sending-off during Saturday’s quarter-final and the winking winger was booed to the rafters in Munich.
A final between Italy and France — who, in Thierry Henry, Claude Makélélé, William Gallas, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Louis Saha, Mikaël Silvestre and Pascal Chimbonda, maintain parochial interest — offers a fascinating confrontation between two of the summer’s most potent stories, one side raging against the end of an era and the other whose domestic game has been besmirched by accusations of corruption.
There was dismay for France in the shape of Saha’s suspension for Sunday’s showpiece in Berlin, for a foolish tackle on Luis Figo that earned a caution, but it is Zinédine Zidane who looms above the fixture. The 34-year-old galáctico, whose retirement will coincide with the conclusion of the tournament, mustered the game’s only goal, a first-half penalty. One of the oldest sides in World Cup history has another tilt at the trophy.
Winners in 1998 and champions of Europe two years later, France have surprised themselves with the scale of their achievement after the tame surrender of their crown in Japan and South Korea four years ago. Jeered at the end of their opening group game, a 0-0 draw with Switzerland, few had identified them as candidates to outlast Sven-Göran Eriksson’s serial underachievers, never mind 30 others, but they are on the verge of installing themselves as the greatest team of modern times.
“The quality of this team is its real capacity to suffer,” Raymond Domenech, the head coach, said. “The toughness, the solidarity — it’s extraordinary. After the Swiss, every match could have taken us home, so we played fully with that pressure. Sometimes you feel you’re going to get hanged, but you get through it.”
Portugal’s adventure ended in tears — Ronaldo’s — and tantrums. As Les Bleus celebrated their unlikely triumph, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal’s volatile head coach, jabbed his fingers at their bench as well as the Fifa personnel on the touchline. Angered by the officials, Ronaldo complained of injustice — “It was a very bad referee and I should have had a penalty,” he said — but Scolari trained his ire elsewhere.
“If they (France) had acted more correctly, it would have been of greater consolation to me,” Scolari, who rejected the opportunity to succeed Eriksson, said. “They made some absurd comments about our country and our athletes, about Portugal and our players, using words I can’t repeat.”
At times, Scolari threatened to encroach upon the pitch and a water bottle was hurled on to the playing surface as a series of decisions conspired against them. Most were incontestable, although Zidane, the France captain, was fortunate to escape a caution for diving.
There would have been seismic consequences. A yellow card would have brought a hasty conclusion to Zidane’s illustrious career, which he has said will end when the trophy is lifted in Berlin. There would have been few more heart-wrenching bans since Paul Gascoigne dissolved into a puddle of tears in 1990.
“He’s a star,” Domenech said of Zidane, “but in a positive sense. He’s a champion, one who affords the French public dreams, real dreams. We’ve known for a while each game could be his last. Now we can say it definitively.”

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*Franz Fanon was a distinguished Black psychiatrist and anticolonialist from Algeria. He published Wretched of the Earth in 1963, considered by many to be one of the canonical books on the worldwide black liberation struggles of the 1960’s. Written in anger because of the need of independence for his country, the book addressed the role of violence in decolonization and the challenges of political organization and class collisions and questions of cultural hegemony in the creation and maintenance of a new country’s national consciousness. His approach is by no means a settle approach, instead his attack is revolutionary. One of his main points is that the first will be last and the last will be the first. He also uses many other ideologies that support his beliefs and viewpoints.

*Hugo's Les Miserables has a mosaic of characters - police, prostitutes and pragmatic students - woven onto an automatically dramatic backdrop of tragic revolution in France where there is glory in death for a cause. Its protagonist is fugitive turned fighter Jean Valjean, who symbolises the passion - death, romance or obsession - in poignant moments such as policeman Javert’s search of the dead.

*Dumas' classic swashbuckling story of three swordsmen plus one of the disbanded French king's guard who seek to save their King from the scheming Cardinal Richelieu. Jokes and stunts are the expected fare in this light-hearted and jaunty adventure.

*Every year on July 14, France marks the 1789 storming of the Bastille. Festivities across the country honour liberté, egalité et fraternité, with the most spectacular celebrations taking place in Paris. A parade marches down the Champs Élysées by day and fireworks over the Eiffel Tower illuminate the city by night.