From: Hildegaard Beauregard [ljlife@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 5:35 AM
Subject: Underdogs -- France

Halftime of the match between France and Uruguay and
the referee may have already decided the match. He
gave a red card to French striker Thierry Henry on
what appeared to be a routine incidental foul at best.
The expulsion of Henry also means France is down to 10
men for the duration (barring further expulsions, of
course).

The referee, Felipe Ramos, is from Mexico. I have no
idea if any sort of favortism is involved, but at any
rate it was a horrible call. France is already without
their best player, Zinedine Zindane, because of
injury, and now without Henry, one of the best
forwards in the world this past year (playing for
English Premiere League champion Arsenal as well as
the French National Team), and being a man down, their
hopes of beating Uruguay and advancing to the next
stage of the tournament are drastically more slim. The
effect would be beyond this match, too, as a red card
disqualifies the player for the next match. So Ramos
has seen to it that the defending world champions have
the best chance of being the first ever to be
eliminated in the first round of a World Cup.

The French coach, who remained quiet and still
following the incident, was noticeably upset walking
off the field at the half, as he put his hand up to
block a camera that was on him. I imagine he will
protest the call, but it won't do anything for the
rest of the competition.