Red Sox
Patriots
Celtics
Bruins
World Cup
France’s implosion is now complete
France exited in disgrace from the World Cup yesterday in Johannesburg with no victories, and there was little sympathy for a team that infamously used an intentional handball to get into the tournament and self-destructed on the way out.
France’s petulant image did not improve much in its final match, a 2-1 defeat to host South Africa in Bloemfontein. Les Bleus played the final 65-plus minutes a man short after midfielder Yoann Gourcuff was ejected for elbowing an opponent in the head.
Afterward, the eccentric and departing French coach, Raymond Domenech, declined to shake hands with his South African counterpart, Carlos Alberto Parreira. Apparently, Parreira said, the snub was related to his criticism of the way France had qualified for the World Cup: the illegal handling of the ball by forward Thierry Henry, which was unseen by the referee and led to the decisive goal in a cumulative playoff victory against Ireland in November.
Yesterday’s defeat completed a stunning implosion for France, the 1998 World Cup champion and 2006 runner-up.
On Thursday, star forward Nicolas Anelka profanely insulted Domenench at halftime of a loss to Mexico, then was expelled from the team. In protest, France’s players skipped practice Sunday, drawing widespread criticism from French politicians and in the media.
Domenech declined to answer questions about the snub of Parreira or his own team’s crisis yesterday, in keeping with a sometimes inscrutable personality that has led him to choose or discard some players, in part, based on their astrological signs.
“We are not from the same world,’’ Domenech, 58, told reporters, referring to the team’s crisis.
The final match for France was played hours after its sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, said she reduced some players to tears during a rebuke of the team Monday night.
During that meeting, Bachelot said she accused the players of tarnishing France’s image and called their behavior a “moral disaster.’’
While watching the match in Paris on a large screen near the Eiffel Tower, some French fans booed their own team in disgust.
Outside Paris, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Romain Souverain, 30, a logistics worker, said, “We didn’t deserve to qualify, so we didn’t deserve to win.’’
“We’ve hit rock bottom,’’ said Vincent Colin, 32, who runs a company that makes custom shirts.
Le Parisien, the French newspaper, wrote, “To have the worst soccer team at the World Cup was almost unbearable. To also have the most stupid is intolerable.’’
Jeff Z. Klein of the New York Times contributed to this report; material from the Associated Press also was used. 
