Henry's golden goal takes France to emotional victory

Henry's golden goal takes France to emotional victory

Nick Reeves, Agence France-Presse, Paris

A golden goal by Thierry Henry lifted France to a 1-0 victory
over Cameroon in the Confederations Cup final on a night thick
with emotion at the Stade de France here on Sunday.

Henry's close-range finish with the ball bouncing off his knee
in the seventh minute of extra time earned the hosts back-to-back
titles in a competition that was jolted by Thursday's shock death
of Cameroon international Marc-Viven Foe.

France captain Marcel Desailly insisted on lifting the trophy
jointly with Cameroon skipper Rigobert Song, a lifelong friend of
Foe, in a gesture that summed up a remarkable evening.

France coach Jacques Santini said: "This final feels somehow
unfinished because of the circumstances it was played in.

"A family has lost a member and someone who was dear to us has
gone forever.

"We had to learn how to win with several key players missing,"
he added, referring to the missing Zinedine Zidane. "This is
going to give the younger players confidence and will make the
older players more confident in the younger ones."

As a mark of respect to their dead teammate Cameroon discarded
their traditional green and yellow colors for plain white with
black armbands.

Foe's widow, Marie-Louise, and his brother were among the
52,000 crowd on hand to witness a match which Cameroon wanted to
act as a poignant tribute to their fallen 'Indomitable Lion'.

The 28-year-old father of three collapsed and died in the 72nd
minute of his country's semi-final win against Colombia in Lyon
on Thursday.

Before the match, the two sides linked arms before the
national anthems in the centre of the pitch to observe a minute's
silence.

The Cameroon players had insisted on playing the final to
honor Foe's memory and once the whistle blew, the match took on
an energy of its own.

French skipper Marcel Desailly's first minute pot shot at
Idris Keremi's goal dispelled any fears that this unique occasion
might produce some kind of half-hearted impersonation of a
football match.

Henry, the new darling of the French terraces in Zidane's
absence, had a low 16th minute shot scooped up safely by Idris
Kameni.

The Arsenal star then crossed from the right to find Djibril
Cisse who could have done better with an off-target header. Cisse
was also out of luck with a half hour free kick attempt that went
badly astray.

Deep into the first half Cameroon had the French defense well
and truly on the rack yet hard as they tried they were unable to
break Fabien Barthez.

The Manchester United stopper, back after being left out of
the semi-final against Turkey, was in good form, fortunately for
'Les Bleus', with only his lightning reflexes foiling a close
range shot from Mohamadou Idrissou.

With ten minutes of the first period left Barthez' athleticism
kept out a climbing right footed shot from Pius Ndiefi,
responsible for the decisive goal against Colombia.