France, who earned a frustrating 0-0 draw with Switzerland, will prove if they are still one of the favorates for 2006 World Cup title in their second Group G game against South Korea in Leipzig today.

South Korea, who stunned the world in the last World Cup in 2002 by reaching the semifinals, showed that they are still strongas they came from behind to beat Togo 2-1 in their 2006 World Cup opener.

Topping the group with three points, South Korea are confident of doing better in the clash with 1998 world champions France, whoalso stunned the world for an early exit in 2002 without a win or a goal.

However, France are still much more stronger than South Korea. As long as the Frenchmen solve their own problem of combination, they will come out of the shadown to score a win.

Certainly France coach Raymond Domenech is taking a huge risk by depending so much on the skills of veteran playmaker Zinedine Zidane, whose two goals in the 1998 World Cup final against Brazilguaranteed the then hosts the champions.

Now, the ailing Zidane may be still a Gallic football legend, but the facts have to be faced that time has caught up with the 34-year-old. Physically he is living on borrowed time and while the extraordinary ball skills remain, there must be a doubt as to whether he can last the pace in this his final hurrah as a professional.

The problem is that few dare to criticize Zidane. Even though he clearly was out of gas in the last half-hour of the Swiss match,the verdict on his performance was generally a positive one.

The problem in the team is that Zidane and Arsenal top striker Thierry Henry are simply incompatible.

Henry is an arrow who needs open spaces to run into. His game is based on his extreme pace and he needs to have quick service. That service will not be provided by Zidane, whose instinct is to caress the ball, to hang on to it. Each second lost allows the opposition to get back and block the runs of Henry.

Furthermore, Domenech has never decided whether he wants to build his team around Zidane or Henry. He is trying to accommodate them both and in doing so has taken some of the qualities away from both of them. For Henry, the French team is nothing like that of Arsenal, where everything is set up for him.

But Zidane is still the ringmaster of the French side, the maestro who sets the tempo of the game and makes things happen. Although he doesn't do as many of the wonderful tricks, Zidane is still the real boss of the French team.

For other pundits, France's problems stem from Domenech's tactical uncertainty. During his reign he has tried many and varied systems and though a 4-3-1-2 was used in all three pre-World Cup friendlies, it was jettisoned in favour of a 4-2-3-1for the Swiss match.

"I don't think all these changes have helped the players at all," said former France boss Jacques Santini. "Many of the players I picked are still around. Maybe I wasn't such a bad national coach after all."

France midfielder Florent Malouda, whose World Cup adventure started in pain, said on Friday he was fully fit and ready to play. The 26-year-old, playing for his country in a major tournament for the first time, is expected to start in the France-South Korea duel. He missed the opening 0-0 draw with Switzerland.

The Olympique Lyon player was confident France would recover from a sluggish start to survive a group also featuring Togo.