The seeds of the French demise were sewn at halftime during the loss to Mexico, when France striker Nicolas Anelka exploded with rage and launched an expletive-filled tirade at Domenech for questioning his performance.

The bust-up was leaked to sports daily L'Equipe, who printed the words on its front page Saturday.

Anelka was sent home against the wishes of the players, who then used Sunday's public training as a platform to protest against Anelka's exclusion _ snubbing 200 local fans in the process.

One French Football Federation official was so angry at the protest that he stormed off, telling reporters he was resigning, while Evra led the players into the team bus, drew the curtains and hid his mutineers from the nation's glare.

Evra also had an altercation with Domenech's fitness coach, Robert Duverne, forcing Domenech to intervene. Less than an hour later, Domenech was reading out a script on behalf of the players, explaining their reasons for not training.

"You have to ask Raymond Domenech whether or not he sanctioned this statement," Lizarazu said, questioning whether Domenech has any authority left after the bizarre scenes were beamed to the shocked nation.

Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot said "the indignation of the French" was enormous back home and that she had spoken to Sarkozy about it to stem the wave of ridicule from engulfing the nation.

Problems on the field are also complex.

France has only scored one goal in the past five games of major tournaments, and must rediscover its scoring touch without Anelka, and with the national team's record scorer Thierry Henry rusty after sitting on the bench.

"We put ourselves in a catastrophic position after the Mexico game, and now we have lost a teammate," Evra said.

South Africa's team spirit is strong, despite the loss to Uruguay, according to forward Teko Modise.

"For us it's about honor, we really want to do well against France," he said.

The lack of unity within the French ranks could expose them, because "they need to gel, they need to start playing like a team," Modise added.

South Africa will be missing goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune because of the red card he received for tripping Uruguay forward Luis Suarez, giving away a penalty.

Meanwhile, former South Africa coach Ted Dumitru is concerned how an exit would impact on football in the country.

"We need to convince people to stay in football. It has a massive following in the country," Dumitru said. "We must not lose hope. We must not lose interest."

For France, the problems could be much worse.

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