{"id":495193,"date":"2026-06-16T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495193\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T08:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:00:05","slug":"france-are-stacked-with-talent-but-memories-of-senegals-2002-upset-still-linger-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495193\/","title":{"rendered":"France are stacked with talent but memories of Senegal\u2019s 2002 upset still linger | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pape Thiaw smiles when he is asked about the opening match at the World Cup in 2002. \u201cIt was historic,\u201d says the Senegal manager, who was in the squad when they beat France<\/a>, the reigning world champions, 1-0 in South Korea. Twenty-two years later, the two sides are meeting again in their first group game at a World Cup. \u201cIt will be another story \u2013 or at least we hope that it will be a different story,\u201d says Didier Deschamps.<\/p>\n

History may not repeat itself when the teams meet in New Jersey on Tuesday but there are comparisons to be made between the two matches. Deschamps was not involved in 2002, having retired the year before. Laurent Blanc, another important player when France won the tournament on home soil in 1998, had also called time on his international career. Blanc was the rock at the heart of that defence, as Rapha\u00ebl Varane was in 2018 and 2022. He is one of four key players to have retired from international football since the defeat to Argentina in the last World Cup<\/a> final. Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann have also moved on.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has replaced Lloris, France\u2019s most-capped player of all time, as captain. By Deschamps\u2019 own admission, he is \u201cnot at all the same character and personality\u201d. The manager says the \u201cthe baton has been passed\u201d but the squad feels short of leaders. Mike Maignan, going into a World Cup as the No 1 for the first time, could help fill it, but there is a need for more.<\/p>\n

The question of leadership is not the only one facing Mbapp\u00e9. His relationship on the pitch with Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 is perhaps a bigger issue. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 has never delivered his best football for the national team; lest we forget his calamitous performance in the World Cup final four years ago, when he was hooked at half-time. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9\u2019s recent Ballon d\u2019Or win has led to a clamour for him to picked in the No 9 position \u2013 where he has thrived since his reconversion at PSG under Luis Enrique \u2013 but that spot is occupied by Mbapp\u00e9 at international level.<\/p>\n

When asked about Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s role as centre-forward, Deschamps\u2019 retort is quite simple. Luis Enrique, Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso and \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa have all made the same decision at club level over the last three years. Repositioning him at this late juncture would be illogical. But Demb\u00e9l\u00e9\u2019s struggles on the right of the attack and inability to create a partnership with the France captain are feeding a national debate akin to the one in England in 2006, when there were similar concerns about the ability to fit Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard into the same team.<\/p>\n

Deschamps satiated the masses in France\u2019s last warm-up game \u2013 a 3-1 win against Northern Ireland last week \u2013 by giving Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 a more central role, behind Mbapp\u00e9 and to the left of Michael Olise. While Olise scored a hat-trick, Demb\u00e9l\u00e9\u2019s influence was limited. The mental and physical expenditure of the Champions League final against Arsenal can serve as a mitigating circumstance. Given the forgiving nature of the group stage in the new World Cup format, Deschamps may be tempted to repeat the experiment.<\/p>\n

Roger Lemerre, the France manager in 2002, was blessed with an embarrassment of riches, but failed to find the right formula in attack. In the season leading up to the tournament, Thierry Henry had been the top scorer in the Premier League, David Trezeguet had been the top scorer in Serie A, and Djibril Ciss\u00e9 had been the top scorer in Ligue 1. Despite that, France failed to score a single goal, finished bottom of the group and crashed out. It remains the worst defence of the World Cup and a reminder for the current generation that the individual talent of the attacking armada is no guarantee of collective success.<\/p>\n

Papa Malick Diop celebrates after Senegal\u2019s 1-0 win against France at the 2002 World Cup. Photograph: Lionel Cironneau\/AP<\/p>\n

Arrogance also contributed to the failure in 2002. \u201cWe thought, and were made to believe, that we were better than we really were,\u201d recalls Lilian Thuram. \u201cWe were living in a cocoon and thought we had already progressed through the first round and were in the final.\u201d The defender adds that France\u2019s performances at that tournament were \u201cabsurd\u201d and \u201ctragic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deschamps is quick to point out that he was not in the squad in 2002 and that plenty of his players had not been born. But that does not mean there are no scars or lessons to be learned. \u201cWhen a French sportsperson is comfortable, that is not when they are at their best,\u201d he said recently in a comment that sounded very much like a response to Lucas Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s assertion that France have \u201cthe best attack in the world\u201d. This month, Rayan Cherki added that France want to \u201ccrush\u201d their opponents. Deschamps is trying to rein it in: humility, not hubris is what he wants from his players.<\/p>\n

Deschamps, in his final tournament as France manager, is not looking to rein in the attacking potential in this side. Having been criticised for his conservatism, particularly in France, he seems more willing to let his players off the leash at this tournament, saying he wants them to be \u201cless readable\u201d than in the past. The presence of players such as Olise and Cherki will help with that.<\/p>\n

Adrien Rabiot says that Olise and Cherki, who have emerged since the last World Cup, have added \u201cfreshness\u201d and \u201centhusiasm\u201d to the side. Lemerre made the mistake of not refreshing the squad in 2002 but Deschamps \u2013 partially out of obligation \u2013 has picked 10 players who have never played in a major international tournament, and 12 who have never played a minute at a World Cup.<\/p>\n

There is a fine line between continuity and stagnation, as France proved in 2002. France have opted for renewal at this World Cup and they will go even further when Zinedine Zidane is confirmed as their new manager after the tournament. As France approach a new era, the players are keen to end this one with what Rabiot calls \u201ca beautiful homage\u201d to their manager, the most decorated man in French football history.<\/p>\n

This is an article by Get French Football News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pape Thiaw smiles when he is asked about the opening match at the World Cup in 2002. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-495193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}