To adapt the opening line of Albert Camus’ L’Etranger: “France played today. Or maybe yesterday. I can’t be sure.”
The gap between romantic expectation and mundane reality, frankly, never ceases to amaze with this team.
France, somehow, get better, on paper, with every tournament. Talent keeps coming through at a relentless, invidious rate. Golden generations overlap to the extent that, as Didier Deschamps prepared for this, his third and final World Cup as coach, the second string he fielded in a friendly against Colombia in in March looked like it could, just maybe, be the second best team in the tournament.
In practice, however, Deschamps’ France are often very different. They inure frustration and have earned a reputation for doing the least with the most, making back-to-back World Cup finals without playing the football many people believe these players are capable of.
The excess of supremely gifted players, particularly in attack, the unbearable fullness of his squad has almost been meaningless, as France have, largely, ground their way to the latter stages with a style that’s more col bleu (blue collar) than haute couture.
At the MetLife on Tuesday, the first half from France was quintessential Deschamps, an elevated exercise in ennui. How could a team featuring Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue be so dull, for 45 minutes, as to leave you simultaneously restless, indifferent and unenthusiastic about watching more of them this summer.
It was reminiscent of two years ago when France reached the semi-finals of the Euros without scoring a single goal from open play. Since then, Dembele has won the Ballon d’Or. Doue has not only emerged, he has collected the Man of the Match award at the 2025 Champions League final.
Then there’s Olise, who finished the season at Bayern Munich with just 26 assists.
In the second half Olise opened up Senegal with apparent ease (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
With such luxury, France, initially, did precious little. Again.
Granted, it was the first game, a delicate affair against a Senegal team that still considers itself African champions. Nobody wanted to put a foot wrong. The build-up to the game was about 2002, the time France, the then holders, lost their opener to the same opponents in one of the great World Cup shocks.
That defeat in Seoul wasn’t, Deschamps insisted, in their heads in New Jersey. “Most of my players weren’t born in 2002,” he said. “I was watching the game, I wasn’t there. I know you like this revenge but there is no revenge in football.”
In the second half of this 3-1 win against Senegal, you were, thankfully, left in no doubt France played today. If Deschamps has succeeded in making some of the most skilled France teams boring, perhaps his biggest challenge will be doing the same with one that includes Olise.
C’est impossible.
Early on in the game, Olise left his place on the wing to help France’s centre-backs and Aurelien Tchouameni progress the ball through the phases. He was, at times, closer to his own box than Senegal’s penalty area.
Only once did Olise leave his man for dust. After the interval, however, he played much higher and while Mbappe wore the No 10, it felt, spiritually, like it belonged to Olise, as Deschamps moved him through the middle.
“In the second half, we greatly improved,” Deschamps said. “(Michael) brought us more connection. We were cramped in a way. Michael has the ability to play both sides, the more chances he has to touch the ball the better he is.”
A chess player in his spare time, Olise made moves no one on the Senegal team thought were on the board. His assist for France’s opener was pure zugzwang. It forced Senegal to move. All of a sudden, they had to leave their low block and play.
Olise opened up a closed game. The angle of his assist, the disguise on it shifted it from ennui and elicited other emotions from Thierry Henry.
“He is a dream come true. He doesn’t play the game, he thinks the game,” Henry said on FOX. Henry had the pleasure of working with Olise while serving as the coach of France’s Under-21s. “Michael Olise has an impact on games that I cannot explain.”
By splitting Senegal’s defence, Olise reached his 10th goal involvement for France in just 18 caps. Only Mbappe has been more precocious in this regard for France this century. To play it on that slow-looking surface too, so bobbly and rough, made it all the more special.
“We need to get used to this for sure,” Deschamps suggested. “There might be some cement below the grass. You have very short shards of grass here.”
It didn’t make a difference to Olise. When he plays, there is no existential crisis. You don’t question the choice of watching France. The 66 minutes until his assist weren’t wasted. They were worth the slog, the slumber, just to be snapped out of it and into a sense of wonder.