France, a phenomenally talented team and the reigning champions, have a habit of falling victim to what the soccer media loves to call an “implosion.” Could the team’s recent win against Australia break the curse?
, over its ninety-odd years of existence, has not been particularly kind to its champions. During the past three tournaments, the holders of the trophy—the wily, experienced Italy; the dominant Spain; the fluid Germany team who, in the semifinals, humiliated Brazil, 7–1, in Brazil—exited at the earliest possible moment, the group stage. No nation has successfully defended a World Cup since 1962, when the tournament included only sixteen teams, and Pelé still roamed the field.
Their opponents, Australia, whom I have supported my entire life, have also entered this tournament on a tide of managed expectations. The team has, somewhat improbably, qualified for a fifth successive World Cup. Yet confidence was low. The Socceroos, as they are known, had a strange, stuttering journey to qualification: they drew with Oman, lost to Saudi Arabia, and suffered through a tense playoff against Peru.
, miles of fanzones, the splashing of beer. In Australia, near the edge of the international date line, matches are things to be watched at 3:15My memories of World Cups often start bleary-eyed, in darkness, with an alarm. For this year’s playoff against Peru, fans gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square before sunrise, in the cold; when the match went to penalties, fans bowed before large screens like it was midnight Mass.
But a Pogba-less, Kanté-less, Benzema-less France still has Kylian Mbappé—who won the World Cup at age nineteen, and now at twenty-three is only better—and Olivier Giroud, a multifaceted, if sometimes blunt, attacking weapon. The French team was not so much missing its stars but just forming a slightly dimmer constellation. Lucas Hernandez’s own brother Theo, who plays in the same position, replaced him, and created the French response—an easily taken goal.
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