France stumbles properly
World Cup co-favorite bites his teeth on the Jamaica concrete
7/23/2023 2:04 p.m
Usurious chances, but not a single goal: Jamaica successfully mixes concrete and defies favorite France from a draw. Things got dramatic in the last few minutes with a bang on the crossbar and a sending off. At Les Bleues, coach Herve Renard makes history.
France’s footballers have made a false start to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. With their new coach Herve Renard on the sidelines, the EM semi-finalists only managed to draw 0-0 against Jamaica – and far too seldom let the playful superiority flash. For Jamaica it was the first point in their second World Cup participation, in 2019 the team from the Caribbean failed after three clear defeats in the group phase.
After a cautious start, France only had good chances at the end of the first half. One of them was missed by Kadidiatou Diani (45+5), whose shot flew just wide of the goal. France increased the pressure in the second half and barely let Jamaica out of their own half – but in front of 39,045 fans in Sydney, the favorites didn’t take advantage of their many opportunities.
At the very end it got dramatic again. Les Bleues pushed and pushed for the winning goal. But the chances fizzled out. Kadidiatou (90th) hit the bar and the post with a header. A little later, Khadija Shaw (90+2) had to leave the field with yellow-red.
Renard was in charge of Saudi Arabia at the men’s World Cup last winter in Qatar and defeated eventual world champion Argentina with Lionel Messi at the start. In March he succeeded Corinne Diacre, who was dismissed after an internal dispute within the team. Now Renard wrote a piece of football history: he is now the only coach after John Herdman (Canada’s men and New Zealand’s women) to have coached both men’s and women’s teams at World Cup tournaments.
After a false start, France desperately need a win against Brazil on Saturday (12:00 CET) before Les Bleues meet Panama at the end of the group stage. First of all, Jamaica will compete with the soccer players from Panama at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday.