SEOUL, 1 June — First-timers Senegal provided an electrifying start to Asia’s first World Cup yesterday by defeating champions France 1-0 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.
The fairy tale debut for the former French African colony left the champions, who were without injured playmaker Zinedine Zidane, needing to win both their other Group A matches to ensure qualification for the second round.
The match, in the 64,000-seat main stadium in the South Korean capital Seoul, kicked off the first co-hosted World Cup and the first outside Europe and the Americas. The final takes place in Japan on June 30.
After an opening ceremony marrying 5,000 years of Korean history with the marvels of 21st-century technology, midfielder Pape Bouba Diop wrote his name into the annals of World Cup history with the only goal of the match.
The only comparable upset in the first match of the 72-year tournament involved another African country. In 1990, Cameroon defeated defending champions Argentina by the same scoreline.
On a sultry Seoul evening, Diop scrambled the ball into the back of the net in the 30th minute after El Hadji Diouf surged down the left and whipped the ball across the face of the goal.
France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez failed to grasp the ball after it rebounded off Emmanuel Petit and Diop took full advantage of the confusion to slip the ball into the net with his left foot — while lying prone on the ground.
As the French held their heads in their hands and the Senegalese supporters danced in joy, Diop led a group of his teammates in a celebration jig around his shirt in the corner.
France had their chances in each half. Striker David Trezeguet hit the left post in the 23rd minute and Thierry Henry hit the bar in the 66th.
But the aging French team seemed tentative and off the pace and Senegal, whose team all play club football in France, were well worth their victory.
“We were not able to cut through their defensive net,” said France coach Roger Lemerre. “They had one counterattack and they scored. That’s football but we would have liked a happier start.”
Senegal’s upset provided the perfect start for the uncommitted in a tournament spread across 20 venues in two countries.
Without the injured Zinedine Zidane and their long-term injury victim Robert Pires, France lacked the guile in midfield to master Senegal’s force — and Thierry Henry had the kind of game in attack that makes a mockery of his regular season form for Arsenal and last season’s haul of 20-goals plus.
France have played three matches without Zidane this year — and failed to win any of them.
The lightweight Youri Djorkaeff might have more experience and innate skill than some of the Senegalese players, but Metsu’s tactics of harrying the French in possession and closing them down as fast as possible paid off handsomely and it was no surprise when Djorkaeff was replaced after an hour.
The decisive goal may have been a little scrappy in its final execution by Pape Bouba Diop after 30 minutes, but its creation was no fluke.
Omar Daf dispossessed Djorkaeff just inside the French half and set up El Hadji Diouf wide on the left.
The African Footballer of the Year left Frank Leboeuf — the only French player currently with a French club — floundering as he sped to the by-line before crossing a low ball that took a deflection off French skipper Marcel Desailly.
The ball then carried rolling toward the center of the six-yard box, hit defender Emmanuel Petit who knocked it to goalkeeper Fabian Barthez. He failed to hold it and a prostrate Diop swept it into the empty net from close range with his left foot.
France hit the woodwork twice with David Trezeguet striking the post in the first half and Henry cracking the ball against the crossbar in the second, a minute after Fadiga had hit the bar at the other end.
But France wasted every chance that came their way in a thrilling second half and Henry was more guilty than most.
In emulating Cameroon’s record as the only African side to beat the World Cup holders — a feat Cameroon achieved in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup when they beat Argentina 1-0 — Senegal have also posed a huge question about France’s ability to become the first team for 40 years to retain the title.
In fact, no side has lost a match in the tournament and then gone on to win the World Cup since Argentina in 1978 — and before that only West Germany in 1954 and again in 1974 had survived a defeat in the early stages before going on to be world champions.
But two other facts relating to the match itself are probably more relevant to both managers as they consider their options.
France finished the game with four strikers on the field — Henry, Trezeguet, Christophe Dugarry and Djibril Cisse — and failed to score a goal — just as in 1998 when their forwards were ineffective and their attacking midfielders carried them through with key goals in decisive matches.
France also forced 10 corners while Senegal did not have one. Clearly both sides have considerable room for improvement, but there is absolutely no doubt which team needs to do so with the greater urgency.
French blues after ‘Les Bleus’ lose match to upstart Senegal
In Paris, French football fans scurried gloomily back to work or home, tails between their legs, after upstarts Senegal crushed France in one of the greatest upsets in the 72-year history of the World Cup.
“I’m ashamed France lost to an underdog,” said trader Frederic Castet after watching the match in a club near the Paris stock exchange. “It would have been less dramatic to lose to Italy, Germany, Portugal or Spain.”
The unfancied African side, playing their first ever match in the World Cup finals, were expected to be pushed aside by the “Les Bleus” (the blues), as the reigning World and European champions are known at home.
French President Jacques Chirac quickly telephoned the football squad with words of commiseration and encouragement.
“President Chirac has just called (team manager) Roger Lemerre and (captain) Marcel Desailly... to urge them to get over this failure and mobilize for the matches to come,” his office said.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin meanwhile put a brave face on things and placed his hopes on a speedy return of injured star player Zinedine Zidane after the country’s shock defeat. He said things would improve “as soon as Zizou has taken his place” in the squad. But Raffarin’s upbeat assessment was not shared on the streets.
Nicolas Richard, a bewildered fan questioned in central Paris concluded that the French team “were unprepared and too tired to go into the World Cup series.”
“The Senegalese learned their lessons well playing in France,” he added.
The great irony of the match was that Senegal fielded a side made up entirely of France-based players. The team secured the stunning 1-0 win thanks to a 30th-minute goal from midfielder Pape Bouba Diop in the Group A clash.
There were some people dancing in the streets in Paris. But they were members of the city’s sizeable Senegalese community. Banging drums and blowing horns, the supporters danced down rue de Rivoli after watching the match on a giant screen placed in front of the Hotel de Ville.
They dispersed happily when French police blocked further progress near the Louvre Museum.
French companies had allowed for some serious downtime earlier Friday — the match kicked off at lunch hour local time — as employees switched off from the task at hand and switched on to the country’s World Cup opener.
While some more enlightened companies laid on special facilities for ball-starved workers, others turned a blind eye as droves sloped off to the canteen or the neighborhood bar for their televised soccer fix.
Businesses had been concerned about drastic drops in productivity if France advanced to later rounds of the tournament, but these fears have lessened now that “Les Bleus” face an uphill battle to make it out of their group with matches against Uruguay and Denmark to come.
World Cup fever had not quite hit the same heights as in 1998, when France hosted the event and then went on to win it.
But the excitement — before yesterday’s match in Seoul — was tangible in a country wearied by the heavy politics of two successive election campaigns and perturbed by the guilt-ridden self-analysis that followed the first-round presidential triumph of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The shock defeat by Senegal was therefore all the more depressing. And most fans questioned Friday were distinctly pessimistic about their national team’s prospects.
“Looking back on the game we saw that France just never got the chance to touch the ball,” said supporter Serge Tedjirian. “Senegal was too fast for them. I’m wondering if we’ll make it out of the first round.”
Senegal erupt with joy
at debut victory
In Dakar, a whirlwind of joy and national pride swept through Senegal yesterday as the national side clinched a 1-0 opening game victory over defending champions France in their World Cup finals debut.
One group of young men held roosters aloft and slit their throats to symbolise the downfall of the French, whose sporting symbol is a crowing cock.
“We’re going to have that cock for dinner tonight,” said Lamine Ndiaye, a pair of live roosters dangling from his hands.
As the final whistle blew, thousands of people spilled on to the streets of central Dakar, the city that was the capital of France’s West African empire before independence in 1960.
