France vs. Senegal World Cup Rematch: The Coach Who Was There in 2002 Is Back - This Time in the Dugout
Senegal's coach Pape Thiaw was on the bench when his country stunned France in 2002. Tonight at MetLife Stadium, he gets to try to do it again.
Twenty-four years ago, a young Senegalese footballer sat on the bench in Seoul, South Korea, and watched his teammates do the unthinkable: beat the reigning world champions of France 1-0 in one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history. Papa Bouba Diop's 30th-minute goal sent Dakar into delirium. The Senegalese president declared a national holiday. The world stared in disbelief.
That young man on the bench was Pape Thiaw. Tonight, he walks back into the fixture as Senegal's head coach.
France and Senegal kick off at 3 p.m. ET at MetLife Stadium in their Group I opener, and the layers of history surrounding this match make it unlike almost anything else at this World Cup.
The 2002 meeting remains the only time these two nations have played each other at a major tournament. France have still never beaten Senegal. And now, the man who was there, who watched it unfold from the touchline as a 20-year-old substitute, will pace the dugout as his country's manager, looking to orchestrate a repeat.
"We know that a game between France and Senegal is a very symbolic game," Thiaw said through a translator on Monday.
The symbolism runs deeper than football. Senegal was a French colony until 1960. Ten members of the current Senegal squad were born in France. Didier Deschamps, who has managed France for 14 years and is the only living person to have won the World Cup as both a player and a coach, has announced this will be his final tournament before handing over to Zinedine Zidane. Tonight is his 20th match as a World Cup coach, a farewell tour of sorts, beginning against the one nation France has never managed to beat.
"Not for revenge do we want to win," France midfielder N'Golo Kanté said on Monday, "but we want to go as far as possible in this competition."
France arrive as among the favorites to lift the trophy. Kylian Mbappé leads an attack that also includes reigning Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola. Mbappé enters the match one goal away from equaling Olivier Giroud's all-time French scoring record. The defensive spine of William Saliba and Ibrahima Konaté, both back from minor injury scares, is as formidable as any in the tournament.
Senegal are not without teeth. Sadio Mané leads the frontline at 34, still the country's talisman, still capable of producing something from nothing. Nicolas Jackson, Pape Matar Sarr of Tottenham, and Monaco's Lamine Camara give Senegal quality across the pitch that most African sides simply cannot match. They also arrive as reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions, having beaten Morocco in January, a tournament where Thiaw's combustible touchline temperament earned him a five-game ban and a $100,000 fine for urging his players to leave the field after a disputed penalty call. The ban is served. He will be in the dugout tonight.
The New York-New Jersey area's large Senegalese and French diaspora communities mean MetLife Stadium will crackle with personal stakes. For families who straddle both worlds, who grew up in Dakar and built lives in New Jersey, or who came from Paris and settled in the boroughs, this fixture carries weight that no pre-match press conference can fully capture.
It remains the only meeting of two nations bonded by 300 years of history. Tonight they meet again.
Kickoff is at 3 p.m. ET on FOX and Telemundo.