Twice quarter-finalist in the last two editions, the French team is counting on this 2023 World Cup to finally write a first line on its list. Led by their new coach, Hervé Renard, the Bleues are waiting for the famous click but will have to compose without many vital forces.
Just ask the competition to measure the distrust inspired by this French women’s team. “France can win the World Cup. They have some of the best players in the world. Now, with the new coach, things will go well for them,” Australian Ellie Carpenter said recently, quoted by The Team while his selection had just beaten Les Bleues (1-0) for his final preparation match. And yet, the trophy cabinet of the French women’s team continues to ring hollow.
A few hours before their entry into the running in this 2023 World Cup against Jamaica (Sunday at 12 p.m.), Hervé Renard’s players still have everything to write about their history. Eliminated in the quarter-finals four years ago during the World Cup organized in France (2-1 defeat against the USA), they had done little better four years earlier in Canada (beaten by Germany on penalties). A stage of the competition that they also failed to overcome during the Rio Olympics in 2016 or even during Euro 2017 in the Netherlands. It was not until the 2022 European Championship, played in England, to see Les Bleues rise again to the last four of a major competition after the London Games in 2012.
“The last four, there is nothing else that is negotiable”
To speak of a successful 2023 World Cup, we will therefore have to do as well as across the Channel last summer, warns Hervé Renard. “The last four, there is nothing else that is negotiable before. And if we are lucky enough to be in this last four, we can have higher goals,” the coach recently told AFP. And why not finally win this trophy which is desperately fleeing our tricolor players?
In the current state of things, difficult to place the Blue in the same rank as the great favorites of this tournament. Double title holders and always present on the podium of a World Cup since 1991, the Americans leave with one, even several lengths in advance. Just like the Canadians, Olympic champions in title or the English, European champions last year in front of their public.
It is therefore among the outsiders that Hervé Renard’s players rank. Especially since the workforce is amputated by several executives. Striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto, who hasn’t played a game for a year, is still battling a persistent knee injury. Just like Lyonnaise Delphine Cascarino, also affected in the knee. And while she was making her comeback in the France group, after being shunned by former coach Corinne Deacon, ex-captain Amandine Henry had to give up at the beginning of June due to a capricious left calf.
Hervé Renard “has this ability to put his teams in confidence”
However, this cascade of injuries does not seem to spare any selection. Team USA is thus deprived of Catarina Macario and Mallory Swanson while star striker Beth Mead, European champion with England a year ago, will not be traveling to Oceania, like defender and captain of the Lionesses Leah Williamson.
And if the Bleues will not be able to benefit from a full workforce, they will rely on their new strongman: Hervé Renard. The former coach of Saudi Arabia came to breathe a wind of appeasement into the France group after a Corinne Deacon era marked, of course, by a semi-final at Euro 2022, but also by numerous defections within the team and management methods deemed brutal. “I think it was the best choice for us. (…) He has this ability to put his teams in confidence. We know that he is known for that, to succeed in pushing his group upwards. (…) What he already brings is proof that we are going in the right direction, “said Parisian Grace Geyoro to AFP.
The one who was double African champion with Zambia (2012), then Côte d’Ivoire (2013), also insisted on the mental aspect of the preparation, the main keystone of success according to him. “The first thing is to believe in it, to mobilize. Not just to say it to yourself, but to do it. And to have an exceptional state of mind. I don’t know of other recipes for winning,” he told AFP last May. A regular of success who must now lead a French team that has been chasing after it for too long.
Source: Europe1
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
