Humble France defeat could spell the end for Didier Deschamps’ ‘non-football’ France

On a steamy night in Munich, France finally found a way to entertain the world at this European Championship. It turns out that France’s defeat is actually very entertaining. At least not when the arbiter in the game is a supercharged 16-year-old whose entire presence seems to express not only elite talent, but also lightness, fun, a creative spirit.

France never played like pre-tournament favorites in their six matches in Germany. Here they were beaten by a superior team, who were much more sharp in attack and very good at controlling the midfield. Losing to Spain is one thing. It felt like something else, perhaps even the cutthroat football of the mature Didier Deschamps era.

With 11 minutes remaining, 2–1 down and out of these Euros, Deschamps brought on Oliver Giroud, his fourth substitute, but also a footballer who played on a polished parquet. The glide didn’t so much run as drift like an ornate mahogany armour. land. Even Deschamps’ last stand in Germany was all about practicality, numbers, muscle memory and the semi-final, which was won by the intervention of a kid with braces.

The strangest thing about France here was her humility. He followed the game so little, he couldn’t remember how to move around in those higher gears. The match was always presented as a clash of styles, Spain’s inventive system of play against France’s rigid structure.

Which is strange, because French football isn’t really like that. France produces more elite players than any other country. France is not England, where the first breath of genius is considered a gift of the gods. French dominance has been earned, a reflection of the talent produced by an amazing junior and development system.

So why the long face? This is a team built to compensate for an absence that doesn’t exist. And when they lose, all that is left is a feeling of absence.

By the end, when Spain’s young players were dancing on the touchline, it was impossible not to see it as a victory inspired more by freedom, individualism and the immediate moment; And a momentous event in a sport that has grown increasingly entrenched within its own iron facade of system, athleticism and control. Spanish football is fundamentally optimistic. They have been a candle in this tournament.

Deschamps will now have to face some questions. France played defensively by design. He has deliberately decided to suppress his own talent. And yes, getting the England thing out of the way is an obvious issue here. England is not in the final. But if they get there, the question remains: How do you defeat the guy who beat the guy? England’s entire tactical approach has been to mimic the death-football of France and Portugal. Well, Spain doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with all this. And if those two wingers play as well as they have, they will be a threat to England’s flanks.

Spain will now go to Berlin. For France, it felt like an end of sorts. This is a team that has made it to three of the last four major finals. Statistically it is still one of the great international teams. So why don’t they think so? Why does this team leave such a low mark? France under Deschamps has had the kind of hay fever one suffers every other summer. What is the emotional content of their success?

Even in England, this England version of hole-in-the-head football will give you dramatic interventions, trapped energy, last-minute overhead kicks. Somehow France entered this game as the only team at the Euros not to have recorded an assist. Before this semi-final they had played five games, during which neither team had scored a goal from open play.

This is not “anti-football”. It’s non-football, non-football. Now is the time to kill sporting talents and confine them to furniture. Watching France is like watching someone brilliantly calculating, like watching a team of your favorite elite entertainers painstakingly build a shed, and then realizing at the end that, actually, they’re actually just Assembling a shed.

Deschamps reorganized his team here with three defensive midfielders. But still he lost the lead. Kylian Mbappé scored the first goal on eight minutes, running inside and passing the ball to Randall Kolo Muani, who nodded.

The moment where Lamine Yamal built this thing will surely stand as the defining image of this tournament. It came in three parts. He took the ball, hit it and stopped. From there, he teased Adrien Rabiot one way, then retreated another way, causing Rabiot himself to dance across the field. From there Lamin Yamal had the time and space for a (self-generated) part three. The shot was perfect, going beyond the top corner and curling inside the goal, finding a spot that no one would be able to cover.

It was brilliantly conceived and executed, an act of pure individualism even in these tightly bound matrixes of the euro.

After this, France could not come out of its own half for about 10 minutes. Deschamps will have to wonder if Dani Olmo got enough space on the pitch to score the winning goal against a team with seven defensive players?

And that was all. France had no other level here, a group of talented footballers stuck in their own system. Deschamps would consider the criticism somewhat unfair. People forget the terrible Deschamps before the 2010 World Cup, the waste of talent, Raymond Domenech awkwardly proposing to his girlfriend on TV.

Under Deschamps they became the new West Germany. Strong, practical, physical, cold and a fearsome manager with teary eyes. But they looked like a team backed into a corner here. In contrast, whoever faces Spain in the final will find not only a brilliantly functioning unit, but a team with a rare and carefully calibrated freedom.