{"id":1058,"date":"2026-07-03T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:43:21","slug":"when-france-plays-soccer-you-cant-look-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1058","title":{"rendered":"When France Plays Soccer, You Can\u2019t Look Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This week, I am French. I\u2019m as French as a deposed dauphine, as French as a film plot of perfumed deceit. During the World Cup, there is just no profit in being American. Yes, I\u2019m shamelessly bandwagoning, and deserting my nation on its 250th birthday. But my sentiments are with the country that will win this World Cup if feet have anything to do with it: France, a team that scores goals as easily as guys named Didier blow smoke from Gitanes. Is that a clich\u00e9? Well, the word clich\u00e9<\/em> is French, is it not? As am I.<\/p>\n

Read more The Strange History of the Word Equal<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the more marvelous things about the World Cup is that its 39 days afford you the time to develop unreasonable affections for teams not your own. You don\u2019t need to know a thing about France, or tactics or formations, to fall under the spell of the team\u2019s sorcery with a ball, or to see its potential for world dominion, or just to love how its players flip their sweat-soaked hair. Who but Les Bleus could wear the bright-red knee socks of uniformed schoolgirls and make them seem like flair? When the players rush down the field in those socks, they look like a battle painting in motion.<\/p>\n

The French make so much happen. They\u2019ve scored 13 goals in just four games, a torrid pace for a sport in which, quite often, absolutely nothing happens. This is the nature of football<\/em>, as they pronounce soccer<\/em> in other countries: To profess enjoyment of a 1\u20130 final score is to pass some kind of fan-purity test. Which I, a Texan by blood, tend to fail. But you\u2019ll experience no low-score-induced boredom in this World Cup if you are French. And so, for this week I am French. As French as jealousy in the rain, as French as the perfect little scarf.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s toe-tapping captain, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, has scored six of the team\u2019s goals, including two in a 3\u20130 knockout of Sweden to reach the round of 16. Mbapp\u00e9 moves with the sweetest jolt of current in his legs you may ever see on a green field, and he now has 18 goals in 18 career World Cup games to trail the immortal Lionel Messi, of Argentina, by just one (Messi has 19 in 29 games). Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s surges into open space make him unmissable even to the most novice viewer; his sprint was once clocked at 23.6 miles an hour, on par with Usain Bolt\u2019s average cruising speed in the 100-meter dash. Mbapp\u00e9 said the other day that he thought that France had played a little \u201ctimid\u201d early in the tournament, which provokes one to wonder what kind of attack he could mount with a fully confident team.<\/p>\n

Read more The \u2018Have It Both Ways\u2019 Theory of Great Books<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazingly, for all his striking power, Mbapp\u00e9 may not be France\u2019s most crucial player. Some observers believe that the 24-year-old attacking midfielder Michael Olise is. Olise is one of France\u2019s three notable front-liners who are making their World Cup debut, along with the 21-year-old D\u00e9sire Dou\u00e9 and 23-year-old Bradley Barcola. All of them are flashy players. All are appealing, budding stars with varied family roots, helping make this a team that almost anyone can connect with. Barcola, born near Lyon, has dual citizenship in France and Togo. Dou\u00e9, from Angers, is the son of an Ivorian father and a French mother. Olise was born in London to British Nigerian and Franco Algerian parents, and he grew up speaking both French and English at home. Since 2024, he has played professionally for Bayern Munich, which required further acculturation. At his first Oktoberfest, he was introduced to schnitzel and \u201cthose round potato things,\u201d as he described the traditional dumplings called Kn\u00f6del. \u201cI\u2019ve never known anything like it,\u201d he said of the festival.<\/p>\n

Although Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s goals command the most attention, Olise is the team\u2019s chief enabler, a sleight-of-foot artist whose tricksy passes can provoke sharp intakes of breath, and who leads the entire tournament in assists, with five. As Barcola said of Olise, his performance on the field \u201cbrings danger.\u201d The combination of Olise\u2019s footwork and Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s speed creates a don\u2019t-know-where-to-turn predicament for France\u2019s opponents. After Sweden\u2019s loss in the round of 32, its coach, Graham Potter, said, \u201cWe had to be perfect, and even if we were, I\u2019m not sure that would have been enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

France has so overwhelmed its opponents, in fact, that the team\u2019s biggest concern could become overconfidence; it faces Paraguay on Saturday and will be the strong favorite to advance to the quarterfinals. The veteran French midfielder N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 addressed the issue this week by saying, \u201cThere is something that we cannot hide, that we have a lot of quality in the team.\u201d But, he said, \u201cWe cannot see ourselves too beautiful or too strong.\u201d See ourselves too beautiful or strong? How French is that? But they are beautiful, and they are strong, and that is why, for now, I am French.<\/p>\n

Read more It Wasn\u2019t Just the Founders<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the joys of watching Les Bleus at the World Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen France Plays Soccer, You Can\u2019t Look Away - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1058\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When France Plays Soccer, You Can\u2019t Look Away - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the joys of watching Les Bleus at the World Cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1058\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T16:43:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"When France Plays Soccer, You Can\u2019t Look Away\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T16:43:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058\"},\"wordCount\":868,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/905688f3f3943aa6eac54590fc41d8ce.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1058\",\"name\":\"When France Plays Soccer, You Can\u2019t Look Away - 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