To adapt the opening line of Albert Camus’ L’Etranger: “France played today. Or maybe yesterday. I can’t be sure.”The gap between romantic expectation and mundane reality, frankly, never ceases to amaze with this team.France, somehow, get better, on paper, with every tournament. Talent keeps coming through at a relentless, invidious rate. Golden generations overlap to the extent that, as Didier Deschamps prepared for this, his third and final World Cup as coach, the second string he fielded in a friendly against Colombia in in March looked like it could, just maybe, be the second best team in the tournament.In practice, however, Deschamps’ France are often very different. They inure frustration and have earned a reputation for doing the least with the most, making back-to-back World Cup finals without playing the football many people believe these players are capable of.The excess of supremely gifted players, particularly in attack, the unbearable fullness of his squad has almost been meaningless, as France have, largely, ground their way to the latter stages with a style that’s more col bleu (blue collar) than haute couture.At the MetLife on Tuesday, the first half from France was quintessential Deschamps, an elevated exercise in ennui. How could a team featuring Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue be so dull, for 45 minutes, as to leave you simultaneously restless, indifferent and unenthusiastic about watching more of them this summer.It was reminiscent of two years ago when France reached the semi-finals of the Euros without scoring a single goal from open play. Since then, Dembele has won the Ballon d’Or. Doue has not only emerged, he has collected the Man of the Match award at the 2025 Champions League final.Then there’s Olise, who finished the season at Bayern Munich with just 26 assists.In the second half Olise opened up Senegal with apparent ease (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)With such luxury, France, initially, did precious little. Again.Granted, it was the first game, a delicate affair against a Senegal team that still considers itself African champions. Nobody wanted to put a foot wrong. The build-up to the game was about 2002, the time France, the then holders, lost their opener to the same opponents in one of the great World Cup shocks.