Not even Kylian Mbappe could dance between these raindrops.In the first half at Lincoln Financial Field, France’s captain skipped past one Iraqi defender then another. He curled a shot into the top corner and tried to score from the centre-circle. He was in his element until the elements stopped him.A hydration break brought to you, not by a drinks company promoting a bottle of electrolytes, but streaks of actual lightning within 13 kilometres of the game. Il pleut des cordes, as the French say. Raining ropes. Translucent ones you couldn’t pull on to get you out of the stadium.In the Iraqi dugout, staff rushed to keep coach Graham Arnold dry. They veiled him in a plastic poncho. It lasted 12 seconds, the offence to his Aussie masculinity greater than the discomfort of a soggy suit. To protect himself, Arnold futilely held a black leather folder over his head instead.Arnold took off a poncho but had to reach for a folder (Getty Images)A few meters up the sideline, France’s coach Didier Deschamps finally fit the harsh description his former teammate Eric Cantona once gave him as a player; le porteur d’eau. The water carrier.“It was out of our control,” Jules Kounde said. “We had to adapt.”At least the game squelched to half-time. “You can’t fight rain or lightning,” Deschamps said. France were 1-0 up when the teams took cover in the locker rooms of a stadium rechristened the Azwetter.The style of poncho Arnold discarded was not thrown away by supporters. As they pulled them on, an announcement flashed up on the big screens. It showed a stick man running for a door and instructed the crowd to “please exit the open seating area and seek shelter in the stadium as directed by stadium staff.”Fans in the open stadium bowl face the weather (Getty Images)Hoping Gianni Infantino has God on speed dial as well as Donald Trump, the Emir of Qatar and Vladimir Putin, FIFA’s initial guidance was an additional 15 minutes would be added onto the regular half-time interval. Provisionally the game would be delayed by half an hour.