France

France did not lose a single game at this World Cup until the one that mattered most.

Spain beat them 2-0 in the semi-final in Arlington.

The damage started early.

Spain won a penalty in the 22nd minute, and their forward Mikel Oyarzabal scored it.

Then the Spanish defender Pedro Porro added a second goal in the 58th minute, and that was the game.

But there's one crazy number that sums up the night.

France finished with 0.30 expected goals, which is a stat that measures how good a team's chances were.

They have not created so little in a World Cup game for 60 years.

And that is what makes this so hard to take, because everything before it had been perfect.

They won Group I with 3 wins from 3, beating Senegal 3-1, Iraq 3-0, and Norway 4-1.

Their forward Ousmane Dembele scored 4 goals on his own in that Norway game.

Then came a 3-0 win over Sweden, a 1-0 win over Paraguay, and a 2-0 win over Morocco in the quarter-final.

6 games, 6 wins, and they were the team everybody expected to win the trophy.

There is an extra sting in this one too.

Spain had already knocked France out of the semi-final at the 2024 European Championship, winning 2-1, so this is 2 in a row.

Then came the strangest game of their whole tournament.

France played England for 3rd place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, and they lost 6-4.

They were 4-0 down at half-time, which is not something that happens to a France team.

But the second half is the part they can be proud of.

France forward Kylian Mbappe scored twice after half-time, and their forward Bradley Barcola got the other one.

That made it 4-3, and France were 1 goal away from being tied.

That goal never came.

Bukayo Saka scored a penalty for England, Ousmane Dembele made it 5-4 in stoppage time, and England midfielder Jude Bellingham finished it 6-4.

Those 2 goals took their captain Kylian Mbappe to 10 for the tournament.

Argentina forward Lionel Messi finished on 8, and he did not score in the final, so Mbappe won the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer with 10 goals.

And then there is Didier Deschamps, because this was his last game in charge of France.

He had been their manager for 14 years.

He is the only Frenchman who has won this trophy both as a player and as the man in charge.

So all of that ended with France letting in 6 goals in a game for 3rd place.

After everything he won, he was owed a better last night than that.

France now need a new manager.

The talent is not the problem, because Mbappe, Dembele and most of this squad will still be here.

What they have lost is the man who made them winners again.