But it is not the quality of its individuals that defines this France team. France did not win the World Cup by morphing into some soccer equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters. It does not intend to repeat the trick here by taking the breath away. It uses its front line only sparingly, picking its moments, content that the unspoken threat of their presence is deterrent enough. The very best teams have one thing that the merely good can never quite attain: agency.

Source: International New York Times June 15, 2021 21:10 UTC