A chess player in his spare time, Michael Olise made moves no one on the Senegal team thought were on the board.
His assist for France’s opener was pure zugzwang. It forced Senegal to move. All of a sudden, they had to leave their low block and play.
Olise opened up a closed game. The angle of his assist, the disguise on it shifted it from ennui and elicited other emotions from Thierry Henry.
“He is a dream come true. He doesn’t play the game, he thinks the game,” Henry said on FOX.
By splitting Senegal’s defence, Olise reached his 10th goal involvement for France in just 18 caps.
Only Kylian Mbappe has been more precocious in this regard for France this century. To play it on that slow-looking surface too, so bobbly and rough, made it all the more special.
When he plays, there is no existential crisis. You don’t question the choice of watching France. The 66 minutes until his assist weren’t wasted.
They were worth the slog, the slumber, just to be snapped out of it and into a sense of wonder.
📝 @JamesHorncastle
