“On the eve of the World Cup, after four years of anticipation and hope, tactics and maneuvering and hype, interestingly, it is possible to sum up the mood of the French capital on the state of the national team in a word: pessimism. Pessimism abounds, and it is not unjustified. Les Bleus, as the team is affectionately known here, looked disorganized in the qualifying matches and even suffered a painful 1-0 loss to lowly China. (A recent article in the sports journal L’Equipe that summarized these developments was titled ‘De l’optimisme a la crainte.’)” (Soccer Politics)