It was always going to be him. France rolled into East Rutherford for a Group I tilt with Senegal, sat on a scoreless deadlock for over an hour, and then Kylian Mbappe did Kylian Mbappe things. Around the 66th minute the whole thing cracked open, and from there it was a French parade.
The opener at MetLife, with the scoreboard flipping from 0-0 to 1-0 in the 66th minute.
From there Didier Deschamps emptied the bench and Bradley Barcola walked on like a guy who already knew how the rest of the night was going to go. The PSG winger basically needed one touch of real significance to double the lead and effectively end Senegal's evening. Subs aren't supposed to make it look this easy.
Barcola comes on and immediately makes it 2-0 down the right side.
Senegal did punch back. A Mbaye finish in the 90+5' minute pulled it to 2-1 and, for a stoppage-time second, MetLife got nervous. That nervousness lasted approximately one Mbappe touch. With the clock deep into the 90s, the France captain picked up the ball somewhere in his own zip code, broke ankles, and buried it. 3-1. Lights out.
The stoppage-time worldie that put the game to bed, with Kounde celebrating as the board flips to 3-1.
Even the people who openly admit they don't watch soccer were sitting up in their chairs for that one. That's the Mbappe gear — the one that converts casuals into believers for 12 seconds at a time before they go back to their regularly scheduled programming. Goal of the tournament talk is already out there and we're still in the group stage.
Pochettino's relegation rant feels especially loud on a night like this, when a knockout-stakes World Cup group game produces a finish that no fired-coach-and-reset American franchise sport could've manufactured. France move on looking like France. Senegal head back to the drawing board. And Mbappe gets to spend the next 48 hours watching his own highlight on a loop, same as the rest of us.