France Paraguay – Golden Goal 1998

Perfect timing

VERSION FRANCAISE DISPONIBLE ICI

This Saturday, July 4th at 11 pm, following a series of impressive victories in the group stages, France plays Paraguay for a place in the last 8 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is not the first time that the two teams have met at this stage of the competition. It also happened 28 years ago during the 1998 World Cup which would make les Bleus world champions for the first time. I can still remember the winning goal very clearly.

In Paris for the World Cup

In 1998, I was in Paris for the World Cup. No, let me re-phrase that.

From mid-June to early July 1998, as part of my job as a state-school English teacher in France, I was called up as a jury member for the CAPES d’anglais Versailles, an annual civil service recruitment exam for future teachers in all school subjects. The jury worked 7 days a week for as long as the session needed to run. The day began at 7.30 am with plenary presentations of the day’s exam supports and finished at 6.30 pm when the last orals were over. Spending all our time in a world of academic assessments, the analysis of documents and the evaluation of candidates’ teaching potential certainly required a great deal of physical and mental energy. I left my accommodation every morning at 6.30, returning only at 7.30 every evening.

So yes, in 1988 I was in Paris. But while I was going back and forth to my exam jury, all around me the rest of the world seemed to be buzzing with the World Cup. Fortunately, during this time I was staying with my friend Richard Cooper who lived in rue de Charenton in Paris. As an American, he confessed to limited knowledge of what he insisted on calling soccer. He had no TV at home but, he said, the bar over the road from the building where he lived would be open every evening for people to come and watch the World Cup games. Rick was determined to educate himself into football by at least following the games where France was playing. So our evenings consisted of watching various teams kicking a ball around trying to score often elusive goals while preventing their opponents from doing the same.

I’ve forgotten the name of the café where we used to go. It was a small, neighbourhood place – a few tables, with a faded look to the walls and a well-worn floor which indicated the passage of time which was so typical of cafés before people starting doing makeovers, inviting the franchises and hiring baristas. Nobody ordered cappuccinos back then, but there was a TV set and they served Jupiler beer on draught. All this matched the minimum requirements for our World Cup evening.

1998 saw France definitely on form and with a real chance of winning. They played the first games in Group C along with South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Denmark. I had seen the 3-0 victory over South Africa before coming up to Paris for the CAPES, and I remember seeing the Saudia Arabia game with Rick when France won 4-0 sipping our Jupilers with a mixture of sobriety and enthusiasm. I missed the final group match – a 2-1 victory for France against Denmark – which was an afternoon game when I was deep in didactics.

A heart-stopping France-Paraguay

To qualify for the 1/4 finals France had to beat Paraguay on Sunday June 28th at 5.30 pm. In theory, everybody was free to see this game. Everybody except someone like me who, in keeping with rules about French civil service recruitment procedures, could not have even a Sunday off until the last candidate had been assessed. For me, that particular Sunday was just another working day.

Jury hours were extremely regular, as I mentioned earlier, so I began my homeward journey at 6.30 pm, aiming to arrive at my metro station Ledru Rollin at 7.30. The return trip from Versailles was extremely calm. Very few people travelling. No such thing as a mobile phone so, if you wanted to see the game, you had to watch TV or listen to the radio.

The France-Paraguay game having started at 5.30, I figured that Rick would already know the result. Not so. As I came out of Ledru-Rollin station there was an eerie silence. It was Sunday, but this almost total hush was unsual. Little did I know that the whole of France was holding its breath. Then, exactly as I reached street level – did I take the stairs or the escalator? – and stood alone on avenue Ledru Rollin, with what seemed to be perfect timing, the whole neighbourhood screamed with joy. It was ear-splitting.

Briefcase in hand, I walked past a crowded café with open doors where people were leaping around hugging each other. The crowd spilled onto the street, all seemed to be relieved, released from what had been unbearable tension.

I approached one group :

– So what was the score?

– 1-0. We did it! France won! It was amazing!

– Great! Who scored the goal!

They had no idea. Someone went inside to ask a friend, then came out with the answer.

– Blanc! Laurent Blanc. A golden goal after 114 minutes.

That meant they had scored 24 minutes into extra time! After winning easily in the group stage, les Bleus had squeezed to a narrow 1-0 victory against Paraguay. They would go on to beat Italy, Crotia and then, gloriously, Brazil in the final. True magicians.

A working Sunday just like Laurent Blanc

I missed seeing the game against Paraguay, of course. But Laurent Blanc, who wasn’t necessarily a player who scored goals, hit home the winner when nothing else had worked. I still carry the sense of the perfect timing to this day. Pure chance. Just like Laurent Blanc, working for the country on a Sunday, I had shared the day’s combat and the final victory.

In 2026, for the first tri-nation edition of the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and my friend Rick Cooper’s homeland, we have seen France play well, showing imagination, detremination and an ability to score goals. Let’s hope it coninues this Saturday!

Allez les Bleus!