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Jamaica’s Deneisha Blackwood, top, celebrates with her teammates after the Women’s World Cup Group F soccer match between France and Jamaica at the Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, July 23, 2023. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
SYDNEY (AP) — Hervé Renard knows all about World Cup shocks. He also knows an early setback can be overcome in international soccer.
With that in mind, the France coach was not unduly concerned by his team’s 0-0 with Jamaica on Sunday, which was one of the biggest surprises so far at the Women’s World Cup.
Renard led Saudi Arabia to a famous win against Argentina at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year before Lionel Messi’s team rebounded and went on to lift the trophy for their country.
“I’ve already won competitions after drawing my first two games,” said the two-time Africa Cup of Nations-winning coach. “Let’s talk about the World Cup 2022. I don’t think that we should be getting ahead of ourselves.
“There are lots of people, lots of teams that start with the fanfare and are not there come the final and others are maybe slow to get out of the starting blocks.”
While there is no need for France to panic, this was still an unexpected result for the fifth-ranked team in the world and one of the tournament favorites.
By contrast, Jamaica is ranked 43rd and entered the tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand having lost all of its games at its World Cup debut in 2019 with a goal difference of -11.
“We always tell our players just don’t worry about the rankings,” said Jamaica coach Lorne Donaldson, who declared his country’s first point ever in the competition as its greatest achievement in soccer.
“I think it is the No. 1 result I have seen men or women,” he said. “I would put it there. If you go by the rankings you would say…
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