The existential flaws remain, and PSG still forgets that they are a football team at times.
But they still have Kylian Mbappe.
He is flying.
If we want to capture the essence of football here and now, in September 2022, that is exactly where we will land.
Paris Saint-Germain vs Juventus, in the Champions League. A clash between cultures, between giants, between A class of the newly rich and nobility. All in the midst of the simmering conflict that underlies the political question of 21st century football – the question that has taken Juventus all the way to the European Court of Justice: Should UEFA be allowed to rule, so that it is state-owned. Can beginners destroy their playground?
And not only this.
At the press conference before the giant meeting, Christoph Galtier and Kylian Mbappe Questions about how they view the criticism they received when they chose to fly private to the league game against Nantes this weekend. The head of SNCF, France’s SJ, cheered against PSG. Why didn’t they take the two hour eco-friendly bullet train to Nantes?
And they laugh.
– This morning we spoke to our travel agency, and we shall see if we can travel with the beach sailor now, the tanned Galette, the coach who earns a hundred million a year.
Create great art
Morally committed Mbappe QatarEmployee, he has absolutely nothing to say.
They were hung to dry after which, everyone from ministers to Greenpeace (who were snorkeling outside the Parc des Princes with beach sailors) publicly slaughtered them. PSG is certainly not alone in choosing the flight, as football fans have reacted to the actions of environmentalists in stadiums with a mixture of childishness and annoyance. It was just that the lack of concern for the climate issue became very evident when two Qatari employees sat in front of the world press and were cynical about the illness of the questions asked.
If we are now toying with the mind-boggling assumption that the world’s most eminent climate scientists are right, perhaps the question deserves more respect than that.
Football Summit continues to sail with Qatar Airways, ten thousand meters above France that has burned for half the summer. But then they played soccer, in front of Virage Auteuil glowing with red flames.
Five minutes later, Kylian Mbappé created some great art, a volley after a sensual Neymar lift. 1–0, Paris is a witch.
Who needs a planet then?
Galtier is a coach that it’s hard not to like much (usually), he has made a reasonable inventory of PSG’s strengths and weaknesses, reinforced well when needed (Vitinha!) and made Messi, Mbappe and Neymar at least play in defence. And it’s still like they cheat when they drop balls behind the backline and let Mbappe fly (sorry) forward. It seems very easy, even against Allegri’s team. Half-time later, Mbappe scored another goal, after a wall match with Hakimi.
Can Paris Saint-Germain be stopped?
Producer.
We can talk about the planet again
It’s not too hard to understand that a huge amount of magic is required of these three up front when they face teams with top-class and collegiate players (Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City above all). Immediately after the break, Mbappe ran away again, but hit the crossbar instead of Neymar’s dribbling into the open goal. There are the problems: they don’t work as a team defensively, and sometimes they forget they’re a team at all.
Even in the face of a faltering Juve, it seemed fragile at times. Milik and Vlahovic threatened in the air, and Gigi Donnarumma made a Donnarumma match – which is not only positive. The Italian made the dream (Milik’s header before the break, Vlahovic one after), but in between was out to hang laundry while Weston McKinney headed 2-1 from a corner kick.
Juventus settled the match, trying to grab a point but in the end it was closer to 3-1 than 2-2.
Paris Saint-Germain won, Parc des Princes rocked, Galtier won the Champions League for the first time, and all the big dreams are still alive in Paris.
Mbappe lit up his crowd, and they cheered in response to a French uproar on a September evening. Flying start to the season.
We can talk about the planet again.
