Senegal looks to repeat 2002 World Cup upset of France that set off dancing in Dakar's streets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N,J. (AP) — France's last World Cup match against Senegal set off dancing in the streets of Dakar.

Les Bleus were the defending champions when the Lions of Teranga's 1-0 upset win in the 2002 opener caused Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade to declare a national holiday.

“Not for revenge do we want to win, but we want to go as far as possible in this competition,” France midfielder N’Golo Kanté said through a translator on Monday, a day before Les Bleus and Senegal meet in Group I.

Senegal was a French colony before 1960.

“We know that a game between France and Senegal is a very symbolic game,” Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said through a translator.

Six of France's players hadn't been born at the time of the 2002 game, when Papa Bouba Diop scored in the 30th minute while lying on his side. The Lions of Teranga reached the quarterfinals that year before losing to Turkey, while France went winless and failed to advance from its group.

“There’s no revenge in football,” France coach Didier Deschamps said through a translator. “This will be another page to write now and what happened in 2002, well, all the best for Senegal. I mean it was good for them at the time but we’ll make sure that the results be a positive for us this time.”

France is a two-time champion seeking to reach its third straight World Cup final. Les Blues won in 1998 and 2018, then lost the 2022 final to Argentina on penalty kicks.

The French team is ranked third in the world, while Senegal is 16th.

“Our main opponent is ourselves,” Kanté said. “We cannot see ourselves too beautiful or too strong."

Thiaw was picked for Senegal's 2002 roster but played in only one game, the round of 16 win over Sweden. He will pass along lessons learned from the late Bruno Metsu, Senegal’s 2002 coach.

“Of course, there is going to be a Bruno effect when I’m going to be talking to my players tomorrow,” Thiaw said. “I will also add my personal touch and also add what Bruno taught me along the way.”

Fans in Senegal were denied visas by the U.S. government but Thiaw expects supporters to be inside MetLife Stadium.

“Of course we’d like to have our fans. We know what they can do for us. They push us,” Thiaw said. “But we have a major Senegalese community and we know that the Senegalese is very patriotic and they like their national team. You will see this tomorrow. You won’t even believe it that no Senegalese came over from Senegal.”

Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022, then beat Morocco 1-0 in this year’s final only to have the Atlas Lions awarded a 3-0 forfeit win by African soccer’s governing body because the Lions of Teranga left the field for 15 minutes during stoppage time in protest of a penalty kick awarded to their opponent.

Senegal has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“For me we are champions of Africa, full stop,” Thiaw said.

Deschamps said in January he will retire this summer after 14 years in the same job. Tuesday's match will be his 20th as a World Cup coach, five shy of Helmut Schön's record with West Germany.

He is one of only three men to win World Cup titles as a player and coach, joining Mário Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer.

Tuesday's game starts at 3 p.m. EDT and sunny weather is forecast but the temperature at kickoff is likely to be about 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius), down significantly from last weekend.

France practiced at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, after arriving in the U.S. last Wednesday.

“We had to train in the heat, under the sun," Kanté said, "and we saw also how tired we could be as a result.”

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

France's N'Golo Kante, right, challenges for the ball with Ivory Coast's Bazoumana Toure during the international friendly soccer match between France and Ivory Coast in Nantes, France, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

FILE - Senegalese soccer supporters wave their national flags as they celebrate in front of Pisa's historical leaning tower, Italy, May 31, 2002, shortly after Senegal defeated France in the World Cup. (AP Photo/Fabio Muzzi, File)

FILE - Senegal's Moussa Ndiaye, right, and France's Bixente Lizarazu go for the ball during their World Cup Group A soccer match at the World Cup stadium in Seoul, May 31, 2002. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

FILE - A man watches the celebrations of Senegal's soccer players during the opening match France vs. Senegal of the soccer World Championships in South Korea on a wall of TV screens in a department store in downtown Hamburg, northern Germany, May 31, 2002. (AP Photo/Kirstin Knorr, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — One person died, two people were missing and 16 others were rescued from the waters off San Francisco after a pontoon boat carrying 19 people sank Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen reported the toll and said crews that arrived on the scene near Alcatraz Island found a three-deck pontoon vessel almost fully under water, with the motor still running and leaking fuel.

The waters around Alcatraz Island, once a federal prison and now a tourist destination, attract sailboats and other recreational vessels. It lies in San Francisco Bay about a mile (about 1.6 kilometers) north of the city's shoreline.

The boating mishap was initially reported as a fire, “but we now don’t have any evidence of that,” Crispen said.

Some of the people were injured from falling into the water, but there were no reports of burns, he said. The person who died was alive when plucked from the frigid waters by rescue crews but later died. A dog onboard also died.

Crews continued to search the water for the two missing with divers, helicopters and 11 vessels, Crispen said.

“Right now we are in full rescue mode,” he added.

All those rescued were taken to Gashouse Cove Marina, a small craft harbor in San Francisco. Three people with injuries from falling from the boat were taken to the hospital, Crispen said.

Fire Lt. Mariano Elias said the vessel, described as a “pontoon pleasure boat,” was about 600 yards (about 550 meters) from Alcatraz and the emergency call came in just after 3:30 p.m.

Crispen said the vessel was believed to have launched near the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. A person who answered the phone there said the club did not have any information on what happened.

Video images from a local Fox station showed a Fire Department boat deployed to rescue people who had been on the vessel, which was largely submerged with objects floating nearby.

Live video from the scene showed a man and a woman wrapped in blankets and sitting on a curb before walking to a nearby ambulance. A yellow tarp covered a body on the dock.

The Coast Guard and Oakland police also helped in the rescue, Elias said.

A U.S. Coast Guard crew goes past Alcatraz Island near the site of a pontoon boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A body is covered with a tarp on a dock near the site of boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A body is covered with a tarp on a dock near the site of boat accident on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Emergency crews gather at a dock near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Emergency crews stage near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

An Oakland Police boat is docked near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

A U.S. Coast Guard crew patrols near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Emergency crews gather at a dock near the site of a pontoon boat fire on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)