12:30 p.m. French time, 6:30 p.m. time in Indonesia. A few minutes after the French under-17 team qualified for the semi-final of the World Cup, the music resonated very loudly in the locker room. At the end of the phone, Jean-Luc Vannuchi, the French coach, isolates himself to debrief with us the victory of the day against Uzbekistan (1-0) and the second qualification in a row for the U17s in the last four of a World Cup , four years after the 2002 generation in Brazil.
The end of the match was hot for your players. Did you have a moment of panic on the bench?
JEAN-LUC VANNUCHI. It was hard. Hard, hard, hard… (smile). From the first statistics I saw, we apparently made 27 shots. We’re off to a very good start but we have to take cover earlier. We have the possibilities, we don’t do it. And we restore confidence in this team which is extremely valiant, which runs a lot, which defends very well and can put you in danger when it has the ball. Everything we planned happened. We have the chance to score this goal and hold on until the end. It’s once again a match without conceding a goal. And a semi-final is coming so that’s great.
So the only regret is not having scored this second goal?
Yes. When we see the number of situations we have, we don’t want to materialize in order to live a little more peaceful moments. But if we have to go through it, we will. We need to better manage certain moments to be efficient and give ourselves a little breathing room. But hey… We’re not going to be choosy. We are where the youth selections should be, in the last four. Now all we have to do is look a little further.
Eleven games in a row for your team without conceding a goal, is that a source of immense pride?
It’s a source of pride, what we put in place with the staff, the way of defending that we propose which allows the team to be efficient. The group sticks together and we also have very good players. A mix of everything. We made the Euro final, we won the Limoges tournament in September, we are in the semi-final of the World Cup… The 2006 generation is working well. And I believe that I am also very well surrounded to achieve this goal.
The matches follow one another. See you in three days against Morocco or Mali. How are the players doing?
Honestly, you have to be here to realize the heat. Today we were a little lucky because it rained a little during the day. But the conditions are very harsh for the organisms. Even us, the staff, are having trouble even though we don’t do much except sweat on the bench (laughs). For the players, it’s difficult. We still had players with the beginnings of cramps. We only have three days. We will have to manage energies and make the right choices for the starting lineup for the semi-final.
Second semi-final in a row for the French U17s. Was this the minimum stated objective?
The minimum, I don’t know. Being there, it’s already very beautiful. Jean-Claude Giuntini (Editor’s note: his predecessor) experienced it in 2019, losing against the future winners in Brazil. What I asked the players was to get at least there, to match the 2002 (n. Arnaud Kalimuendo, Isaac Lihadji, Adil Aouchiche, Georginio Rutter… They are there. It’s good that we are talking about our 2006 generation. There is real potential in these kids. Now, it’s up to us to go further than the 2002s. We matched them, it’s up to us to surpass them.
Where does your team stand compared to the last qualifiers?
We know Germany by heart. We play them in the Euro final and we lose on penalties after a 0-0 draw. We know, we control. Our opponent in the semi-final, we stay at the stadium to observe them (Morocco or Mali). Argentina, on the other hand, I followed less. But if they beat Brazil 3-0, it must be a very high level team (smile). We are in the semi-final of the World Cup, we are not going to play with nickel-plated feet.
