World Cup diary: Stéphane Mantey’s United States journey, part two | OneFootball

Stéphane Mantey’s second World Cup diary traces a five-week, fifth-tournament odyssey across the United States, balancing touchline craft, heat and chance encounters beyond football.

He stayed in Boston for Germany-Paraguay, 1-1 then 3-4 on penalties, before joining Pierre Lahalle in New York as France beat Sweden 3-0. Pitchside air conditioners threw hot shimmer across long shots, yet Lahalle still caught Michael Olise’s stunning scissor kick.

Atlanta brought England’s 2-1 win over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then Philadelphia on 4 July, where marches by veterans and civic groups filled the streets. He recalled Paraguay’s grit and Lens 1998, worked through oppressive heat, and pressed on.

Back in Atlanta he covered Argentina’s 3-2 defeat of Egypt, then watched Mexico-England, 2-3, and later the United States’ 1-4 loss to Belgium in bars where a rescinded red card and presidential involvement shifted the mood.

In Boston, Moakili, an elegant homeless septuagenarian, offered him a cigarette, and on Copley Square a boy in a Kylian Mbappé shirt played baseball. Miami was fleeting, an airport night and a clogged shuttle, fatigue mounting.

Dallas staged France’s 0-2 semi-final loss to Spain, after a stop at Dealey Plaza. Back in New York, haze met waves of Argentina fans. He tried an artistic in-camera overlay with a Nikkor 180-400 extender, echoing Harry Gruyaert’s 1972 TV shots, then closed a campaign he thought would be his last, though one in four years in Spain, Portugal and Morocco may yet tempt him before a westbound road trip.

Source: L'Équipe