SEOUL -- With the first boot-on-ball touch of the biggest, most complicated and most expensive World Cup ever, Senegal's El Hadji Diouf instantly banished four years of waiting for the greatest soccer show on Earth to get underway. From that point on, however, it didn't quite go according to the anticipated script for the holder - France - against the upstart debutant.
What had been billed as a pleasant warm-up for the world and European champion quickly turned into a battle to salvage a draw in the Seoul World Cup Stadium after the Senegalese turned the tables on the favorite for the competition. Instead, stout defending and lightning-paced attacks against an aging French defense enabled the African team to pull off one of the biggest World Cup shocks in years.
Not since Argentina lost 1-0 to Cameroon in the opening match of the 1990 Italian World Cup has a big name come such a cropper.