The Senegal national football team, nicknamed the Lions of Teranga, is the national team of Senegal and is controlled by the Fédération Sénégalaise de Football. It made its first World Cup in 2002 and caused a huge upset by defeating world and European champions France 1–0 in the tournament's opening game.
Senegal made the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, one of only three African teams to do so (the first being Cameroon in 1990; the other being Ghana in 2010). In the group, after defeating France, they drew with Denmark and Uruguay, and beat Sweden in extra time in Round 2, before losing to Turkey in the quarter-finals.
Senegal disappointed its fans in 2006 when they failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualification, Senegal finished second in their group after losing 3–1 to the winners of the group, Togo.
Senegal's first appearance in the African Nations Cup was in 1965, when Senegal, after finishing second in their group, lost 1–0 to the Ivory Coast to finish in 4th place. In the 1990 African Nations Cup, Senegal once again finished 4th. Senegal hosted the African Nations Cup in 1992, in which, after qualifying for the quarter finals by finishing second in their group, Senegal lost 1–0 to Cameroon in the quarter finals. Senegal's best finish in the African Nations Cup came in 2002, when they lost the final on penalties after drawing 0–0 with Cameroon.
Senegal has won the Amilcar Cabral Cup, a regional soccer tournament for West African nations, eight times, more than any other country, with Guinea in second place with five titles.
Read more about Senegal National Football Team: World Cup Record, Africa Cup of Nations Record, Coaches
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“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
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