Tunisia Rolls The Dice By Hiring New Coach After One World Cup Game

Sweden celebrates its fifth goal against Tunisia in both team's 2026 World Cup opener.Getty ImagesLet’s say you’re finishing a day of work, and you’re getting ready to head out the door.The boss stops you.

“We need your help,” the boss says. “We had to let someone go, and he had a major project due in five days. We’re reassigning it to you.

Good luck.”Now imagine that your project will be unveiled in front of a global TV audience measuring in the nine figures.That’s the situation Hervé Renard faces.

He is the new coach of Tunisia, which fired head coach Sabri Lamouchi after just one game in the World Cup — a 5-1 loss to Sweden.The veteran coach was hired on Tuesday. His first game with Tunisia will be against Japan on Saturday night in Monterrey, Mexico.

(Midnight for those on the East Coast; 9 p.m. Pacific.)

Renard was available because he was fired two months ago, when Saudi Arabia said, “Thanks for leading us through World Cup qualifying, but we’re going in a different direction.” The Frenchman’s resume is impressive. He led Zambia to its first African Cup of Nations championship in 2012.

He won his second African championship in 2015 with Ivory Coast. He then led two consecutive World Cup qualification campaigns — Morocco in 2018, Saudi Arabia in 2022 — and was on the sideline with Saudi Arabia for its colossal upset over Argentina. He has pulled off a rare double by coaching in both the men’s and women’s World Cups, leading France through the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

It’s safe to say Renard’s assignment is far from routine. A few coaches have been fired after two group-stage games, including another Tunisian national team coach — Henryk Kasperczak in 1998. But those firings were essentially capitulations by teams that were already eliminated.

In the 48-team World Cup, in which eight of the 12 teams that place third in their groups will advance to the knockout rounds, the math doesn’t rule out a Tunisia comeback. Unfortunately, the degree of difficulty is about as